What makes someone truly knowledgeable in Islam?
Understanding True Knowledge in Islam: Definition, Implementation, and Recognition of Scholars
Summary
This lecture from the Muslim Community Center of Tucson discusses the Islamic definition of knowledge (ilm) as presented in the Quran and Sunnah. Sh. Ali Mashhour explains that true knowledge is not merely memorization or entertainment, but rather the combination of understanding, memorization, and practical implementation of knowledge about Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, and Islam with supporting evidence. The lecture emphasizes that repetition is essential for learning and contrasts Islamic knowledge with mere information or facts. Sh. Ali Mashhour also addresses how scholars are recognized, arguing that only other scholars can properly identify a true scholar, just as only pilots can recognize other pilots.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
A chapter is a subtopic or a sub of that particular topic. this book that we're starting here which is book number 12 in the order of the books of real said is not a collection of 19 books is a con a collection of 96 books right each book has chapters and there may be subchapters in between so from is not very long and we already read it. We already did this book. We just finished it. As a matter of fact, we just finished it two days ago. So why in the world are we doing it again? Because that is the nature of knowledge. We have to continue to repeat until we learn. And that's really one of the big differences between knowledge and entertainment, right? You want to be entertained. Entertainment comes with novelty. It has to be new, fresh, something that you have not heard or seen before. It's got to catch you off guard. The mystique of it and the novelty of it is what makes you entertained. That's not what knowledge is for. Not at all. Knowledge warrants repetition. One of our scholars, he recently passed away. He said,.
[Silence]
Fashion. He said, "A teacher who is not able to be repetitive, a teacher who's not able to teach the same thing over and over and over until the students absorb it and embibe it. A teacher who becomes wary of repetition is a failure at teaching. And a student who is wary of repetition is a failure as a student. That's what knowledge is. It has to be repeated until it's understood. Now, here's a really interesting question. Knowledge, what is knowledge? I mean, knowledge has a meaning in the Quran and Sunnet. Has a meaning in our terminology as people. When we speak we say this this is knowledge or this person has knowledge. What is knowledge?
[Silence]
Forman.
[Silence]
Sai wasallam. Then.
[Silence]
On a sher. The candle in.
[Silence]
Knowledge is Knowledge is knowing Allah. Knowing the messenger of Allah, knowing the religion of Islam with evidence. That's what knowledge is. Anywhere in the Quran, in the Sunnah where you see the word knowledge used, it is only used to mean that knowledge of Allah, knowledge of the messenger of Allah, knowledge of the religion of Islam with the evidence to support it. That's part of knowledge. This is what knowledge is. So if we know that's what knowledge is, then the question then becomes who are the people of knowledge? The people of knowledge, they're mentioned in the Quran.
[Silence]
And so the people of knowledge are the people who know Allah, know the messenger of Allah, know the religion of Islam with its evidences. That's what knowledge is. But here's an interesting point. Any information, any piece of knowledge that is not put into action is not considered knowledge for that person. Meaning a person is only considered of the people of knowledge in the Quran and Sunnah's terminology if he implements what he knows. If he puts what he knows into action, if he fails to implement and so knowledge is only that of it which is implemented. That's knowledge. And we could also say is knowledge just memorization let's say for instance someone memorizes the Quran are they a scholar of the Quran? Now not necessarily right is knowledge understanding without memorization. So let's say a person knows the the conclusions but they do not know the actual text. Is this person have knowledge? No. Knowledge is the marriage of understanding and memorization. That's what knowledge is. When we have something that is memorized and then it is understood, this is knowledge and implemented.
[Arabic recitation]
In the terminology of the Quran, the Quran and Sunnah. This is why we have for instance, the scholars of evil, the people of the previous nations, they had scholars, but they were scholars of evil. Why? because they did not implement. These are considered in the Quran people of ignorance. Listen to M. He says,.
[Silence]
For.
[Silence]
Who are.
[Silence]
And so when we have the marriage of understanding and memorization, this is what we call knowledge. And in the Quran only that which is memorized and understood and put into action is considered knowledge in the hereafter. Everything else is not knowledge. It's you know it's it's facts. It's information. It's not knowledge. Knowledge has very specific parameters. and knowledge of Allah, of his messenger, of the religion of Islam, it has to be implemented. One final thing, when we hear the word knowledge in the Quran, does it mean all and any kind of knowledge? No. We already mentioned that knowledge in the terminology of the Quran is knowledge of revelation, knowledge of Allah, his messenger, the religion of Islam with evidence and that of it which is implemented implementation. Now any other kind of knowledge any other kind of knowledge in the Quran and Sunnah this is always mentioned with you know it's always qualified for it to mean that.
[Silence]
Let's say for instance based on what we just heard, I'm able to sit here and say the following issue has been differed upon amongst the scholars. said the following and Ahmed said the following. Abu Hanifh said the following and Malik said the following. Thus far is any of that knowledge in what we've just mentioned and we have hesitancy now we're hesitating. The answer is no. That's not knowledge. That serves knowledge because it helps to understand it. But that on its own is not knowledge. And this is why we why am I saying this? Because I want to be able to distinguish between knowledge and that which serves knowledge. So based on that, who knows? How do we identify a scholar? How do we know who is a scholar? Let me ask you a question. Who knows a pilot? Who knows who who recognizes who is able to fly a plane? Other pilots. There is no other way for that. There's nothing else. The only person that can tell you if someone is a pilot is another pilot. The only person that can tell you if someone is a scholar is another scholar. That's the only person. No one else can tell you if someone is a scholar because it takes knowledge to recognize.
[Arabic recitation]