Chapter I: Acquisition of Knowledge
The learned men are of two kinds, a learned man for the public who is a Mufti or giver of legal decision and a companion of the ruler, and another learned man for Tauhid and good deeds and he resides in solitude. It is said that such a learned man was Imam Ahmad-b-Hanbal who was like the river Tigris and everyone used to take benefit from him. The sage Bashr-b-Hares was also like him. He was like a covered well of fresh water visited by a single person at a time. A wise man said : When know ledge increases, loquacity decreases.
If any question was put to Hazrat Abu Darda'a, he used to give no reply. When Hazrat Anas was asked anything, he used to say : Ask our leader Hazrat Abbas. When Hazrat Abbas was asked, he used to say : Ask Hares-b-Zaid. When Ibn Omar was asked anything, he used to say : Ask Sayeed-b-Musayyeb.
(7) SEVENTH SIGN. The seventh sign of the learned man of the next world is that his main object of anxeity is to learn secreat knowledge, observation of the heart, knowledge of the paths of the hereafter, to travel thereon and to have abiding faith in finding self mortification and obsertion, because self mortification leads to Mushahadah or contemplation and lets flow the fountain of wisdom through the intricate details of the science of heart. Reading of books and learning of sciences are not sufficient for it. But this wisdom appears as result of hard labour. It opens if one sits in loneliness with God with a mind turned with humility of spirit towards God and through self-mortification, observation and watching. This is the key of Ilham or inspiration and the fountain head of Kashf or secret knowledge. Many students who have been learning for a long time could not move more than what they heard. There are many students who cut short their education and remain busy in actions and observations of the heart. God opens for them; the niceties of wisdom for which the wisdom of the 'wise becomes perplexed. For this reason, the Prophet said : If a man acts • according to his learning, God gives him such a knowledge as
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was unknown to him. It was also mentioned in one of the books of ancient ages : O children of Israil, don't say that knowledge is in heaven. Who will bring it down to the earth? Don't say that knowledge is in the lowest abyss of the earth ? Who will dig it out? Don,t say that knowledge is far beyond the ocean. Who will bring it after crossing it ?