The Manners Of the Knowledge Seeker by Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad Sa’id Raslan

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek refuge with Him, and seek His Forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls, and the mistakes in our actions. Whoever Allah Guides, there is none who can misguide him, and whoever Allah misguides, there is none who can guide him. And I testify that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is his servant and Messenger.

{“O you who believe! Have taqwa of Allah as He deserves, and do not die except as Muslims.”}1

{“O people! Have taqwa of your Lord Who Created you from a single soul, and Created from it its mate, and sprouted from it many men and women. And have taqwa of Allah, from Whom you demand your mutual rights, and do not cut off the relations of the womb. Verily, Allah is Ever-Watching over you.”}2

{“O you who believe! Have taqwa of Allah, and say that which is truthful. He will rectify your actions for you and Forgive you your sins, and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great success.”}3

Indeed, the most truthful of speech is the Speech of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace be upon him). The worst of affairs are those that are newly introduced, and every newly introduced affair is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the Fire.

As for what follows:

Since knowledge is the worship of the heart, the secret of its life, and the source of its power, it is a must for its seeker to come to know the manners related to it, and to strive his utmost to obtain these manners. Otherwise, he will be going in one direction, and knowledge will be going in another, as it is said:

It went east, and I went west * What a difference there is between the east and west! One should also realize that these manners are not like any other manners, where it is the same whether you obtain them or not, or that they are all of one level. Rather, some of them are obligatory upon everyone everywhere, whether or not they are students of knowledge.

The purpose of attaining knowledge of the Shari’ah is to perfect one’s clarity of expression, and the purpose of perfecting one’s clarity of expression is to single out Allah and worship Him. Therefore, the purpose of seeking knowledge is to single out Allah – the Mighty and Majestic – and worship Him, and the message gets across much better when the one who has positioned himself to deal with this knowledge – whether he is a student or teacher – clearly shows these signs of singling out Allah and worshipping Him by submitting completely to the pure Shari’ah and noble Religion.

Based on this, the manners of seeking this knowledge are completely inseparable from the person who deals with it, because this is what the texts show, and because these manners include vast principles of the Religion that are not within anybody’s luxury to contradict or look to without taking seriously.

And these manners are at all times a definite obligation upon the seeker of knowledge, and Allah is the source of help, and upon Him is all reliance.

What follows is a collection of the manners that the seeker of knowledge must abide by: