SEEKING KN0WLEDGE

Sleeking Knowledge

One of the re­ported in­struc­tions ‘Umar wrote to Abû Mûsâ Al-Ash’arî and those under his gov­er­nance dur­ing the for­mer’s Caliphate was, “Seek knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing of (fiqh) the Sun­nah and seek knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing of Ara­bic.”

-Abû Hu­rayrah – Allâh be pleased with him – once passed by the mar­ket in Med­i­nah. He stopped at the mar­ket and said, “O peo­ple of the mar­ket, how in­ca­pable you are!” They said, “And how is that Abû Hu­rayrah?” He replied, “Over there the in­her­i­tance of Allâh’s Mes­sen­ger – Allâh’s peace and bless­ings be upon him – is being dis­trib­uted and you are here! Won’t you go and take your share?” “Where is it?” they asked. He replied, “In the Masjid.” So they hur­ried to the Masjid and Abû Hu­rayrah waited for them until they re­turned. When they came back, he said, “What’s the mat­ter?” They replied, “Abû Hu­rayrah! We went to the Masjid but we didn’t see any­thing being dis­trib­uted.” Abû Hu­rayrah asked them, “And you didn’t see any­one in the Masjid?” They replied, “In­deed we did; we saw peo­ple pray­ing, oth­ers recit­ing Qur`ân and oth­ers study­ing the reg­u­la­tions of halâl and harâm.” So Abû Hu­rayrah said, “Woe to you! That is the in­her­i­tance of Muhammad – Allâh’s peace and bless­ings be upon him.”

Al-Hâfidh Al-Mund­hirî said in Al-Targhîb wa Al-Tarhîb, “Re­ported by Al-Tabarâni in Al-Awsat with a hasan chain of nar­ra­tors.