Enlightenment in The Path of Seeking Knowledge by Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi
The following is from a Seekers Guidance seminar exploring the importance of building a complete student of knowledge by Shaykh Hassan Hindi.
The Umma’s Transformation From Misguidance to Excellence
It is well known that when the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), came to the Umma, Allah said about it, “For indeed they had previously been clearly astray.” [Quran, 3:164] This verse explains the situation in which the Arabs were when the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), came. Then, after twenty-three years, the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), bid farewell to the Umma, and Allah said about it, “You are the best community ever raised for humanity.” [Quran, 3:110]
So, there is a beginning in a clear misguidance, and there is an end on the throne of goodness. This beginning and this end, between them, is the method of the Messenger of Allah, (Allah bless him and give him peace), who led the Umma and managed its affairs, and was able to do so in the field of knowledge and invitation to Allah.
So between the beginning and the end is the personality of the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), his leadership personality, his administrative personality, The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), was a Prophet, a Messenger, a teacher, and an invitation to Allah, but he also led the Umma in this journey, and managed human resources, natural resources, and so on, with his great personality, which we must stand by.
The Scholar’s Duty to Emulate the Complete Prophetic Model
And we usually follow the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), in the fields of worship, in the fields of private social issues, in the fields of marriage, children, neighbors, and so on, but we may ignore the issue of the complete personality of the student of knowledge and the scholar, following the perfection that the Messenger of Allah, (Allah bless him and give him peace), had. The perfection of the Messenger of Allah was a complete perfection, that is, a complete humanity.
And we want to follow it, to move towards that perfection, as much as our Lord allows us. So we are in front of following the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), in very important aspects. And if the whole Umma follows the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), there is no doubt that the scholars and the students of knowledge should be the first to follow the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), especially in his duty to build the community.
When we talk about the leadership of the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), we do not talk about a position that a person gets from us in our lives by an administrative decision. Rather, we want the ability to lead the religion, which means the ability to direct the community, to take it in his hands, and to influence the general public. This is what we want today with the issues of religious leadership.
Preparing the Student of Knowledge
This great task requires some introductions. The first of these introductions is to complete the process of building the student of knowledge. This is a very important issue, because the student of knowledge inherits the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), and the inheritance of the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), is to be at the foot of the Messenger of Allah in his complete personality, not only in terms of worship, knowledge, or supplication, but to take from his personality as much as possible.
Allah (Most High) said, “There has been for you in the Messenger of Allah a good example” [Quran, 33:21], and there is no doubt that the good example is in all aspects of the personality of the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace).
There is also no doubt that the student of knowledge is made today to be a scholar of the future. So we are in front of a project of manufacturing for the future. This student today sits in front of us. He takes knowledge, ideas, and training, and takes many things from us to do his duty in leading the Umma and managing the Umma in the future.
We are in front of an important issue. A student of knowledge is not asked today to lead his Umma, and he is not asked today to manage the affairs of his Umma. You are now in the field of manufacturing and preparation. It is known that students are always made little by little.
A student of knowledge, even if he practices speech, even if he practices teaching in some parts of it, it is only a project that is being made now to be at the feet of the scholars, to rise in the ranks of perfection little by little on a clear path that we take from the personality of the Messenger of Allah, (Allah bless him and give him peace).
The other thing is that a scholar has many tasks. The first one is that he is a teacher. The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), told us that the scholars inherited the Prophets in the position of teaching and conveying the revelation to the Umma. Therefore, this is a duty of the scholars.
The second duty is that he is a preacher. The scholar is also one of the supplicants. Who has a better saying than one who calls to Allah? Our Lord, (Most High), said to “The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), “We have sent you as a witness, as a bearer of glad tidings, as a warner, and as a caller to Allah by His permission, and as a shining lamp.” [Quran, 33:45]
After that, the scholar has a duty, which is that he directs people. Not only in knowledge, but even in the details of life. That is, he is now directing them in matters of permissibility. Do this, leave this. Why? Because he possesses knowledge, not only in lawful and unlawful, but even in presenting what should be presented, and postponing what should be postponed. The issue of promotion between interests and promotion between corruptions This requires knowledge, and the scholar, no doubt, is the best one to speak on these issues.
