Aslam

The Holy Prophet said: Whoever has been given the Quran and thinks that any one has been given something better, he has degraded what God has exalted. Once the saint Fathul Musolli was asked: Does not a sick man die for want of food, drink and medicine? The people said: Yes, He said: Such is the condition of heart. When the heart is not given wisdom and knowledge for three consequitive days, it dies. It is a veritable truth that the food of the heart is knowledge and wisdom. As food keeps the body alive, these two things similarly keep the heart alive. He who misses knowledge has got his heart diseased and its end is its death, but he does not understand it. When he leaves the world and its works,nis power of sense goes away just as excessive fear keeps one forgetful for a moment of the pangs of wound. But when death takes away the burden of this world from a man, he repents at the advent of his death but it comes to no use. His condition is just like that of one who does not feel any pain in swoon, but as soon as he recovers from his swoon, he begins to feel pain. Men are in sleep but they are awake at death.

The sage Hasan Basari said: The ink of the learned will be weighed against the blood of martyrs and then it will be found that the ink of the learned is heavier than the blood of the martyrs. Hazrat Ibn Masud said: You should acquire knowledge before your death. By One in whose hand there is my life, those who were killed in the way of God would every time wish that God should resurrect them, as learned men, as they will find the honour meted out to the learned men there. Nobody is born learned. Learning is to be acquired. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said: To discuss about learning in a portion of night is dearer to me than to keep up awake throughout the night in prayer. Hazrats Abu Hurairah and Imam Ahmad held this view. God advised us to pray thus: O God, give us good in this world and good in the hereafter - 2 : 297. In explaining 'good' in this verse, Hazrat Hasan Basari said that it means Knowledge so far as this world is concerned and Paradise so far as the hereafter is concerned. A certain wise man was once asked: Which thing is to be hoarded?
He replied: That thing which will remain with you even if your boat capsizes, that is knowledge.

EXCELLENCE OF LEARNING

' QURAN: God says: If a party from every band of them remained behind, they could devote themselves to the religion - 9 :1M

Vol-I KNOWLEDGE 23

. God says: If you know not, then ask those who have got knowledge of the Book - 16 : 43.