Chapter Fifteen

The Sanctity of Knowledge and Knowledge Seeking in Islam

Kathir bin Qays said: “I was sitting with Abu al-Darda’ in the mosque of Damascus. A man
came to him and said: Abu al-Darda’, I have come to you from the town of the Messenger of
Allah (pbuh) for a tradition that I have heard you relate from the Messenger of Allah. I have
come for no other purpose. He (Abu al-Darda’) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (pbuh)
say: If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah will cause him to travel on one
of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one
who seeks knowledge, the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and the fish in the deep
waters will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority of the learned man over the
devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The
learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving
only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion” (Sunan Abi Dawud, Book
26, Hadith No. 1).
The following are four takes on this hadith.
The sanctity of knowledge
In Islam Allah is the ultimate Truth (al-Haqq). He is the Creator and His creation stands for
the manifestation of His holy attributes. The creation is also a compendium of signs (ayat)
which advances, as well as facilitates, the reading of the world which, in turn, leads to an
understanding and appreciation of the Creator.
Knowledge, it follows, is closely related to the truth. It is about knowing the true and actual
states of things at any level of the existential reality, be they most magnificent or most
inconsequential. What matters is the truth, not the quantifiable dimensions of things. Indeed,
knowledge and truth are two faces of the same coin.
Knowledge furthermore is a familiarity with or an awareness of things, inasmuch as they are
related to the truth and their Creator. Processes related to knowledge signify the paths that,
via progressive degrees of affirmation, eventually lead to a union with the truth. Knowledge
itself is the best provision for the journey.
Knowledge, therefore, is a means, not an end in itself. In its totality, it should be placed in the
service of the truth, operating but for a higher order of meaning and experience. There is no
such thing as knowledge for knowledge’s sake, or knowledge for vain purposes.
It is for a reason then that the Prophet’s message is associated with knowledge, following him
with obtaining and holding on to that knowledge, and travelling on a road to Paradise is
associated with travelling on a road in search of knowledge. No one else but the learned ones
are qualified to be successors of the seal of the Prophets and to lead societies, in that upon
them the destinies of people and human civilization depend. Positively, no qualification, skill,
or talent can replace the forte of the “heirs of the Prophets”, whose reputation and
contributions are celebrated across the tiers of worldly and otherworldly presence.
Knowledge in Islam, it goes without saying, is sacred. All knowledge belongs to Allah.
Opportunities and capacities to learn, and knowledge itself, are divine favours conferred on
mankind. Knowledge is a means of perennial connection with heaven. It is akin to a rope
extended down from above, so that man, if he wants, can unchain himself from the fetters of
matter and this fleeting world in general, and rise. He is thus set to draw ever closer to his
heavenly origins, his primordial self, and of course to his Creator and Master.
According to Ibn Khaldun, there are three intimately interconnected levels of knowledge
acquisition and application: that which enables man to obtain his livelihood (self-
development and personal fulfilment); that which enables man to cooperate with fellow men
towards the goal of obtaining his livelihood and the goals of building social cohesion and
civilization (social actualization and development); and that which enables man to study and
know his Master (Almighty Allah) whom he worships (ontological and spiritual
actualization). For all three levels man needs to capitalize on his intrinsic ability to think and
explore, and on the heavenly gift of the revealed knowledge which was delivered to man
through the holy prophets, striking a delicate balance between the two types of knowledge
and their respective jurisdictions.
Islam does not recognize division of knowledge along ideological lines. In fact, it regards the
world of knowledge as so holistic and universal that any dissection, even for mere
educational ends, raises a series of conundrums. There are no, for example, religious and non-
religious sciences (knowledge), just as there are no religious and non-religious institutions of
learning, nor religious and non-religious scholars.
There is only one knowledge, and that’s it, just as there is only one existential reality and
only one certainty. Regardless of how Muslim scholars divide and categorise Islamic sciences
(knowledge) - mainly for the sake of pedagogy and epistemological theorizing in the light of
the prevalent public interests or benefits (al-masalih al-mursalah) and the impression of the
objectives (maqasid) of Shari’ah - the most that could be said is that knowledge can be
divided and classified solely in accordance with its proximity, together with intensity, as far
as the spiritual objectives of life are concerned.
It is true that all knowledge is important, but, admittedly, some forms are more important,
and hence more sought after, than others, because the former is more indispensable for one’s
self-realization and for the fulfilment of mankind’s earthly mission in general, than the latter.
