"Pearls of Wisdom"

In one of the courses I take, they have a board for Pearls of Wisdom-- Insightful things that touched us during the course, or new things we learned etc. One of my dearest sisters in Islam has been sending random emails to various people with such "Pearls" in my opinion. May Allah (Subhannu wa ta'alla) reward this sister.

I want to post them on the site in the hopes that it will also impact the readers, here are the three that I believe we should ponder over:

This is an excerpt from a question and answer period with Shaykh Muhammad al-Maaliki
I thought this point was particularly interesting.

Regarding this Sharee’ah, many people are unfortunately dealing with the nusoos (texts) as letters and text and that’s it. They don’t deal with the fiqh (understanding) of them (the texts). That is why there are people who have information and people who have knowledge. There is a difference between information and knowledge. Even Shaytaan has information, but he doesn’t have Knowledge. The kuffar have information on Islaam but don’t have knowledge and that is why they are the not guided. So we need to have the knowledge – the knowledge of fiqh. That is why when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم supplicated for Ibn Abbas, he asked Allaah for two things for Ibn Abbas – ‘Ilm and Fiqh.[18]

علمه التأويل وفقهه في الدين

So we have to differentiate between these two things and we need to have fiqh of this religion. والله أعلم
May Allah guide us to the straight path...Ameen

Ibnul Qiyam (rahimhullah) made the analogy: everyday we are presented with 24hrs, He said now think of each hour as a box. Each box will be packed and sent to the akhirah. On Yomul Qiyama you will open these boxes and you will be judged on what is inside. InshaAllah we can take this analogy to recognize that it is so very important to be conscious of what we do with our time. Will we be happy to open our boxes or fearfull? Imagine if you were to break down one day (24hrs) into 3 categories
8hrs for our Rabb (Ibadah)
8hrs for ourselves (Sleep,eat,wash)
8hrs for others(family,friends, neighbors, non-muslims)
What do we really do with our time?
I ask Allah to put Baraka in our time, and to help us hasten to do 'amal salihat.....Ameen

In order for us to be aware of time, let us ponder 2 questions:
What is the purpose of our lives?
What is our ultimate goal?
Do we devote enough time each day to the fulfillment of each question?
If we were created to worship Allah and our ultimate goal is His Jannah, did we do the work today in order to be of the muflihoon tomorrow?
What are in our boxes???

In regards to the first "Pearl" far too often when people ask us questions we are ready to give answers, or opinion when really we are unqualified, have no knowledge and could possibly lead people in the wrong direction. I would encourage us to think about the example of the great Imam Maalik who as we know is considered one of the great people of knowledge when it comes to the religion of Islam. On one occasion a man travelled for six months to ask him a question and upon his arrival Imam Maalik responded "I don't know". In a different instance, on the night of his death, people were flocking to him to ask questions and on that night alone he responded "I don't know" to 32 questions. At one point someone also asked him a question to which he said I don't know and the man later said ok, I will ask another one and it "is easy so insha'Allah you can answer it", to which Imam Maalik was outraged and is described to have had his face turn red with upset. He then told the asker, that "how dare he say that the attainment of knowledge is easy when in the Qur'an Allah (Subhanna hu wa ta'ala) says:

“Verily, We shall send down to you a heavy Word.” [Al-Muzzammil: 5]

One of the most difficult ways that the Qur’an. was revealed to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi Wa sallam) is when it came like the ringing of a bell – this was the most hardest for him to take. It physically burdened him and weighed down upon him greatly to the extent that if he was riding his camel, the camel would kneel on the ground due to the pressure from the Revelation. The Prophet’s companion, Zaid was once seated next to him and his thigh was underneath that of the Prophet’s when a Revelation descended. Zaid later reported that his thigh was almost injured because of the weight of the Revelation to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi Wa sallam).

If Allah Himself talks about the heaviness of the Qur'an, the center-point of the attainment of all knowledge in the religion how could one person say "this question is easy".

As for the two "Pearls" about the usage of our time. Insha'Allah it is my intention to create a chart of the daily activities outlined in the religion that that we should be putting into practice and I pray that we sincerely make an effort to use the chart to observe what we are doing and not doing for Allah, and also to strive to establish new habits. Insha'Allah I will post it soon, but in the mean time, consider just what you are doing for the sake of Allah. Are you really spending 8 hours in ibadda? How much time do you spend on the internet, reading news, watching things of no substance or no benefit to the deen. That being said how much are we tricking ourselves, and allowing Shaytan to trick us by thinking that a video (be it about Muslim issues or Muslim nasheeds etc) is important enough to devote hours to when we haven't picked up the Qur'an in days, or maybe haven't learned yet to read the Qur'an or have neglected other acts of ibadda that Allah (Subhannahu wa tala) and the Prophet (Sallahu Allahi wa Salam) have outlined for us and are of great importance. We don't know the Book of Allah which is the foundation for our religion, but then feel qualified to talk about issues pertaining to Muslims based on what? When Imam Maalik went to Imam Ahmed to begin his learning the first thing he was asked was "have you memorized the Qur'an?" when the response given was no, he was sent home to accomplish this first.

Lets think about how we are using our time, how we are learning, are we doing the best that we can, making the most of our hours?

Jaabir (Raadiallahu anna) reported:

"I heard the Messenger (Sallahu Allahi wa Salam) saying: Every slave will be resurrected in the state upon which he died" - Found in Muslim.

Insha'Allah we die worshiping our Lord, serving Him, doing something to better this Deen and ourselves, and that he gives us hidaya (guidance) and hidaya tawfique (the ability to implement that guidance) and Ilm (knowledge) . Ameen.

I pray that Allah makes this post of benefit, all good which comes from it is from Him alone, and any error in it is mine alone.