طلبِ علم کی اہمیت

Narrated Anas (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever leaves his home to seek knowledge is a traveller in the path of Allah until he returns to his home.”

The Islamic temperament makes it obligatory upon the Muslim ummah to be educated — that the proportion among it of people adorned with culture and learning be greater, and that illiterate and ignorant people not exist, or that such people not be found at all. Knowledge is as necessary for Islam as life is for man. And this religion can affect only the hearts of those who possess knowledge and are endowed with sound intellect. It is for this reason that Allah says:

“This (Qur'an) is a message to the people, that they may be warned by it, and that they may know that in reality Allah is but One, and that those who possess intellect may take heed.” (Ibrahim: 52)

The importance of knowledge is also evident from the fact that the words of the first revelation sent down to the Master of both worlds ﷺ were:

“(O Muhammad) Read in the name of your Lord who created (the world); who created man from a clot of clotted blood. Read, and your Lord is Most Generous; who taught by the pen, and taught man that which he did not know.” (Al-Alaq: 1–5)

These five verses were sent down before all the verses and chapters of the Qur'an. In these verses, first the state of man's creation is mentioned, and after that comes the statement of learning, because learning is the very thing that distinguishes man from all other animals and makes him nobler and higher than all creatures. In reality these verses are a declaration of war against negligence and ignorance, and an invitation to the truth that the first brick of greatness is the attainment of knowledge.

At the creation of Adam (peace be upon him), when Allah expressed before the angels His will to create man as His vicegerent, the angels expressed the view that this creature would spread corruption on the earth, whereas “we glorify and praise You.” In reply to this expression of the angels, Allah, in a wise manner, made clear through Adam (peace be upon him) the superiority of knowledge, and the angels prostrated to Adam (peace be upon him).

The religion of Islam divides the duty of learning into fard 'ayn (individual obligation) and fard kifayah (collective obligation). The detail is this: if the knowledge relates to the spiritual, intellectual, physical and moral formation of the Muslim individual's personality, then acquiring such knowledge to the extent of need is fard 'ayn, and acquiring that much knowledge is obligatory upon all, whether man or woman, child or adult, employee or labourer — in short, upon every class of the Muslim ummah. In this respect, learning the recitation of the Holy Qur'an, the rulings of prayer, fasting, Hajj, zakat and the like, moral principles, the questions of the lawful and unlawful, the principles relating to public health — in short, all those things which a Muslim needs for the affairs of his religion and world — the learning of all of these is fard 'ayn upon every Muslim man and woman, just like the five daily prayers. If the knowledge relates to agriculture, industry, trade, medicine, engineering, defence, or other beneficial sciences, then acquiring such knowledge is fard kifayah (like the funeral prayer) — that is, if some people acquire it, the sin falls from all; but if no one in the Muslim society acquires it, then all are sinful and answerable to Allah in this matter.

In truth, the worldly sciences have the status of a servant to the religion of Islam, and until mastery is attained in them, not only do our worldly affairs remain incomplete, but the propagation of Islam among the nations of the world also becomes impossible. Therefore every Muslim man and woman should, along with religious knowledge, also attain mastery in the worldly sciences. In this way they will be successful and prosperous in this world too, and in the Hereafter as well they will attain, through their good intention, its reward.