Hence, an ordering of knowledge (sciences) based on significance and impact is commonly
resorted to.
By way of example, there is theoretical and practical knowledge, fard ‘ayn (individual duty)
and fard kifayah (collective duty) knowledge, (pure) religious and (supplementary)
intellectual knowledge, (pure) religious and (supplementary) worldly knowledge. Ibn
Khaldun even spoke about the sciences (knowledge) of human beings, the sciences
(knowledge) of the angels, and the sciences (knowledge) of the holy prophets, all adding to
each other and constituting a sanctified whole.
That is why the Prophet (pbuh) said that seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith No. 224). It is held that knowledge in this instance
means the knowledge of Shari’ah. However, the word Shari’ah ought not to be understood
narrowly.
In its broadest sense Shari’ah means Islam in its entirety, which, in turn, denotes an aggregate
lifestyle. No wonder that, literally, Shari’ah portends a path (model or paradigm) which leads
to life-giving water. Shari’ah accordingly governs not only the religious practices and
ceremonies of Muslims, but also their day-to-day life activities. In other words, Shari’ah
leads to, gives, administers and sustains life. Allah declares thus in the Qur’an: “O you who
have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives
you life” (al-Anfal, 24).
So, therefore, when the Prophet (pbuh) instructed Muslims to seek knowledge, he meant to
instruct them to seek ways and opportunities to live their lives not according to their own or
somebody else’s wishes and plans, but according to the wishes and plans of the Creator and
Sustainer of life. Life is what life is, not what people would like it to be. This is because there
is no true or authentic life except with Islam and its cause which encompasses both the
interests of heaven and of the earth. Likewise, there is no genuine contentment, nor
happiness, except with the Islamic guidance which only can navigate the thorny challenges of
life and secure the pleasure of God and the bliss of Paradise for man.
Islam is life and knowledge its life-support. Conversely, non-Islam is a manner of steady
passing away, for which the lack of true knowledge is most responsible. Even though they are
not fully equal, but a good Muslim must be knowledgeable, and a knowledgeable Muslim
must be pious and good. If a Muslim is ignorant, there is then something seriously wrong
with his Islam. By the same token, if a knowledgeable Muslim is not sufficiently pious and
good, there is something seriously wrong with his knowledge.
For that reason did the Prophet (pbuh) warn against the reciters of the Qur’an whose reciting
will not go any further then their throats (implying thereby superficial and insincere Islamic
belief as well as practice). The Prophet (pbuh) also sought Allah’s refuge against the forms of
knowledge as bring no benefit to their possessors with regard to their life mission.
Moreover, Sufyan al-Thawri said that the compulsory knowledge is that knowledge for which
a person will not have any excuse for not knowing (i.e. knowledge of the essential parts of
Islam and also life). Similarly, Abu al-Darda’ is reported to have said that nobody can be
pious unless he is knowledgeable, and nobody can enjoy (and appreciate) knowledge unless
he applies it practically (for the determined honourable goals).
Finally, if knowledge pursuits be confined only to matter (the physical world), disregarding
the conditions and stipulations of the metaphysical world, man is then bound to gradually dig
himself into an “ontological hole”. What he would normally regard as knowledge under the
circumstances will be a form of “quicksand” from which there will be no escape. The more
he tried to get out of it, the deeper he will sink.
In this case - more often than not - the truth will be bartered for falsehood and knowledge for
ignorance. Absurdities and trivialities will be advocated and promoted in the name of
enlightenment and refined culture, and scepticism, pessimism and disbelief in the name of
ostensible quest for the truth. Put differently, knowledge and everything that goes with it will
be a great deception. It will be suicidal. Since of late the ever-expanding orb of secular
science has been taking on the mantle of a creed or a religious faith, knowledge is destined to
prove a false messiah.
Needless to say that Muslim educational systems are duty-bound to promote and facilitate
only the Islamic understanding of knowledge. There should be a clearly demarcated line
between it and the other kinds of knowledge, which are either questionable, due to diverse
degrees of contamination, or are outright types of ignorance (modern jahiliyyah). The latter
could be studied to some extent, but only for comparative purposes and for the sake of
optimizing the case of the Islamic knowledge.
Travelling in search of knowledge
In the above hadith, a man came from Madinah to Damascus – a distance of more than 1,300
km - only to verify a statement of the Prophet (pbuh) from its narrator, Abu al-Darda’. The
man was specific about his mission, declaring that he had no other affair in Damascus.
