When Knowledge Becomes Dangerous

Alhamdulillah.

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Continuing in Elwajis And we are in the book of purification. We have now reached to which we will begin today inshall.

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Purification is of two types. Purification with water and purification with with by way of.

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I went on autopilot there. So he cites the near the verse of verse number six. He says that pure dust is acts as a purification for the Muslim even if he does not have access for wa to water for 10 years. This is of course a hypothetical but this is what the prophet sallallah says. Now, in which instances is it permissible for us to purify ourselves by way of which which are the ways or which are the instances in which is appropriate? that is that it is permissible and of course it's obligatory upon the Muslim to use when unable to you know purify himself or herself with water that a person use either because they do not have water they do not have access to water they are there is some kind of harm that will come to them or affliction if they use water and this could be for a number of reasons Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he tells us in this earlier verse verse number six of and the verse mentioning he says He says if you do not have or do not find water. Now this is the purpose the main reason that Allah mentions and he mentions it in this way and chooses this reason because this is going to be the most common across the board. When is a person most likely to need to resort to aum if they don't have water? But the spirit of the verse articulates that the person cannot find water. The person cannot access water that he's found. The person is going to has to go through you know some kind of mortal danger right or physical danger in order to access water. The person is has some kind of illness that prevents him from using water. A person is unable to reach water. Whatever it is, the point is is that a person is unable to access water or access the use of water. The person then uses. He says,.

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Hussein narrates to us that once we were with the messenger of Allah sallallah.aii wasallam upon a journey and he led the people in prayer and then afterwards there was a man that was off to the side. He had not prayed with the companions and it was clear that he was not participating and so the messenger of Allah sai wasallam asked him what you know what's stopping you from praying with us he said I am in a state of janaba and there's no water there is no water notice here how he says there is no water there in in the desert. Correct. They're traveling. Correct. Is it conceivable that they are traveling through the desert with zero water? Zero water. No water. There's water. But what's meant is that there's no water for woo. There's no there's no water not for woo but for bathing in this instance. Right? So they only have drinking water. And this is another instance in which a person makes the emblem. They have only drinking water. Not enough. There's not any more water coming and they're traveling and they only have enough to secure their to secure their you know to secure their health to secure their life with water. What in this case do they do make right? And so the prophet sallall.aii Wasallam said to this man, "Upon you is to make is to make upon you is the use of dust." And we'll get into the parameters of what is. He says because this is going to suffice you. This narration is in Bkari Muslim. for.

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He says Jab here narrates a narration that yes it is cited in the books of form in the chapters ofum and so forth. However, there is a much broader lesson for us to learn. He says, "We went out for on a journey." Him and other companions went out on a journey. probably most likely one of the or possibly one of the numerous one of the numerous marches that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam sent out upon his enemies but traveling was common in Medina in and out and people were going to and fro for their livelihood etc. And so a man amongst us, a rock fell onto his head, split his head open. You're traveling on a, you know, between mountains. You're going between, you know, between two mountains, rocks falling on your head is extremely common, right? As a matter of fact, people that live in these regions, they know. I personally grew up in these regions, you know, to always when you walk to not make too much noise so that you can listen for rocks falling, right? And so this man as he was going, a rock fell down, hit him in his head and caused him a very serious head injury. And so he asked and then after this incident he went to sleep and he had a wet dream. So now he's in Geneva and so he asked his companions. His companions here are compan Sahabah, right? They're companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Keep that in mind. These are not just anybody. These are companions. And so he asked some of his companions, "Do you all think that there might be an excuse for me to make in this instance instead of bathing due to my head injury?" And they said, "We don't know of any permissibility for you to use in this instance when you have water available to your use." Right? And so the man made and then the man died from making his, right? Whatever the reason was, the water got into his into his u thing or or maybe some kind of cold or something. Allah, but the man died and it was clear that he died subsequent injury when water was applied so heavily to his head and to his and to his body. And so when we return back to the messenger of Allah sallaihi wasallam he was told about this incident. And so what was his response? The messenger of Allah sallall.aii wasallam said they killed him. They killed him. May Allah may Allah fight them or kill them. And this this statement, this is a figure of speech, right? It's not a direct dua from the prophet Sam against them that they die. But it's a figure of speech that the you know the Arabs used. They would say things like Right? They used to say things that as probably every culture and language has some sayings this or figures of speech. He says why didn't they ask if they didn't know better? if they didn't know. He said because the cure to the ailment of ignorance is the question. A question that is the cure, the antidote to the illness of ignorance. But the word is not just ignorance but it's ignorance in the context of illness. And so ignorance is a disease. He says here, "Why didn't they ask if they didn't know?" Because the antidote to the illness and the affliction of ignorance is a question. He said it was merely enough for him to make to this narration is in a sunna. Now, if we look at this narration, there's a number of things we can we can deduce. These are companions. But are all companions the same? No. They're the same to us in the sense that they are companions of the messenger of Allah. Similar to how the prophets are the same to us in the sense that they are all messengers or prophets of Allah. We do not distinguish between them in that sense. But with Allah are all messengers the same? No, right. They are of different levels and different statures. And likewise the companions, they are of different levels. You have those who are the direct companions, the inner circle, the outer circle, the scholars and the layman, the regular folks. And so these men, they were not scholars. They were not able to make it. These people were not able to answer the question. But notice that they answered the question with knowledge, didn't they? Because they said you have to make or you have to make that's something that they know from the Quran, right? that if a person is in janaba you have to make that's knowledge and they also know that is something when you cannot you do not have access to water as the Quran says and spells out that's knowledge right but it's incomplete knowledge it's knowledge removed from context and this is what distinguishes scholarship from the illusion of knowledge it's not just the memorization of facts. It's not even having just just having an evidence. That's not enough. That's not enough. Knowledge is not the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Knowledge is the ability to distinguish between that which is right and that which is less right and that which is more right. and the ability to distinguish between that which is wrong and that which is worse and that which is less wrong. Right? The shades, the nuances. That's what knowledge is. These men, they didn't have that, but they answered the question anyways, didn't they? That's a crime. That's a crime. They are guilty of that crime. And so the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam was very upset with this. Why? Because there are other companions Jaba himself who are much more knowledgeable than these individuals. They should have said we know that under normal circumstances a must a person must make and if they don't have access to water they must make the yl under normal circumstances. However clearly you have circumstances that are not normal. We don't have an evidence for your situation. Ask someone else. If he would have went through all of the companions in that camp and none of them was able to answer his question, what's the worst that would happen? Nothing. Because they have the source eventually when they go back to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam, he'll ask. And so it's his responsibility to do his best under those circumstances. However, for a person to answer, and this is a disease that you'll see very often, an issue will be brought up and then brothers that are there, they'll say, "Well, you know what? I know, but you know," and then they give a disclaimer afterwards. I think that you should do this or that or this or that. But then again, I'm not a scholar. Well, if you're not a scholar, why did you answer the question? Well, I didn't answer technically. I was just giving my opinion. Why? So, you want the praise if you get it right, but you want the exit and the back door to get away if you get it wrong. So, you want all the glory of knowledge, but you want none of the responsibility or liability of knowledge. Is this is what we're doing? This is a disease. And that's why the greatest lesson or one of the greatest lessons that any student of knowledge learns after learningahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahillah is and there is an interesting phenomenon where people have studied for 10 or 15 years and they still haven't learned this lesson they still don't know how to say they are ignorant in in this sense because true knowledge is knowing your own limitations. That's what knowledge is. It is the hallmark of a strong mind. The mind which knows its own limitations.

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Turn this fence.