Why Some Scholars' Knowledge Endures While Others' Is Forgotten السر في بقاء علم العالم وآثاره

Questioner: There have been imams and scholars who passed on, yet no trace of them remained. So what is the secret behind a scholar's knowledge enduring?

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may abundant blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions. The brother asks an important question, and in truth many people wonder about this, even though we have spoken about this issue several times. It is this: over the course of the ages there have been great scholars, but those whose legacy remained are few, and those whose knowledge remained are rare. In a single age in the past there may have been a hundred scholars, and then accounts are transmitted of only two, three, or four. So what is the secret in this? It has many causes, for a scholar's legacy may remain and it may not.

This goes back to several factors:

The first matter: students. Some scholars have students who transmit their knowledge and their legacy, while another has no students or transmitters comparable to those of the first. So afterwards people inherit the knowledge of this one and forget the knowledge of that one.

There are examples of this in history. Among them is 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As, the well-known Companion. He narrated more from the Prophet ﷺ than Abu Hurayrah did, yet what is preserved today from Abu Hurayrah is more than what is preserved from 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As. This has been attributed to several factors.

But among the factors it has been attributed to is what we are now discussing: 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As settled in Egypt, and in his time there were not people transmitting from him as there were in Madinah, where Abu Hurayrah remained, and his knowledge and narrations remained.

Similar is what has been said about al-Layth ibn Sa'd and Imam Malik. Al-Layth ibn Sa'd was in Egypt and was one of the great imams; if he was not more knowledgeable than Malik, he was not less than him. He was his contemporary, and letters passed between them.

Yet the standing went to Malik. It was said that the reason for this is that al-Layth ibn Sa'd's companions did not take up his knowledge, whereas Malik was in Madinah and his companions took up his knowledge. This of course is one of the causes; other causes have been mentioned besides.

The second cause: writing. One group of scholars write, and write well; they address the problems of their age, command the good and forbid the evil, and write on the matters the Muslims need. So their legacy and their knowledge remain, and the people of their time and those who come after them benefit from that.

Another group write nothing; they die without having recorded any of their knowledge, so their knowledge is not transmitted, and afterwards they are hardly mentioned except in the histories. Among the causes too is writing well: good writing has a role in a scholar's legacy enduring.

Among the causes too is proclaiming the truth openly. The knowledge and legacy of scholars who proclaim the truth openly remain in a way that the knowledge of those who stay silent does not.

Among them too is acting upon knowledge. One who acts upon his knowledge has an acceptance that one who does not act upon his knowledge does not have. And among them is sitting to teach: the knowledge of those who teach people and guide them remains in a way that the knowledge of one who keeps to his house, neither teaching nor giving lessons, does not. For to the degree that he teaches, to that degree he is bound to his students, and it is his students who transmit from them.

Among them is sincerity, and sincerity has a very great role; indeed, this is the foundation of one person rising to prominence rather than another. This one has a righteous intention and a good intention, he deals truthfully with Allah, he wants nothing by his knowledge but to benefit people, and he bears them every love and every affection. His state says what the Commander of the Faithful 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said: "I wish my flesh had been cut with shears, and that the creation had obeyed Allah."

And as the Commander of the Faithful 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) also said: "I wish that people —" and this account is also told of al-Shafi'i — "I wish that people had taken this knowledge from me and that none of it had been attributed to me." This comes from the strength of their truthfulness and the strength of their sincerity.

That is why Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) used to forbid recording his fiqh and his sayings, and yet his fiqh and knowledge became more famous than the fiqh of others, even though he forbade it and did not record it. Al-Khallal transmitted from him issues exceeding fifty volumes; his sons Salih and 'Abdullah transmitted from him, as did his cousin Hanbal, Ishaq ibn Hani', and others, all of them relating a great deal from Imam Ahmad. His companions took up his fiqh and knowledge and spread it to the horizons.

Another matter too: focus. Some scholars have focus: they concentrate on certain areas, master them, and formulate them well, and so they benefit the Muslims. Some people are scattered — some scholars are scattered: one day he teaches and the next is a holiday, and then the lessons lack that clear focus.

Nor is there good selection, nor good treatment of the student — such that a student may attend with him for a year or two and he does not know him. A student like this cannot take up his shaykh's knowledge, so long as there is not that rapport and that asking after him.

The student may fall ill, then recover and attend the lesson, and he does not know whether he was ill or not, and so on. Whereas if you looked at the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ, he used to check on his Companions; he knew them, and knew his Companions who sat with him — let alone the students who stay close to you, who in the future will carry your knowledge.

There are also many aspects connected to this issue, such as when Imam Ahmad was asked — when it was said to him: "Al-Layth ibn Sa'd is more knowledgeable than Imam Malik, yet the standing went to Malik." He said: "Perhaps he had something hidden [between him and his Lord]." Likewise Abu al-Zinad was more knowledgeable than Rabi'at al-Ra'y, with more fiqh and more hadith, yet the standing went to Rabi'ah. When Abu al-Zinad was asked about that, he said: "A little good fortune is better than much knowledge."