This shows how serious the culture of seeking knowledge and travelling for its sake was in
the early phases of Islamic civilization. People were ready to sacrifice most of the things they
had for such noble enterprise. They were ready to go the distance, both literally and
metaphorically.
This led to the creation of the recognizable concept and real-world experience of rihlah fi
talab al-‘ilm (travel in search of knowledge), which was unique to Islamic civilization.
People followed the advices of the Prophet (pbuh) and wanted to secure the benefits entailed
in the above-mentioned hadith.
In addition, such a tradition was the only way to knowledge enhancement and perfection.
Without a doubt, so valuable knowledge is that the rihlah tradition was worthwhile. As Ibn
Khaldun rightly pointed out that “traveling in quest of knowledge is absolutely necessary for
the acquisition of useful knowledge and perfection through meeting authoritative teachers
(shaykhs) and having contact with (scholarly) personalities.”
What many people have done bordered on the unimaginable. Their exploits became the stuff
of legend. Travels were not only about distance, but also about duration. If thousands of
kilometres did not pose a problem to many, neither did months and even years.
For instance, Jabir b. ‘Abdullah, a companion of the Prophet (pbuh), once famously bought a
camel and travelled for one month to Syria to hear a hadith from a person who had heard it
directly from the Prophet (pbuh). Jabir b. ‘Abdullah feared that he or the narrator might die
before he heard the hadith.
Also, ‘Alqamah bin Qays al-Nakha’i and al-Aswad bin Yazid al-Nakha’i, who were based in
the city of Kufah in Iraq, used to go to Madinah just to meet Caliph ‘Umar bin al-Khattab and
learn directly from him certain hadiths (traditions) of the Prophet (pbuh). Sa’id bin al-
Musayyab likewise used to say that for each hadith he had learnt he had to travel on foot for
days and nights.
Things persisted for centuries. Imam al-Bukhari travelled basically to all centres of Islamic
learning for the purposes of collecting (acquiring) and also disseminating knowledge,
primarily the knowledge of the Prophet’s hadith. His journey to the Hijaz region, where he
visited Makkah, Madinah, Ta’if and Jeddah, was epic. It lasted six years.
In passing, the Qur’an too persistently urges Muslims to travel through the earth. It does so
more than a dozen times. The aim is as much educational as it is spiritual, in order for people
to have “hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear; for indeed, it is not eyes that
are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts” (al-Hajj, 46).
One of the greatest travellers and explorers in human history – who was a scholar at the same
time – Ibn Battuta, was nothing but the product of this Islamic spirit. While responding to the
divine calls to travel through, learn from and explore the creation of Allah, Ibn Battuta, and
many others, were international standard-setters. Domestically, though, they were simply
discharging their duties.
As a matter of fact, the above hadith itself demonstrates how common the travel culture was.
To come all the way from Madinah to Damascus only for the purpose of verifying a single
hadith, at a first glance, was supposed to be undertaken by a famous scholar or by someone
who might have had other relevant interests or backgrounds, such as business or politics.
However, such by no means was the case in this particular occurrence.
Instead, the protagonist in the hadith was merely “a man”. Nobody knew his name, his
background, or his occupation, and nobody asked. The man arrived as an anonymous visitor,
obtained from Abu al-Darda’ what he had wanted and had come for, and departed as
mysteriously. Nobody yet seemed (overly) astonished at the man’s feat. Only Abu al-Darda’
might have enquired if he came for trade or anything else as well, to which the man replied in
the negative.
This shows that what the man did was rather a common custom. He came to authenticate the
hadith whose content he already knew and was practicing, walking thus his – and the
Prophet’s – talk. His act of travel was in full conformity with the provisos of the hadith he
came to validate.
Rihlah or travelling in search of knowledge was a ubiquitous culture in which many people,
spanning across all walks of life, participated. As one would expect, this was the main reason
why Islamic civilization quickly rose to extraordinary heights, and was able to sustain itself
head and shoulders above the rest for centuries. Herein also lies the clue to the subsequent
deterioration of Islamic civilization, as lies a pointer to the prospect of its future restoration.
In the same vein, the Prophet (pbuh) said - in a weak hadith though - that a word containing
wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it he has more right to it”
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 37, Hadith 4169). The phrase “a word containing wisdom” is so
comprehensive that it involves everything pertaining to knowledge, knowledge seeking and
knowledge dissemination for which the whole world is the auditorium.