The Scholar as Manager
After that, the scholar is a manager. Why a manager? Because the scholar has work in his hands. It may be a knowledge circle, it may be a school, or it may be an institution. So, the scholar will exercise management. Therefore, we must take care of the scholar in this field so that in the future he will be competent in this field. Likewise, the scholar is a leader, a leader for the masses, a leader for the nation, a leader for the people.
That is, when I speak on the platform, what do I do? I lead the society. When I teach, what do I do? I lead the society. I give them an opinion, I give them direction, I give them an influence.
Now, I fight a bad idea, and I encourage a good idea. I invite to good and I forbid evil. This idea, we must take care of it at this stage and in these days.
When we speak about these attributes, we speak about the curricula that have been established to reach these attributes. But in fact, we have neglected them in our curricula because we did not include them in our calculations.
Therefore, we had curricula that corresponded with the jobs that we have estimated in our minds for scholars and students of knowledge, and we have neglected the rest of the jobs. So today, we must take care of a complete curriculum in building a student of knowledge to be able to do a complete job. I do not hide from you secretly that in the previous stage, we lived under a low ceiling in the issue of goals, work, and the like.
Why? There were many restrictions. But now we need something new today. First, freedoms have expanded, and we now have fields in research, speech, and calling to Allah (Most High).
The second thing is that the Umma today, in fact, has handed over its leadership in many areas to scholars, and has relied on them in opinion, guidance, and influence. Then, after that, we now have something called institutional work.
From Individual Efforts to Institutional Work in Da‘wa
In the past, the scholar, for example, was the imam of a mosque, he would address, teach, teach, advise, and attend a meeting with a social distance. But today, we are facing something new. The contemporary circumstances have forced institutional work.
In fact, I will tell you something more precise than this. Scholars, in our history, one hundred years ago until now, work was individual in mosques. That is, a Shaykh has students in the circles of the mosque.
But this Shaykh often dies, and his call ends with his death. Why? Because the work is linked to his person. That is why we noticed that the scholars of the great Umma had a very advanced idea when they turned the work of the individual mosque into the work of institutions.
So they created what is called the Islamic institutes. There were the Institute of Education and Training, the Institute of Al-Gharraq, the Institute of Al-Furqan, the Institute of Da’wa and Irshad in Shaykh Ahmad Kaftaro’s association, the Institute of Al-Fatah, and the Institute of Al-Furqan in the supervision of Shaykh Abul Karim Al-Rifa’i, and other such institutes. So what did they do? They turned the individual work into the work of institutions.
We have something new. It is an institution that nurtures knowledge. That is why we noticed that the scholars died, and the institution did not die.
That is, the institution of Shaykh Hassan Habanaka in the Islamic orientation which was established in the 1960s and then closed in the era of the rest of the regime, has now returned, and by the grace of God (Most High), it has returned after years of being canceled. The Islamic institute has returned.
This is an advanced idea that the individual work in calling to God and teaching must turn into the work of institutions. But if the individual work turns into the work of institutions, then it must be managed.
Essential Qualities of the Scholar: Firmness and Humility in Knowledge
Therefore, today, the scholar must realize these attributes in him. The first attribute is the firmness in knowledge. Because he is a scholar.
The default of the scholar is to be firm in knowledge. And this is an idea that has a beginning and no end. Why? Because perfection is intended and not achieved. And it is enough for a person to die while he asks for perfection. Likewise, a person never reaches a stage of knowledge where he says, I have now reached the ceiling.
We say to him, no matter how far you go, you are still on the road. In fact, the scholars said, the student of knowledge and the scholar, the more he learns a matter, the wider spaces of his ignorance appear to him.
