Who are these people? Living examples of our illustrious
forefather? Simply dressed, shalwars above their ankles,
caps upon their heads, gleaming foreheads, shining eyes,
beards gracing their faces, modesty embracing their
foot-steps, humbleness dripping from every word, respect
from every action. With sleeping bags upon their shoulders,
suitcases in their hands they’re making their
way to and from the railway stations. Who are they?
Ah yes, they are the talabah of deeni madaris.
Shawwal is the first month of their academic year. Having
spent two months of vacations they are now on their
way to their Alma Maters. Oh wait! O most fortunate
people in the world, wait! Give me the honour of few
words with you. Your love and prayers just might become
a means of deliverance for this uneducated, unworthy
one. For it is you, yes you, for whom angels in the
skies, ants in their ant-holes, fish in the seas, birds
in the air pray day and night. Of the peoples of this
world, some are the successors of Fir‘oun, some
of Qaroon some are disciples of Abu Jahal, some of Shaddad.
But how lucky are you that upon completion of your studies
you shall become the heirs of ambia `alayhissalaam!
It is to acquire this very legacy that you have left
your homes. For what had Rasool ullah (sallallahu ‘alaihe
wasallam) left behind except some weapons of war and
a wealth of knowledge? When he left this world, neither
dirham nor dinar, neither lands nor houses did he leave
behind. But yes! He had left behind him a vast, never-ending
wealth of knowledge.
This wealth is being distributed among the people since
the last fourteen hundred years but it doesn’t
seem to come to an end. Remember what Hazrat Abu Hurairah
(radhiallahu ta`ala ‘anhu) had said in the market
place of Madina one day? “O people” he had
cried aloud, “you are busy in buying and selling
in the market – place where while there in the
Masjid-i-Nabawi, the legacy of Rasool ullah (sallallahu
‘alaihe wasallam) is being distributed”,
everyone had run to the Masjid-i-Nabawi (alaihe salaatu
wasalam) but nothing was being given out there. There
was only a group of Sahaba busy in teaching Hadith.
The people came back and asked Hazrat Abu Huriarah (radhiallahu
ta`ala ‘anhu) why he had said such a thing. “When
you went there what did you see?” Asked Hazrat
Abu Hurairah (radhiallahu ta`ala ‘anhu). “We
saw some Sahaba busy teaching Ahadith and ayaat of the
Quran to each other”, they replied. “So
what else is the legacy left by Rasool ullah (sallallahu
‘alaihe wasallam)? It is the knowledge of the
Quran and Sunnah. That is the inheritance he has left
behind”. O respected talabah! You have left your
homes in search of this legacy. You have preferred religion
to materialism, poverty to riches, traveling to staying
at home.
You have preferred trouble to luxury, plain fare to
new and rich dishes, being alone rather than being in
company, living in a foreign land than in your own country,
trial and tribulation to comfort and luxury. You have
left your homes for a great aim. Don’t lose sight
of this aim. There is no dearth of people who study
for ten or twenty years but their goal is nothing else
but a handful of gold or silver, a lucrative job, a
grand house, a shining car and false pomp and show.
Between you and them lies a distance as of the East
and West. You belong to the East while they belong to
the West. They are seekers of livelihood, seekers of
this materialistic world while you are in search of
Aakhirah. Your aim is the world of your inner self,
their object is the world of their carnal selves. Don’t
let this difference of aim and intention come to an
end otherwise there will be no difference left between
a ‘maktab’ and a school, a ‘madrasah’
and a college. It is this intention which is the very
base.
If it changes the entire building becomes different,
the aim changes, the goal becomes different. A person
whose intention is not pure keeps traveling towards
Madinah all his life but his life come to an end in
London or Paris. A good-intentioned man passes his entire
life in kafiristan but when his days come to an end
the kalimah is upon his lips, the light of emaan in
his heart. Believe me it’s a fact that many people
come out of the wash-room clean and ‘paak’
while others leave even Bait ullah in the same unclean,
‘na-paak’ state they went in. There was
Hazrat Asiya who did not let the light of emaan die
even though she was living with Fir‘oun himself,
while the wife of Hazrat Nuh (Noah) `alayhissalaam was
not blessed with emaan though she lived her entire life
with a prophet. What else can be more ironical and unfortunate
than that a man is blessed with the company of good
people, with a favourable environment yet he does not
take advantage of it? In the book ‘Qushairiyyah’
it is mentioned that Abu `Usman Khairi (rahimahullah)
asked Muhammad Bin Fazal (rahimahullah), ‘who
is the most wretched of all people’? There are
three persons he answered. ‘A person who is given
knowledge yet he is deprived of the power of acting
upon it; a person who is given the power of acting upon
his knowledge but is deprived of sincerity and a person
who is blessed with the company of pious people yet
he does not hold them in deep respect’.
Two words learnt with good intention are better than
a thousand words learnt when the intention is not good.
The person who acquires the knowledge of religion just
to earn wealth or to impress the illiterate people or
to challenge the `ulama to debates or ‘munazaras’,
he shall on the Day of Qiyamah not even go near Jannah
let alone enter it.
O seekers of Knowledge! Remember who you are. You are
a continuation of the search and yearning, the thirst
of knowledge of the Ashaab-i-Suffah. The Ashaab-i-Suffah,
the most exalted of students the world has ever seen.
Food was never cooked for them in any ‘madrasah’.
