“Knowledge is a comforting friend in times of loneliness, it is the best companion during travels, and it is the inner friend who speaks to you in your privacy. Knowledge is the discerning proof of what is right and what is wrong, and it is the positive force that will help you surmount the trials of comfort, as well as those of hardships. Knowledge is your most powerful sword against your enemy, and finally, it is your most dignifying raiment in the company of your close companions.”
“Through knowledge, Allah, blessed be His Name, raises some people in rank, and He makes them leaders in righteousness and models in morality. The vestige of their faith is avidly sought, their deeds are emulated perceptively, and people will seek and sanction their opinions solicitously and unequivocally. The heavenly angels seek their company and anoint them with their wings, every fresh or withered life they pass by implore Almighty Allah to forgive them their sins, even the fish in the oceans, the beasts of the lands and every bird of prey and migratory bird pray and solicit the mercy of Almighty Allah on their behalf. This is because knowledge revives the dead hearts and drives them out of darkness into light, and because knowledge is the light of the inner eyes that cures one’s blindness and restores his inner sight.”
By Mu’adh bin Jabal (Radiallahu Anhu), the messenger of the Messenger of Allah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam) sent to Yemen, the one about whom it was said: “Verily, when the people of knowledge will be present before their Lord, the Mighty and Sublime, Mu`aadh will be one step ahead of them.”
[Saheeh, Ibn Sa`d, Aboo Nu`aim, at-Tabaraanee]
I love these two quotes. They are so beautifully spoken and completely true. It is sad that as Muslims, while the first word revealed in the Quran was Iqra, defining the importance of knowledge, we take knowledge for granted.
Digital Niqabi 