Therefore, the more he learns a matter, he becomes more humble to Allah and to the creation of Allah and he becomes more diligent in seeking knowledge to remove this ignorance that he has in front of him. This is the attribute of a scholar. But if a person is a student of knowledge, he always looks at the extent of what he has learned.
For this reason, if a person swam in the sea, and there is a person who walks 20 meters and looks at the shore, and there is a person who looks forward and sees that as he swam forward, the sea expanded and the depth increased. This is knowledge. The more you learn knowledge, the wider you find it than you can imagine.
Today, in the field of building the student of knowledge and the creation of the student of knowledge, we must take care of excellence in knowledge. This excellence has become a necessity and not an improvement.
Today, it has become a necessity and a trust for the student of knowledge. Today, it has become a trust in front of the Da’wa and scientific institutions. Today, it has become a trust for the scholars to raise the student of knowledge on a solid issue.
Today, we do not want a superficial reading. We do not want short notes. We do not want success in universities by asking questions.
Rather, we want to read books word by word and line by line with the scholars. We explain the issues in it and record the issues in it. We repeat the conscience in it and we fix the words in it and we evaluate the evidences and the arguments on what we read.
Excellence in All Islamic Sciences Before Specialization
Today, we want a competent jurist and a competent speaker. We also want a competent grammarian and a competent narrator. We do not want this method that some people have, to be satisfied with a little of each specialty.
Rather, we want strength and resilience in these sciences. Here, I am warning myself of an issue that has started to spread and it is the issue of specialization from the beginning. Specialization from the beginning is a very dangerous word.
When you ask a student of knowledge from the beginning, he will tell you that his specialty is jurisprudence and his specialty is creed. We tell him that specialization is not in the beginning. Rather, specialization is after you have mastered the sciences.
After you have mastered Fiqh, Aqida, Usul, and the rest of the sciences, you say, I now want to specialize in this field. I do not want to specialize in the previous method. This has become almost impossible for us.
But I want you to take a lot in all sciences and then to specialize in some of them. Therefore this issue is dealt with today by the Islamic institutes and educational curricula as SeekersGuidance does, may Allah reward them for their good management and teachers, in setting up the curricula that take care of that by first arranging the books in order.
The Need for Qualified Teachers
So when you are in these activities with the supervision of teachers, educators, and supervisors, there is no doubt that you overcome many problems. Likewise, when we choose the qualified teacher, this is a very important issue, that you read all the knowledge with its people. You read Nahw with the people of Nahw and Fiqh with the people of Fiqh.
As for choosing teachers without guidelines, you may read with a person whose style you like but you do not know his value. And this is a very important issue and today on the media, on YouTube, on Facebook and the like, we are faced with these issues. In fact, I tell you that the media has something dangerous and it is the issue of exaggeration in size.
That is, the small is exaggerated and the big is minimized, and this is delayed and this is advanced. While when you read from a scholar directly and get the trust of scholars from him, this is much better.
Sound Thought as a Necessary Foundation for the Student of Knowledge
The second thing that we should take care of as a student of knowledge is the issue of the safety of thought. The safety of thought is that a student of knowledge should have a sound mind. What do we mean by a sound mind? What do we mean by the word thought? In fact, thought is one thing and knowledge is another. Knowledge is information nourishing the mind, but thought is consciousness that a student of knowledge should have so that he can take his place in the Umma.
We want consciousness first to understand Islam comprehensively before going into it in detail. Comprehensive understanding is to know Islam with comprehensive knowledge, to know the creed by its sources and features, what distinguishes it from other creeds in religions and sects, as well as to know Islamic worship, its purposes, goals, characteristics, and sources, as well as the issue of relationships and families. Therefore when this comprehensive understanding is lost among our students and they enter directly into the details, they are lost in the details.
This is what happens with some students. He enters the principles directly into the details. He does not know the thread that connects the pieces of the principles of jurisprudence.
