Hadith #3066

Arabic Text

English Translation

Mu'adh ibn Jabal said: 'Learn knowledge, for learning it for the sake of Allah is fear; seeking it is worship; studying it is glorification; researching it is jihad; teaching it to someone who does not know it is charity; and giving it to its people brings one closer to Allah. For knowledge shows the boundary between the lawful and the unlawful, and it is a light for the path of the people of Paradise. It is a companion in loneliness, a friend in estrangement, and a speaker in private. It guides in times of ease and difficulty. It is a weapon against enemies and an adornment among friends. With it, Allah raises nations and makes them leaders of good, whose footsteps are followed and whose deeds are emulated. The angels love the scholars and rub their wings on them. Every moist and dry thing seeks forgiveness for them, even the fish in the ocean and the beasts and animals of the land and the sky. For knowledge gives life to the hearts from ignorance, and lights up the eyes from darkness. With knowledge, the servant attains the stations of the righteous and the highest degrees in this world and the Hereafter. Reflecting on knowledge equals fasting, and studying it equals the night prayer. With knowledge, ties of kinship are maintained, and lawful is distinguished from unlawful. Knowledge is a leader and action is its follower. It is granted only to the fortunate, and deprived only from the wretched.'