In any case, a person always asks Allah, Majestic and Exalted, for acceptance. Acceptance does not come down only to abundance of knowledge, nor abundance of memorised texts, nor abundance of lessons, nor abundance of writings. Many people of this age have writings running to hundreds of volumes, and most people do not know them, and whoever does know them may not have benefited from them.

So this goes back to truthfulness, sincerity, and good selection. If a man wrote a treatise of a few pages addressing important and fundamental issues, and formulated it well and wrote it well, this would be better than a volume or two from which most people do not benefit.

When you look at the writings of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him), they are pages you can count on your fingers, not volumes — mere pages. But a book is measured by its knowledge and its fruit, not by its size. They are now studied in most lands of the world, let alone the lands of the Muslims; students memorise them and benefit from them; his work is transmitted and made known, his legacy remains, and the children of the Muslims now rely on his concise writings.

When a student begins, he memorises al-Usul al-Thalathah (The Three Fundamental Principles), he memorises al-Qawa'id al-Arba' (The Four Principles), he memorises Kitab al-Tawhid, he memorises Kashf al-Shubuhat (The Removal of Doubts).

The reason is that when he undertook the call, he looked at the deviation of his age, addressed the problems of the age through his writings, and composed what he believed was the means of bringing them back to the true religion.

So this had a very great effect on his knowledge and writings enduring — together with his supplication, for the historians mention that he stood at the Multazam and asked Allah, Majestic and Exalted, to grant him acceptance — and together with his striving (jihad) in the path of Allah, his eagerness to teach, and his endurance of hardships in conveying the tawhid of the Lord of the worlds.

He was even threatened with death more than once; people tried to kill him and were unable to. He even fled to Iraq fearing the power of others, and it is said that he wrote his Kitab al-Tawhid in Basra. There are many examples of this among the scholars.

So a person should choose well and write well, writing something by which Allah, Majestic and Exalted, brings benefit. For some people believe that an endorsement (taqriz) is the cause: he writes a book, perhaps without an intention or without a realistic vision — the most important thing for him is simply to write — then he hands it to a famous scholar to endorse, imagining that this is what will make the book prominent. Even if it made it prominent for a period of time, it fades afterwards. That is, yes, it may become well known for a period, a year or two, and then its traces fade — unless the book is accompanied by sincerity and by addressing people's reality and treating their problems.

As I told you: a book is valued by its fruit and benefit, not by its great size. The knowledge of people who wrote only a few pages has remained, while people who composed dozens of volumes are not benefited from. Consider this now in our own age: there are people who have prominence, fame, and wide knowledge in people's eyes, while their writings may be few or rare.

Others write and compose, and people do not accept what they write, for the reasons mentioned or some of them. Likewise knowledge is important — when a person has clear knowledge — and among the most important parts of it is following the Book and the Sunnah. For [rigid] adherence to a madhhab has now become outdated, in the sense of a person being partisan to a madhhab; most people are not partisan to the madhhabs as they used to be, even though partisanship to shaykhs and scholars has appeared.

So one who is not partisan, and takes the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah, his knowledge and legacy remain, and his knowledge and benefit endure more than the partisan's. What would the Ummah do now with one more copy among the copies of blind following (taqlid)? The Ummah does not need this — someone who repeats what others have said and begins where the people began. The free-minded scholar with real intellect begins where the people left off.

One who establishes the evidence differs from one who does not. Look, for example, at al-Shawkani's Nayl al-Awtar: Nayl al-Awtar is all transmitted from Fath al-Bari and compiled, but in the end he mentions his own view and his choice — a choice he builds on the evidence — and despite that it became a reference work among people.

Even though in reality it does not involve that great effort: from beginning to end it is taken from Ibn Hajar's writings — the takhrij is all from al-Talkhis al-Habir and the fiqh is all from Fath al-Bari — but he inserts some preferences (tarjihat) that rest on the evidence. And this has standing with Allah and with the believers: your supporting the religion of Allah with evidence differs from your supporting the opinion of so-and-so or such-and-such.

Whoever supports the religion of Allah, Allah grants him a truthful mention, and his knowledge spreads to the horizons. People do not trust someone who is a copy of those before him; they trust someone who gives them fatwa by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ.

That is why the works of al-Shawkani became famous, such as al-Sayl al-Jarrar, Nayl al-Awtar, Fath al-Qadir (his tafsir), and Irshad al-Fuhul — because he exercises ijtihad; he does not follow blindly.

And he supports what he believes is the truth — whether he was right or wrong is another matter — but what drives him is reverence for the Book and reverence for the Sunnah. And Allah knows best.

النص العربي الأصلي