However, if he had taken a general idea of
Therefore, now, perhaps, when the issue of comprehensive understanding is lost in religion, we sometimes have contradictions while reading the details. We want the student of knowledge to know in the present and the scholar in the future the issue of the circumstances surrounding him, both inside and outside. When you move in science and call to God, you do not live on the moon or outside the earth.
You live among states, among administrations, among laws, and so on. Therefore, it is your duty to know the surrounding reality. Because if you do not know that, you may have made a mistake and led to a great failure and a great danger to yourself, your students, and your institution.
Therefore the issue of knowing the reality we live in and knowing the internal and external circumstances of our scientific movement is an important thing. One of the mistakes that some students of knowledge make is to take an experiment from a certain scholar in a certain place. What does he do? He transfers this experiment as it is to another place.
We say this is not correct. We benefit from experiments, but we do not copy them. Why? Because we take experiments that correspond to the circumstances of the time, place, and preparation with the capabilities of the person himself.
You may have seen your Shaykh using a certain method. You transferred the same experiment. Are you not at the level of your Shaykh now? No.
Therefore, you are now copying an incorrect idea. So, what is the solution? He said to study the multiple and diverse experiments. Then after that, you should take what corresponds to you in every time, place, and person.
Embracing Modern Tools in Daʿwa and Education
This is an important issue. One of the meanings that we mean is that a person should get to know the new ways of inviting to Allah and to possess the new methods and to use the technical means as SeekersGuidance did, may Allah reward them well, in these innovative ways in education. Today, we are facing new ways, whether it is the issue of the internet, the issue of YouTube, the issue of Facebook, the issue of WhatsApp, or the issue of the new methods in education.
All of this should be benefited from and realized in our lives. One of the issues of thought that we should pay attention to is to be aware of the issue of suspicions that affect the details of our religion. Dear brothers, suspicions do not frighten us.
What frightens us is the ignorance of our sons and daughters. For example, a person stands on the beach and sees a mountain of thorns in the sea. The mountain stands still.
Then a wave comes from far away. This person says, Allah is the greatest. The mountain is down.
Then a big wave comes. What happens? The wave hits the mountain and the mountain melts. This is how Islam is.
The thorns of doubt hit it from the east and the west. I tell you there is no division in Islam without being faced with the thorns of doubt, the thorns of hatred and suspicions. But what is the result? Dear brothers, when there is a suspicion, how do we respond to it? Do we change anything in Islam? Never.
Do we change a verse or a hadith? Never. We return to the source of the suspicion to change the source. Because suspicions do not arise except from one or two people.
Either an ignorant mind or an enraged heart. What do we do with the ignorant mind? We teach it. And the enraged heart warns people of its hatred.
So, the answer to the suspicions is that we do not change anything in the religion of Allah. Rather, we come to the source of the suspicion to correct it and to show the correctness in it. The third axis in building the student of knowledge is the sublime education, dear brothers.
The Role of Sublime Spiritual Education in Forming the Student of Knowledge
The sublime education that we should have in building the student of knowledge. The preacher is in servitude. The imam is in servitude. The teacher, the scholar and the learned all of us practice servitude in these deeds.
The spirit of servitude must remain in our deeds always. Dear brothers, we must focus on the issue of the spirit in our students. The spirit, the heart, the connection with Allah, the remembrance of the chapters, the night prayer, the supplication, the submission, the Quran and the temptation to Allah, as well as in the righteousness of man with the environment around him.
We do not understand education only as righteousness with Allah. Rather, we understand it as righteousness with Allah and righteousness with the servants of Allah. One of the characteristics that we must take care of is the issue of the skills of management.
The skills of management. Dear brothers, in the previous deeds, we used to practice management in a simple way. But today, when the Da’wa and the knowledge have been transformed into institutions, we must have skills in management to be able to do these jobs.
One of the characteristics that we must take care of is the issue of the leadership of the community. The leadership of the community. Therefore, today, we want to add to the scholar, the educator, the preacher the idea of the manager and also the idea of the leader.
