The perils on the path of knowledge seekers

Narrated Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه : The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Whoever takes a path upon which to obtain knowledge, Allah makes the path to Paradise easy for him.” – Sahih Muslim

In this hadith from Sahih Muslim, the path to knowledge is linked directly to the path to Jannah. Pursuit of knowledge is not an exotic adventure some take up in their lives, but it is an obligation on every Muslim, a mean to understand the creations of Allah, to be aware of his attributes and be grateful for his infinite mercy.

When Allah SWT created Adam AS and breathed soul in him, the first thing Allah did was to teach him the names of the things:

And He taught Adam the names, all of them; then he presented them to the angels, and said, “Tell Me the names of these, if you are sincere.” till “And We said to the angels, “Bow down to Adam.” – Al Bakarah :31 and 34

The superiority of Adam over the angels was his knowledge, which Allah SWT bestowed upon him.

The very first revelation to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ began with the command:

“Read in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous—Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not.”- (Surah Al Alaq :1–5)

This opening of Quran highlighted Allah’s generosity towards human being due to the fact that Allah imparted knowledge to human being. And Allah has constantly warned against ignorance in Quran:

Many lead astray with their opinions, through lack of knowledge. – Al Anam, 119

So someone, who has found himself desiring to learn about Allah and his Deen, who is craving to develop an understanding of right from wrong, who is praying for Allah’s guidance in the path to knowledge, has found a blessing from Allah in that Al-Alim has inspired a yearning in his heart which might become a mean for his closeness to his creator.

Mu’awiyah رضي الله عنه reported: The Messenger of Allah, (ﷺ) said, “To whomever Allah wills goodness,  He makes him comprehend the religion. -Sahih Bukhari

But the desire and intention take you only that far. Like every journey which you ever take, the journey on the path of knowledge seeking is filled with perils. Satan works his ways towards you even when you sit idle in your life, wasting time on useless pursuits, so imagine what he will do when he witnesses you desiring the goodness of religion? He will strive much harder to halt your efforts.

So lets acquaint ourselves with the possible pitfalls on the way to obtain knowledge.

First hindrance to the journey is to let Satan put the thought in your mind that the path you are undertaking is too hard to pursue and would take too much efforts.

Letting our initial enthusiasm wane too quickly is the sure way to doom the journey as soon as it starts. How many of us, non-Arabic speakers have desired to learn the language of Quran, only to give up on it after few weeks of efforts? How many of us bought books on Tafseer of Quran only to put them in our bookshelves to be read someday when we would find time?

Knowledge cannot be acquired with sloth. – Sahih Muslim

Just remember that though pursuit of knowledge is an endless expedition, every single step in this path is making your path to Jannah easier. The difficulties and frustration you might face during your efforts in learning will only bring reward and ease for you on the day when the ease would be hard to find.

Next powerful tactic of Satan is to drift the seeker away from the beneficial knowledge.

O Allah, I ask you for knowledge that is of benefit, a good provision and deeds that will be accepted.

This dua which Prophet PBUH used to recite after Fajr, emphasizes the need to gain only beneficial knowledge.

A knowledge which benefits you in the matters of your religion, which brings you closer to Allah, which puts your heart at peace, which brings goodness to you, to your communities, or to humanity as a whole, which strengthen your faith and enhance your character, which can be applied to garner more rewards for the hereafter are all examples of beneficial knowledge. On the other hand spending time on finding excessive and unnecessary details which does not result in any goodness or any additional guidance or clarity is futile.

Think of one who starts threading the path of knowledge, putting efforts in the right direction, seeking answers to questions of faith, and then one encounters difficulties in segregating right from wrong, his path is foggy and chaos starts reigning in his mind! This is another of Satan’s trick- to mislead. In the age where information is in abundance and everyone acts like experts in all areas, how does one separate truth from falsehood? Allah has warned the people who speak without proper knowledge in matters of religion.

And among the people is he who argues about Allah without knowledge, or guidance, or an enlightening scripture. Turning aside in contempt, to lead away from the path of Allah. He will have humiliation in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection We will make him taste the agony of burning.- Al-Hajj 8, 9

When one of us is trying to find an answer to a question, remember that the divine revelation stopped with Prophet PBUH. And there came no further divine guidance to human beings. What it means is that any ruling or explanation to a question which can not be traced back to either a Quranic revelation or to an established Sunnah tradition of Prophet PBUH has no way to be authentically proved.

If you were to obey most of those on earth, they would divert you from Allah’s path. They follow nothing but assumptions, and they only conjecture. Many lead astray with their opinions, through lack of knowledge. – Al Anam, 116 and 119

May Allah make all of us strive in the path of seeking knowledge. May Allah save us from going astray.

And in the end, the strongest scheme of Satan can destroy all the goodness and success of the journey for human being and Satan applies it on people with such force since he is to us, an open enemy.

And so that those endowed with knowledge may know that it is the truth from your Lord, and so believe in it, and their hearts soften to it. Allah guides those who believe to a straight path. -Al Hajj 54

The strongest scheme of Satan is to plant arrogance in human heart. Knowledge which does not soften the hearts, but harden them with arrogance would surely lead to destruction on the day when destruction would abound. May Allah save us from the schemes of Satan and from ever getting arrogant.