It is yet believed that the Prophet (pbuh) said that seeking knowledge is desirable to such an
extent that one should do so even if one have to go to China. However, it ought to be stated
that this hadith is not sound and is fabricated (al-Albani), but the motives of those who had
constructed the hadith seem to be obvious: making sure that the honourable knowledge-
related culture does not dwindle. Providing a boost might likewise have been intended.
A sign of religious tolerance and coexistence
When the man came to see Abu al-Darda’ the latter was in the mosque of Damascus. The
place was what later came to be known as the Umayyad Mosque or the Great Mosque of
Damascus.
Once Muslims “opened” Damascus to Islam (fath), they had no place to worship. They
needed something urgently and the time was not right to embark on building activities. At the
same time, the city was full of churches. But as many local Christian residents decided to
leave, and many others later decided to convert to Islam, some of those churches were slowly
losing their functionality.
Nonetheless, as it was the policy of Muslim liberating armies wherever they went, the people
of Damascus were guaranteed security for their lives, their property and their churches, and
no Muslim was to be quartered in their houses. So long as they paid the jizyah (a poll tax on
free non-Muslims under Muslim rule) and cooperated in matters of common interest, they
were promised to live undisturbed and nothing but good was to befall them.
It was decided under the circumstances that a section of one of the city’s churches be
designated as a small prayer house (musalla). The church was dedicated to John the Baptist
(Prophet Yahya). It contained the burial place of his head, over which a chamber had been
erected.
The place was steeped in history. Firstly, it served as a pagan temple of the Arameans, then as
a pagan temple of the Romans, and after Christianity had become the official religion of the
Roman Empire, it was converted into a church.
After the arrival of Muslims, the building was shared by both Muslims and Christians. It
retained its status as church, but now, partially, it became a makeshift mosque as well. Upon
entering the church, the Christians would turn to the left (the West) to go to their section of
the church, and the Muslims would turn to the right (the East) to go to their own section of
the church. They all shared the same main entrance. For the mosque section, no structural
alteration of the building was undertaken.
Later however when the number of Christians in the city of Damascus dramatically
decreased and the number of Muslims increased, it was agreed that the church in question
be appropriated by Muslims and then converted into a full-fledged mosque. This was done
by the sixth Umayyad Caliph al-Walid bin ‘Abd al-Malik who ruled from 705 to 715 CE.
Subsequent to the conversion, the mosque retained John the Baptist’s tomb as part of its
interior. There are still several structural and decorative elements that testify to the mosque’s
long and rich multi-religious history. There was nothing inappropriate in keeping them.
Abu al-Darda’, originally from Madinah, migrated to Syria and served as a governor there
during the caliphate of ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan, the third rightly-guided caliph. He died in
Damascus before the death (assassination) of Caliph ‘Uthman.
This means that Abu al-Darda’ was teaching in the improvised mosque that was part of the
church. Not a soul saw anything wrong, or inhibiting, in this, so much so that this initial
status of the mosque was hardly ever drawn attention to. Extensive reports are given only in
the context of the caliphate of al-Walid bin ‘Abd al-Malik, albeit not as something
problematic, but as a mere piece of history.
Similarly, this demonstrates that, historically, Muslims were paragons of religious tolerance
and coexistence. That was integral to their successful propagation and spread of Islam.
Commencing with the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself, Muslims were also the
originators of the notion of interreligious dialogue, with mosques often functioning as the
venues of the proceedings.
Indeed, history is replete with evidences that invalidate the baseless claims to the effect that
Islam is a religion of violence and that it was spread by the sword, and that Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) and his followers were vicious and violent men who sowed barbarity.
Bilingualism
When Islam and Muslims came to Syria, Arabic was not the lingua franca of the region,
except among existing Arab tribes. There were several other languages that could lay claim to
the honour. However, following the advent of Islam and as part of the natural Arabization
(migration of Arabs to the territory) and Islamization processes, the Arabic language was
rapidly gaining currency.
The teaching efforts of Abu al-Darda’ – who had migrated from Madinah – connoted an
epitome of those processes. The whole scene depicted in the hadith quoted at the beginning,
additionally, gave an inkling of the vibrant – perhaps dramatic - diffusion of Islamic culture
and civilization on the global stage.