This is one of the characteristics that we must take from the biography of the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace). We must take them from his way of Da’wa and his way of building the Umma. The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), was a leader and a manager in building the Umma and the interests of the community.
When we talk about management or leadership we talk about it in the religious sense and not in the military sense or the political sense or the like. Now, we are not talking about a short-term leadership of a scholar. It is a religious leadership that a person builds through his religious position in front of the people.
Likewise we must maintain this leadership and this management with its religious concept so that it does not deviate to leadership with other concepts so that it becomes a leadership in which we force people to convert to Islam while they run away from it. Today we are facing a problem. We are telling people the solution in Islam while they might say the problem in Islam.
Dear brothers, we are facing a problem and we want to eliminate some of the worldly meanings that some people talk about in other specializations such as economic leadership, political leadership, or military leadership. All of these have skills, but the religious leadership agrees with these other things but it distinguishes itself by its characteristics. One of the characteristics of a scholar in the field of management and leadership is to be a scholar so that he distinguishes between what is permissible and what is not permissible because the leadership among non-Muslims might use the forbidden means to reach the goals they want.
Core Qualities of the Religious Leader: Wisdom, Flexibility, and Integrity
We do not accept this in Islam. We want to manage leadership with means and goals so that we walk the right path. One of the characteristics of a leader and a manager is that he must have wisdom in managing affairs.
Dear brothers, we do not exercise a compulsory authority in a way that we judge bodies without possessing hearts. Therefore, we must have wisdom. As Allah (Most High) said, ”Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good admonition.” One of the characteristics is that a scholar in the field of leadership and management must be flexible.
This is a very important word. Flexibility is required, but distinction and dissolution are rejected. There is a big difference between them.
The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), only chose between two things. He left them what was not a sin. This is flexibility.
Today when we face a general problem, especially in major issues, we adopt a fatwa from a religious doctrine such as ”I am a Hanafi, I am a Shafi’i, I am a Maliki, I am a Hanbali.” This is flexibility. Similarly the religious rule that was established in the past must be changed in order to change the interest. This is flexibility.
It is also flexibility to change the rule by changing the interest if it is based on the interest. It is also flexibility to distinguish between the fatwa and the disillusionment that has been stuck in Islam. Dear brothers, we have rules and customs.
Distinguishing Between Rules and Customs in Transmitting Islam
In the East, we have rules and customs. If we want to transfer Islam to the West, what do we transfer? We transfer the rules, not the customs. We show them the customs.
They may benefit from them, but it is not obligatory because they are responsible for the Islam that Allah has sent. They are not responsible for our customs in the East. One of the attributes that a scholar should have is the action and the action.
The action and the action. What is the difference between them? The action is a movement that has a starting point, a goal, and a method. This is an action.
For example, I want to drink water. This is a starting point. I want to drink water.
I did it. I drank it. We say, this is an action.
Now, if something scary appears in front of me, what do I do? I jump. This is an action. It has no starting point, no goal, and no method.
In our movement, we want the action and the action. In the Islamic movement in the world, we notice that the winner is the emotion, the Islamic enthusiasm, the Islamic reaction. In difficult circumstances, we need the wisdom of scholars, the intellect of scholars, the experience of scholars, and the calmness of scholars who take us by our hands in difficult circumstances.
One of the things that a scholar should have in the field of leadership and management is to know the jurisprudence in its four types. This is a new term. Now, we read the jurisprudence with our students.
We open a book and read an issue. For example, if a person leaves the first seat, he must prostrate. Who is this person? When was he? At what time? There is no specific person.
What do we call this? Just jurisprudence. If we want to bring it down to a specific situation, we must know, in addition to the ruling of the issue in the book, three types of jurisprudence. First, you must know the real jurisprudence on which this ruling applies.
Second, you must know the priorities of jurisprudence. Sometimes, if you ask a Shaykh, what is the ruling of this issue? He will tell you that it is haram. Now, I am obliged to do this because it requires that I leave the most corrupt action.
