Test of knowledge – 2

Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya ibn gursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi sallam. Tasliman basiran basiran. Fama ba'du. My brothers and sisters, we are looking at the lessons we learn from Surah Al-Kahf. May Allah give us the tawfiq to learn the lessons with the intention of applying them in our lives because that is the purpose of the revelation, the nuzul of the Quran. To apply it in our lives and to live our lives according to the Quran because in that there is khair and barakah for us in this life and the next life. We looked at the lessons, the test of knowledge, the test of wealth. [PAUSE] We looked at the test of faith and the test of wealth. And now we are looking at the test of knowledge. And that is the story of Musa alayhi salam and Qidr alayhi salam where Musa alayhi salam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent him on his own request to meet Qidr alayhi salam and to learn something from him. Which Musa alayhi salam did not know. [PAUSE] Now many times people have this hierarchy of who is bigger, who is smaller. All of this is not from our deen. We do not sit and decide who is bigger and who is smaller. Musa alayhi salam is the Rasul and the Nabi of the time, Sahib al-Kitab, Sahib al-Sharia. And, Qidr alayhi salam has his own importance. Musa alayhi salam was sent to the entire Ummah of Ban Israel, people of Ban Israel. Qidr alayhi salam was not sent to any community. [PAUSE] We say he is a Nabi because Rasulullah said he is a Nabi and because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said he is an abid from his Ibad. [PAUSE] So the lessons that we learn from this, the whole story of Musa alayhi salam going to Qidr alayhi salam to learn and not vice versa, he didn't call Qidr alayhi salam to himself. Allah did not send Qidr to Musa alayhi salam. [PAUSE] So the first lesson and the most important lesson we learn is that to gain knowledge, we need to go to the teacher, we need to be humble and we need to obey. These are the lessons we learn. We need to be humble and we need to obey. These are the conditions. You don't go to the teacher to teach the teacher. You don't go to the teacher with the intention of criticizing the teacher. [PAUSE] When we were growing up, we were taught that it is wrong to hold on to the mistakes of the elders. There is a level of respect. Even if your teacher makes a mistake, you don't correct the teacher. That's not your job. Your job is to correct the teacher. Obey the teacher. And if the mistake is of a kind which needs to be corrected, then the thing to do is to find somebody who is at the level of the teacher or higher and request them to do it. It's not your job to do it. [PAUSE] Because there is no learning without adab. Adab is the key that opens the door of learning. Actual learning. It's not a question of how much data we accumulate in our heads. It is the digestion of that. It is what comes out of it. The maqas of that. So no learning without adab. Number one. Number two. The teacher's dua for you is critical to understanding. And that will never happen unless you have a relationship. Based on love with that teacher. Unless the teacher loves you and you love the teacher. The teacher is like a father to you. Like the mother to you. Depending on whether the teacher is a man or a woman. And you are like the child of the teacher. Because this is a relationship. It's a parent-child relationship in the field of learning. And unless the teacher is making dua for you. Learning will never happen. And for the teacher to make dua for you. You have to be there. Be respectful. Be obedient. Serve the teacher. And that's why I always also advise teachers. When I advise them that the teacher must love the student. And be interested enough in that student to teach the student. So when you go to a teacher. One of the first things to do is to make dua for the teacher. And that's why I always advise teachers. One of the first things to ascertain. And to be sure about. Is whether I call it the chemistry test. Which is that is there a chemistry. Do you agree on things. And you know. Do you like the teacher. Does the teacher like you and so on. Because otherwise it won't happen. Learning will not happen. And that's the reason also why. This whole you know practice we have of teaching students. And then beating them and punishing them. This doesn't work. This does not work. The student is not learning for whatever reason. Maybe he is not intelligent enough. Maybe he is very intelligent. So you are. The way you are teaching is not engaging his mind. Maybe he is just you know. Mischievous. Whatever it is. There is a problem. So solve it. And the solution to the problem is not beating. It cannot be. Right. It cannot be beating. You don't even do that to animals. Beating the animal doesn't teach the animal anything. You solve the problem. Why is this person not interested in the teaching? If