The Seekers of Knowledge

With my chain of transmission reaching up to the proof of the sect and its authority, Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni - may Allah be pleased with him - from 'Ali ibn Ibrahim, who reports in a marfu' (i.e. without mentioning intermediary authorities) tradition from Abu 'Abd Allah (A) that he said: "The seekers of (sacred) knowledge are of three kinds, so recognize them by their specific qualities and characteristics. One kind of them seeks it for the sake of ignorance and dispute(bicker) . Another kind seeks it for the sake of domination and deceit. Yet another kind seeks it for the sake of (improving) understanding and intellect.

"The one who seeks it for ignorance and dispute's sake is injurious and quarrelsome. He contests opinions in the gatherings of men, speaking of knowledge and describing forbearance. He puts on the garb of humility, though he is devoid of piety. As a result God crushes his nose and severs his waist.

"The one who seeks knowledge for domination and deception is an imposter and a sycophant. He is domineering with those who are his likes but is humble in front of the rich, whose sweetmeats he ingests while he demolishes his own faith. As a result God blinds his vision and wipes out his traces from the legacy of the learned.

"As to him who seeks knowledge for the sake of understanding and intellection, he is grief-stricken and awake at nights. Having tied his cap with the loose end of his turban, he stands up in the dark of nights. He acts and is in trepidation. A caller overawed, engaged in his work, and acquainted with the people of his times, he is apprehensive of his most trusted brother. As a result of it God strengthens his supports and grants him amnesty on the Day of Resurrection."

Al-Kulayni - may God's mercy be upon him - says: This tradition was also narrated to me by Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu 'Abd Allah al-Qazwini from several of our companions, among them Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sayqal at Qazwin, from Ahmad ibn 'Isa al-Alawi, from 'Abbad .ibn Suhayb al-Basri, from Abu 'Abd Allah (A). [1]

Exposition:

 is for stress on the pronoun of so what is meant is: "Know them themselves, so that they become determined and specified and are not mistaken with others." Similarly, it is said (I saw him himself) and:

Everything that contains halal and haram is halal for you so far as you know that which is haram itself.

The authoritative traditionist al-Majlisi, may God have mercy upon him has mentioned various possible meaning

here (i.e. of ) which are extremely far-fetched and do not include this evident and apparent possibility. He

says:

  means. 'their kinds and the understanding of their categories' or 'such of their actions are visible(detectable) and observable' ... Also it has been said, 'The meaning of means, 'their kinds and the understanding if their categories. Also it has been said, "The meaning of is their look, appearance and postures, such as their putting on the garb of humility.'

Then he suggests other and as remote possibilities. means `their characteristics', that is, those conditions which are subject to the personal traits and purposes of these three categories, such as injuriousness, disputatiousness and so on. Hence these characteristics depict their condition by which they are specifically recognized.

Jahl (ignorance) is the opposite of `ilm (knowledge), and here it probably means concealing the truth or pretending not to know it or absence of its acceptance. Later on we will discuss it in further detail. Al-Majlisi says in this regard:

Jahl means foolishness and imprudence. It is also said to be the opposite of reason.

Mira' means jidal (controversy) in doctrine and theology (kalam) and is derived from the same verbal root as jadal (dialectic) which is one of the Five Topics (al-sina'at al-khams) in logic. Al-Jawhari, in al-Sihah, says: Although here kalam means speech in general but the intended meaning is apparently that which has been mentioned. There is another possible meaning involved here which we shall mention in one of the following sections.

Istitalah means seeking loftiness and eminence. Khatl, with fathah on kha' and sukun on ta', means deception and imposture. Al-Jawhari says: 

As to the word mumar, we will explain later on why one who indulges in mira' is defined as mumar, (which being a verbal tautology does not seem to be a valid definition) and the one who indulges in istitalah and khatl as one who seeks to dominate his likes and one who resorts to khibb, for khibb (like khatl) also means deception.

As to the phrase it means expressing opinions. A lexicographer gives the following instance of usage:

Andiyah is plural of nadi, meaning a circle or club where people assemble for meeting and discussion. From it is derived dar al-nadwah, which was a place in Makkah which was built for assembly and consultation. Nadiyy, nadwah, muntada and mutanadda have the same meaning, as pointed out by al-Jawhari.

The phrase bi tadhdkur al-'ilm refers to maqal or is its appositional substantive (badal), and to it is conjuncted wa sifat al-hilm. What is meant is that `they hold scholarly discourses in order to be reckoned among the learned, and they describe and extol forbearance to be counted among the forbearing, whereas they are neither among the learned nor the forbearing. His learning is a kind of ignorance that resembles knowledge and his forbearance is devoid of the excellent qualities of forbearance.' Later on we will have occasion to discuss this sort.

Tasarbala pertains to the derivative(misrepresented) formation tafa'lul, meaning putting on a sirbal- a garment. According to the lexicographer: 

Tasarbala bi al-khushu' means, 'he has put on the garment of humility,' appearing to be associated with it in the way a garment adheres to and is associated with the body, though he is devoid of it, since the garment he has put on is a borrowed one.

