The Signs of Beneficial and Non-Beneficial Knowledge (2/2)

Whoever's knowledge is not beneficial and deems himself better than those who preceded him in his stances and his elaborate, laborious speech, will also deem himself better than them in knowledge or ranking in the Sight of Allah.  He will look down upon those who came before him and mock them for having little knowledge. 

This pauper does not realize that the lack of speech arising from the Salaf was because of their wara' and fear of Allah, had they wished to lengthen or detail their discussions, they were fully capable of doing so. When ibn (Abbas heard some people  debating  about  the religion he said, 'Do  you not  know that to Allah belong certain servants, though  they are fully able to respond and are not dumb, the fear of Allah has silenced them and given them  tranquillity. They are the true scholars, the eloquent ones, the intelligent, the noble; scholars of the Days of Allah, except that when they brought to mind the greatness of Allah, their minds were overcome, their hearts split for the fear of Allah, and their tongues were silenced. When they recovered from this state they rushed to performing righteous deeds thinking themselves to be amongst those who were negligent when in reality they were the sagacious, those of strong determination; thinking themselves to be oppressors and sinners when in reality they were pious worshippers, free of oppression and sin. They did not think that abundant worship was too much for Him; they were not content with little worship, and they did not look down on any actions of worship. Wherever you were to meet them you would find them sombre, solicitous, in a state of dread and fear of their Lord.' Reported by Abu Nu'aym and others.[1]

Imam Ahmad and Tirmidhi record the hadith of Abu Umamah that the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, said, "Modesty and cautiously withholding the tongue (al- (al-ayy) ate two branches of faith. Lewdness and eloquent speech are two branches of hypocrisy." It was declared hasan by Tirmidhi and also recorded by Hakim who declared it Sahih.[2]

Ibn Hibban records the hadith of Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, said, "Clear speech is from Allah and al-‘ayy is from Satan. Clear speech does not come about by a great deal of speech, rather it comes about by decisively stating the truth. Al-‘Ayy does not mean little speech but it means to make a mockery of the truth."[3]

Amongst the mursal reports of Muhammad  ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi from the Prophet,  peace and blessing be upon  him, is that he said, "There  are three  matters  which would  cause the  servant loss in this world, but he will find that which is greater than them in return  in the  Hereafter:  joining the ties of  kinship, modesty, and withholding  the tongue."

‘Awn ibn ‘Abdullah said, 'Three matters are from faith: modesty, chastity, and withholding; withholding the tongue, not with­ holding the heart or actions. These are things which cause gain in the Hereafter and loss in this life but what is gained in the Hereafter is greater than what is lost in this world.'[4] This has also been reported from the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, but is weak.[5]

Some of the Salaf said, 'Perhaps a man sits with some people and they trunk that he is unable to speak when in reality he is fully capable of speech, but he is a Muslim scholar.' Therefore he who knows the worth of the Salaf will know that their silence over certain matters such as excessive speech, argumentation and debating, and increasing upon explanation beyond what is necessary did not arise out of the inability to speak, nor ignorance, nor due to shortcoming; instead it arose due to their scrupulousness, their fear of Allah, and their preoccupying themselves with those affairs which would be of benefit rather than those affairs that contain no benefit.