Arabic was the official language of Islam, Islamic culture and civilization. As expected, every
Muslim had a special affinity with it and wanted to learn it as much as possible. Doing so
provided a sense of belonging within the universe of Islam and its civilizational trajectory. It
provided a spiritual identity, which transcended and overshadowed all other identities.
But Islamic culture and civilization are not exclusive or discriminatory in any way. On the
contrary, they are inclusive and egalitarian. Everybody has a place and rights in them, and
everybody who can is welcome to enrich them. What is more, people are encouraged to
remain faithful to the wholesome components of their diverse socio-cultural affiliations.
Those are seen as enriching and energizing, rendering the idea of unity-in-diversity as one of
the fundamental and most dynamic principles of Islam as a complete way of life.
If Arabic was the official language, formally and institutionally promoted by authorities –
Abu al-Darda’s being a governor and educator represented the trend – such on no account
implied that other languages were suppressed. The provision in the treaty by the Muslim
commanders that “nothing but good was to befall them (the citizens of Damascus)” - in
addition to the assurances of total protection and wellbeing - was the guardian.
This approach made most especially non-Arab Muslims bilingual. The tendency was an
inestimable national treasure. It facilitated the establishment and preservation of religious
orthodoxy, of a unified learning culture, of religious and national unity prospects, and of a
religious and ummatic (collective as well as democratic) identity. It enhanced people’s
communication and broadmindedness, making them feel at home in all situations. It made
Islam much more easily understood, practiced and propagated. It also encouraged respect for
the otherness of others and aided religious and ethnic pluralism.
It was not uncommon that in times of crises, when the Muslim community en bloc and its
civilizational projections stood at a crossroads, Arabic as the lingua franca of institutions and
of a great many sectors of Muslim societies proved as pivotal as people’s belonging to Islam.
The language – together with Islam itself – was a warrantor of survival followed by renewal.
Accordingly, the centre of gravity of Islamic traditional educational systems always consisted
of studies of the Qur’an and Arabic. The former represented the threshold, as well as the
fountainhead, of the pure religious sciences, which ensured religious awareness and identity,
while the latter stood for an instrument of all sciences and of the Islamic cultural and
civilizational identity. Only with the Qur’an and Arabic on-board could the dream of Islamic
ummah (Islamic supranational community or nation) be realized. Only with the function of
those two could Islamic culture and civilization genuinely flourish.
As an indication of this ethos, following the first two or three generations of Islam, most of
the Muslim scholars were non-Arabs. Nevertheless, most of them wrote in Arabic, which
they had perfected. Apart from many religious and intellectual sciences in which they served
as front-runners, non-Arabs even founded the Arabic grammar. Ibn Khaldun explained how
that came about: “All of them were of non-Arab (Persian) descent. They were brought up in
the Arabic language and acquired the knowledge of it through their upbringing and through
contact with Arabs. They invented the rules of (grammar) and made (grammar) into a
discipline (in its own right) for later (generations to use).”
No surprise, therefore, that no sooner had the roles of the Qur’an and Arabic language been
compromised, than Islamic culture and civilization started declining irreversibly. Nor is it
coincidental that such decline reached a nadir when the winds of nationalism – and other
small localized programs and visions - were sweeping across the Muslim world to the
detriment of Islamic concepts of ummah, brotherhood and unity, and when the role of Arabic
was either distorted beyond recognition or was abandoned altogether.
One of the most painful outcomes of this partly deliberately concocted and partly self-
inflicted tragedy is that nowadays most Muslims can hardly read, let alone understand,
Arabic and, by extension, the Qur’an. Yet a great many Arabs were made prefer local dialects
and some utterly distorted versions of Arabic with the aim of becoming strangers to the pure
Arabic language and to the Qur’an (i.e. to the pristine message of Islam).
Certainly, this is not a milieu where the potential of reviving the glories of Islamic culture
and civilization is feasible. It instead is a nightmare that must stop before turning a new leaf.
The only way forward, it stands to reason, is return to the original teachings of Islam and its
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), but via the Qur’an as the goal (constitution) and Arabic as a
mechanism. The only way forward, furthermore, is that Muslims become authentically good
and be at least bilingual – even trilingual in today’s globalized world - and function as such,
as much as possible.
This is the central meaning of the sanctity of knowledge and knowledge seeking in today’s
context. Muslims are ordained to lead the world, and if nothing else, a statement of intent is
to be made.