What do we say? You must do it. How should I do something? The scholars said, yes, because there is the jurisprudence of priorities. There is also the jurisprudence of priorities.
Look at these big words that we need today in the field of leadership and management. The jurisprudence of priorities is that every action is better than the result, and its doer is responsible for the result as well as the doer. This is what the scholars decided.
Also, one of the characteristics that should be achieved in the field of leadership and management is the acquisition of the skills that enable us to lead and manage. Today, we do not want to remain on our innate qualities or on our ancient culture. We want to read contemporary management through its books, sciences, and arts and take from them what corresponds to our religious project.
Activating Others and Cultivating Leadership
Also, we should train this leadership and management. What are the means of leadership and management? We have the usual means and also the modern ones. First of all, the spokesman is the leader and manager.
When you speak, you are not only a teacher, but also an influencer, a guide, a leader, and a manager. Therefore, the spokesman should notice this meaning. Therefore, the spokesman is the one who has a reform project.
He wants people to do something. He wants people to gather and leave something. This is leadership and management.
The same goes for teaching. One of the means of leadership and management is the role model. The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), led the Umma with the role model as he did in the treaty of Hudaybiyya when Umm Salama pointed to him.
He rose and flew and people followed him. This is leadership. Another way of leadership is the power of the situation with the scholar.
You may influence your situation in a way that is not influenced by your knowledge. Another way is communication with people. The scholar does not say a word and leave people alone.
Rather, he addresses people once a week, but he lives among people during the rest of the hours. Similarly, if the scholar wants leadership, he must deal with the mind and the heart. The mind and the heart.
You are a teacher and an influencer. You are a teacher and a generator of energy and a director of energy. These are all the meanings of leadership that a person should have.
One of the means of leadership and management is to activate others on this side by moving these things in their hearts. What is required of us in this lecture? First, the solidification of the idea of religious leadership. Religious leadership.
This is a new term that we must take care of. Religious leadership. Second, the correctness of the concept of leadership among people.
People may understand leadership as a worldly issue in the field of politics and economy and the like. No. We want religious leadership that the Messenger of Allah taught us and that is consistent with jurisprudence, Sharia rules and Islamic etiquette and is clear in its course and its goals.
We also want to educate the students of knowledge on the concept of leadership and to teach them these issues. We also want to set the scientific and intellectual aspects of leadership. This should be part of our Dawa and teaching method.
Also, after teaching the scientific issues, we must move to the practical training on the concept of leadership. There are also ways to take care of the ranks of the students of knowledge who are qualified for the concept of leadership. We have qualified young people and we must pay attention to them so that we can implement their meanings and principles.
The last point, which we must be careful about, is the mix between the concept of religious leadership and the concept of leadership in other fields. Religious leadership has its rules and not all the skills that others have talked about can be acquired. We must read and benefit and take what is suitable for our Shari’a and Sunna.
We do the same in many sciences. For example, in neurological programming. Do we take it at all? The answer is no.
We only study it as theories in which there are benefits. After that, we take what is suitable for our Shari’a and Sunna. Some of these skills may have been placed for other specializations and may have been placed by non-Muslims and they have been neglected by Allah.
Also, today, we must warn that Islam does not have the concept of leadership. This was said in times when freedoms were forbidden and the scholars were restricted and restricted and it was not allowed to take his place among people. This is an idea that we must change and correct among people.
Also, we warn that the concept of religious leadership and its religious concepts and its Shari’a standards should be removed so that it becomes a leadership like all reformist approaches which are short-sighted and far from the Shari’a standards. Also, we want to warn that religious leadership does not mean a domination of the scholar over the people so that people’s souls are led by the scholar. Rather, the scholar leads the people and they are stronger.
The Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace), led the Umma and made men out of it. Allah witnessed them and said, There are men among them who love when they are pure and glorify Allah in the morning and evening. There are men among the believers who are truthful and follow the covenant of Allah.
These men, who made them? The Messenger of Allah, (Allah bless him and give him peace). I ask Allah to guide us to what He loves and pleases.