Wara' with a fathah on ra', means complete abstinence from that which is haram or suspect.

The sentence fa-daqqa Allah .... and those resembling it in the following two sentences, may either imply a curse or may be taken to be indicative of their condition in the world or the hereafter, or in both. Daqq means knocking, or is a noun denoting sound.

The words min hadha mean 'as a result of this quality.' Khayshum is the upper part of the nose and that which is connoted by 'crushing the nose' is disgracing and humiliating. That is, God Almighty disgraces and humiliates them on account of those characteristics, and we will have occasion to discuss it further later on.

Hayzum, with a fathah on ha' and dammah on za', means 'the place where the waist band(ribbon) is tied', or 'the middle of the breast', or 'a circumscribing bone like the one encircling the neck.' The first meaning, which suits the idea of severance, fits here.

Khibb means deception, wickedness and imposture. As al-Jawhari says, . means a deceitful man. Malaq means flattery and sychophancy, and implies what al-Jawhari says in al-Sihah i.e. one who expresses with his tongue that which is not in his heart. This interpretation is rather general, for malaq or tamalluq means an expression of love and attachment mixed with a show of humility while these are not in one's heart.

As to al-Majlisi points out that there is nun (instead of hamzah) in some manuscripts. In that case it means a middleman's tip or a soothsayer's fee paid him as a bribe, and it means the presents of money made by the rich to the impostor in return for his services, which he performs at the cost of his faith.

Al-hatm means breaking, and al-Majlisi says that breaking (of faith) here implies corruption and decadence (fasad). Khubrahu here is probably with a dammah on kha' and sukun on ba', in which case it means the capacity to cognize and discern. Though it is also probable that the word is khabarahu, with fathah on kha' and ba', in view of its consistency with the verb. The first meaning is more fitting, though the second one is not without relevance.

Al-Ka'abah means one's bad and shattered condition as a result of intense grief and sadness.

Tahannaka fi burnusihi means `he put the taht al-hanak in his burnus. Burnus is a tall cap which the devout used to wear during the early Islamic era, as mentioned by al-Jawhari in Sihah al-lughah. Al-Majlisi says, `This phrase suggests that tahannuk is mustahabb in salat. Such an inference is questionable, because given the kind of dress that was worn by the devout it suggests only the istihbab of tahannuk in general, not particularly during salat. Yes, had burnus been part of a dress- specified for salat such an inference would have been correct.

Hindis means an intensely dark night, as pointed out by al-Jawhari. Hindis here is substitute for night (layl) and that which is probably implied here is the dark of the night.

In fa-shadda Allah arkanahu, shadd means providing strength and power: Rukn means something on which a thing stands and by which it is sustained. Al-Jawhari says: i.e. the rukn of a thing is its strongest side.

Now, with our trust in God, we shall explain that which is essential and fitting in the course of a few sections.

Section 1:

You should know that the premises of a syllogism in relation to its conclusion(deduction)  , or the arguments and theoretical proofs in any discipline in relation to the proved result and inferred conclusion, have the position of preparatory preliminaries. They are neither totally independent of the conclusions nor totally unrelated to them. In this regard both the followers of predestination (jabr) as well as the adherents of freedom (tafwid) have gone astray and departed from the path of moderation, each of them adopting an approach consistent with their doctrine. One of them (i.e. those who believe in tafwid) says that the preliminaries are independent and if the door of the World of the Hidden ('alam al ghayb) were to close and the emanations of the world of malakut to be shut off, man can derive conclusions unaided from the preliminaries themselves. The other (i.e. the believers in jabr) claims that the preliminaries are totally unrelated to the conclusions and the Divine tradition has been established to inspire the human mind with the conclusions. The preliminaries are only superficially connected to the conclusions and are absolutely unconnected in reality. Both of the views of these groups, like their basic doctrines, are false in the view of those who are acquainted with the true teaching and real knowledge. The truth, in conformity with the view of those who know it, is that the preliminaries have a preparatory relation with the conclusions and they prepare the soul for receiving knowledge through inspiration from its higher hidden sources (mabadi-ye 'aliyeh-yeghaybiyyeh). Here we don't intend to expound or refute these doctrines of these two groups, for that lies beyond the scope of our aim, and the purpose of mentioning them is only subsidiary to the exposition of another issue, which is as follows.