Their state was such that they ate whatever left-overs
they could find and sometimes they found not even those.
The prayer sufficed for them “O Rabb of ours,
grant us”. Orchard-owners used to hang bunches
of ripe, unripe dates near their place of study and
these dates were their only food. They didn’t’
have any kitchens, nor grand houses, nor lofty educational
centers, nor an army of servants, nor a team of instructors.
They had neither beds nor pillows, neither desks nor
books. There was just a raised platform which served
them for a hostel, as well as a classroom. There was
only one compassionate teacher and a few true seekers
of knowledge. The light burned bright on this side as
well as on the other.
Their intention (niyyah) was pure, their yearning unallowed.
Their resolve was to change their own selves as well
as the times; to ignite a restlessness in their own
hearts as well as in the hearts of others; and to disperse
the knowledge they had acquired far and wide. The light
enkindled in their hearts, their pure resolve, sincere
intention, their deep yearning at last bore fruit and
in a very short time, lamps of the true knowledge began
burning from the East to the West. Darkness receded.
Just imagine. What kind of a place of learning it must
have been, what teachers, that their attention gave
to the world mighty rulers, judges, army-leaders, famous
`ulama, and jurisprudents, successful traders, world-famous
personalities! Yet they did not have any of the facilities
students have to-day. All that they had was a pure intense
yearning to acquire knowledge and a strong system of
education and training. There did exist students whose
memory was not exceptional but there existed none whose
deeds were not matchless. Were we to inculcate these
things in ourselves then even the cave of a mountain
a dark corner of a forest or a straw hut can be a madrasah,
a Jami`ah, a khanqah for us. But if we don’t possess
these qualities, yet have a spacious hostel, rows of
classes, heaps of books, enticing scholarships. Then
beware! This is not a madrasah but a shop. It is nothing
but hypocrisy, outward show, a mirage, an illusion.
There is an uproar, an outcry to-day, and it is a justifiable
one, that madaris are not producing great men; that
every year thousands of ulama are coming out of madaris
but there is no sign of a change in society; in fact,
the behaviour and character of the students seems to
becoming worse, day by day. The main reason for this
is that instead of paying attention to building human
beings to building character, the focus is upon constructing
buildings. More effort is being made to beautify the
outward appearance rather than to correct the inner
self. Instead of transferring knowledge, it is being
considered sufficient to transfer words and letters
only. Importance is being given more to acquiring a
degree rather than acquiring ability and competence.
There is no dearth of such talabah too to whom scholarships
and facilities are more important than a literary environment.
So when importance is given to the means of attaining
the goal instead of the goal itself, when the good-will
of the people is sought instead of the Creator’s
then how can the knowledge acquired be fruitful, be
blessed? The lessons learnt would just be puerile, a
pastime of idiots.
You must have heard the name of Mulla Mubarak Nagpuri.
He was the father of Faizi who has written an explanation
of the meanings of the Quran in Urdu in words without
dots. He was the founder of a great university in Agra.
Maulana Manazir Ahsan Gilani has written that he was
a student, of a teacher’s teacher, of Hafiz Ibne
Hajar Asqalani (rahimahullah). Mulla Mubarak was a very
learned man but his heart was empty of fear and awe,
of sincerity. He passed his entire life in toadying
to the rulers. When he left this world, let alone strangers,
his own students had nothing good to say about him.
One of his eminent students, Mulla Abdul Qadir Badayuni,
the author of a famous history book, addressed his teacher
in these words: ‘What defect did you see in the
Quran and Sunnah that you chose the dish and plate as
your religion? Instead of Allah and His Rasool (sallallahu
`alaihe wasallam) you started following the irreligious
people?’
So you see, on the one hand are people who served Deen
with complete sincerity and devotion with the result
that even their enemies attested to the pureness of
their character while on the other are those sole aim
was acquiring this world and as a result not even their
friends had a good word to say about them.
O heirs of prophet hood! This is the time to succeed
or fail. What you shall sow to-day, you shall reap tomorrow.
If you plant thorns it is stupidity to expect roses
to bloom forth. If you pass your time in neglecting
your studies and in sleeping, how can you even dream
of gracing exalted posts of learning? Education, Knowledge
demands your full attention. It is like a jealous mistress.
It cannot tolerate for its aspirant, its lover to pay
attention to anyone else.
The slightest bit of faithlessness is enough to send
it running away in search of a true aspirant. Our ancestors
were such that when he left home to study, Hazrat Makhdoom
Bihari (rahimahullah) left practically everything behind
him. When he received letters from home he used to put
them in an empty pitcher. Years later when he completed
his education he sat down to read the heap of letters.
As he read, sometimes he smiled, sometimes he shed tears.
Thus when time is saved in this way, when knowledge
is so earnestly sought, so highly valued, then only
shall the Makhdooms, the Imams of the times be born.
Don’t think that you can never succeed, Allah
Ta`ala has made success conditional to hard work only.
A person who strives, finds doors opening for him by
themselves. So come O Guests of Rasool! Open the doors
of success with your continuous hard work. Come forward,
listen every wall, every nook and corner of the madrasah
is saying ‘Marhaba, Marhaba! Welcome, Welcome!’
These words are for those who have brought with them
the lamp of true yearning, the light of sincerity, and
the resolve for continuous struggle. For them are these
glad greetings in this world and when they shall rise
in the next, angels will be saying in their sweet voices:
Marhaba, marhaba, marhaba!
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