you don't solve that problem. Teaching won't happen. You can't beat knowledge into somebody. Right. It's not a hammer and tongs thing, hammer it into his head somehow. It doesn't work like that. It has to come and therefore teaching is a very, not just an important job, but it's a very difficult and tough thing. It's not easy. That's the reason why somebody, some wise person, they compared teaching to gardening. Alright, you have, you plant something in the garden. You cannot force it to grow. What does the gardener do? The gardener, the gardener creates conditions which are conducive to growth. He first prepares the soil, then he plants the seed, then he waters it, and then he looks after it, he makes sure that there's no disease and pathogen and whatnot. If there is, he sprays whatever he has to spray. He makes sure that somehow it grows. Some animal does not come and eat up his plant. He fences it. You know, this is what, he can't force it to grow. If it is not growing, he will make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make it grow, but he can't force it to grow. The plant will grow. It will grow in its own good time. You cannot, you cannot force it to grow. You have to be patient and you have to create conditions which are conducive to growth. Conditions which encourage the plant to grow. Right? This is the whole, that's the whole thing about teaching. Teaching is to create conditions for the plant to grow. Not to try to force the plant. And this is what we don't seem to understand. Especially this is one of the most strange things. Especially in the teaching of religious knowledge and even there in the teaching, memorizing of the Quran. It is the same. The most beating happens in the Dara-Tahfiz. In the memorization of Quran. For what? So what happens to a lot of students, especially the ones who have difficulty memorizing Quran is a very difficult thing. It's not easy. It is, that's why you have to respect the hufaz. They have spent a lot of time and a lot of effort to memorize. It's not easy. It's very difficult. It's repetitive. It is rotative. It's, you know, you get tired with it and you have to continuously do Dara. Till you die, it's, the Nabi said, the Quran is like a, like a camel without a rope. It won't stay there. It'll just go away. Unless you tie it. And the tying of the rope is the Dara. It's a, it's a going on. Repeating, repeating. No matter how powerful you think your memory is. If you do not repeat, if you do not recite the Quran, it will go away. Especially when you are doing Imamate. I mean, it's, it's happened to me many times. I know the Surah. I mean, I read it every day. There is no doubt in my mind about it. But you are standing and reciting here, you forget. Yeah. We are human beings, we are human beings. We have forgotten. We know that the Ayat comes. It doesn't come like this or like that. It comes here. So, it is very important to, for us to understand this, this, the difficulty of this. And that will not be solved by beating. This is what my point is this. Help them to understand. Right. I want to close with a story. And Varan is sitting here. He knows the place. I was in his mother's Samandhi. Many years ago. All these were little boys. So, I went to. to the Darul Tafiz, Abdullaman Ansar was the Ustad for Tafiz. So, he is a very good friend of mine. So, he invited me, then he said, ask somebody to, you know, read for you. So, one boy came, he sat, and he said, so now, so he, he was reading Surah An-Kabut. So, he was, he came to the Ayah, where Allah SWT said, So, Now, where we were sitting, there is a door, of the, I was sitting right next to the door, of the room, and then there is an open courtyard, of the Madasa. So, there were some chickens grazing. So, I told the boy to stop, he stopped. So, I said, I said, what is it? He said, the chickens. [PAUSE] So, I said, what are they doing? He said, they are feeding. I said, what do they eat? So, he said, you know, they eat insects, and so on, and what have you got. So, I said, you just read this Ayat, of this Surah, what, then [PAUSE] Go and travel the world. Look. How have we created? [PAUSE] How have we made things? Allah SWT says, Go. Travel in the land and see how we have created things. Have you understood? Yes. Have you understood? Yes. So now what do you understand from this? Still. Because that's not how we teach. This is the problem. We don't teach in this way. We do not relate what he is reading to something which is happening in front of him. So he can now, it doesn't make sense. He is just memorizing the words. [PAUSE] Then I asked him, I said, I said, He said, Yes. So I said, then you slaughter the chicken, then you eat the Indian [PAUSE] you die? He said, no, I won't die. He said, now do you understand? Qul tiroo fila di fanziroo, kaifo wadal khar. Ab uska aankh kholi, bukh khala. He said, haa. He said, Allah nisika hai. He said, humne kaisa bana hai? Ek cheez jo tubhane liye zahirili hai,