Having known that the knowledge and teachings are inspired(supported) by the invisible spheres and that inspiration is subject to the soul's connection (with these spheres), you should know that, as pointed out by the hadith:

Knowledge is not extensive learning. Rather it is a light that God casts in the heart of whomever He wills. [2]

Every soul that establishes a connection with the higher realm of malakut and the angelic sphere, receives such inspirations as are angelic in character and the knowledge that is cast into it is true knowledge from the angelic realm. Also, every soul that establishes a connection with the lower malakuti realm, the realm of the jinn, Satan and evil spirits, receives inspirations that are satanic in character of the order of compound ignorance and obscuring veils. This is why the 'urafa' and the people of true knowledge consider spiritual purification, the purgation of intentions and motives and the rectification of one's goals to be the first step in the path of acquisition of sciences, especially the Divine teachings and the sciences of the Shari'ah. Accordingly, they give the relevant advice and warnings to the students, for the link with the higher sources is strengthened(toughened) through the purification of the soul. And that which the holy Lord, Exalted and Glorious, says in the noble verse:

...And fear God, and God shall teach you..., (2:282)

linking the Divine teaching to taqwa (God-fearing) is for this reason that taqwa purifies the soul and connects it to the invisible sacred realm. This is followed by Divine teaching and the rahmani inspirations, for there is no niggardliness in the higher realms, which are bounteous by necessity, in the same way as the Necessary-Being-by-Essence is Necessary in all aspects.

However, if the soul engages in acquiring the sciences due to attention to selfish motives, for better food and drink and for egoistic reasons, its goal becomes non-divine and the inspirations it receives are satanic in character. This is one of the foolproof criteria - which I think has not been mentioned by the `urafa' - for differentiating between rahmani and shaytani inspirations and most of the times one is aware of this fact. The inspirations received by the impious soul full of impurities and obfuscations belong to the category of compound ignorance (i.e. to be ignorant and be ignorant of one's ignorance), which is the incurable malady of the souls and the main impediment on their path. That is because the criterion in knowledge is not acquaintance with general concepts and scientific terms. Rather, the criterion is the removal of veils from the soul's eye and opening of the door of the knowledge of God. The real knowledge is the guiding spiritual lamp that shows the straight path of nearness to God and to the abode of His bliss.

Everything other than this is vanity, though in the world of mulk and prior to the removal of the veils of carnal nature those conversant with it should be reckoned as scholars, gnostics and jurisprudents by those used to learned controversies and disputes(bickers)  But once the blinds are removed from the eyes of the heart, once the curtains of the world of malakut are raised and once one wakes up from the heavy slumber of mulk and corporeal nature, that (which once appeared to be knowledge and learning) will be found to be the darkest of veils. It will be found that all those branches of formal learning were all in all thick spiritual curtains each of them separated from the other by vast distances and we were ignorant of this fact.

The people are asleep and they wake up on death. [3]

It is then that the real nature of our learned preoccupations is revealed to us. But that which is shameful and scandalous is that even after fifty years, or more or less, of learning and study we remain mistaken about ourselves, at times imagining that our studies are for the sake of God. We remain unaware of the ruses of Satan and the self, for self-love is a thick veil that conceals our defects from ourselves. Hence the chaste awliya' and the noble Imams, may Allah's peace be upon them, have mentioned certain signs and marks of identification so that we may know and evaluate ourselves by their means without entertaining a baseless good opinion about ourselves. Later on in this exposition we will refer to the signs and marks mentioned in this noble tradition.

We came to know that in a primarily classification the seekers of knowledge fall into two groups: those who have a divine aim and those who have a mundane one. It may be said that the ultimate goal of the latter group is ignorance (jahl), for the seeming knowledge that they is compound ignorance in reality and a spiritual veil. The two groups mentioned by al-'Imam al-Sadiq (A) in the tradition that we are expounding both belong to this class, for the seekers of domination as well as the impostors dwell in ignorance and misguidance. Hence it may be said that the ignorance mentioned by the Imam as a sign of the first group is something different from the ordinary meaning of ignorance. Rather, it either means muddling up issues and keeping people ignorant or it means the ignorance of one who pretends to be ignorant of the truth or is not ready to accept it. Both of these characteristics are also present in the group afflicted with mira' and jidal. They deny facts and well-established truths and adhere to ignorance for the sake of promoting their own opinions and marketing their spurious and little in demand merchandise.

Although in one classification(categorization) the seekers of knowledge do not constitute more than two groups- that is, on the basis of a preliminary classification based on an affirmation or negation of the divine goal of knowledge - a further classification will show them to be more than three groups. As to their division into three groups by the Imam, it may be said that he wished to mention two major groups consisting of most of the victims of ignorance and misguidance. Thus in another tradition we find that he considers the seekers of knowledge as constituting two groups:

In al-Kafi, al-Kulayni reports with his isnad from Abu 'Abd Allah (A) that he said: "He who seeks (to learn) hadith for worldly benefit has no share in the Hereafter, and he who seeks it for a benefit in the Hereafter, God grants him benefit both in the world and the Hereafter." [4]

[1]. Al-Kafi, "kitab fadl al-'ilm", "bab al-nawadir", hadith 5.

[2]. Bihar al-'anwar, i, 225.

[3]. Ibn Maytham al-Bahrani, Sharh-e sad kalimeh-ye qisar, 54.

[4]. Al-Kafi, i, "kitab fadl al-ilm", "bab al-musta'kil bi- ilmih", hadith 2.