Why Hiding Knowledge Earns Fire

Alhamdulillah.

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For.

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So continuing in the chapter regarding the virtues of knowledge, a very critical narration which is a guideline to those who have achieved or earned or were blessed with said knowledge. We mentions a narration on the authority of collected by Abu Dani and Abu Isa in his j. They both narrate on the authority of Abi that the messenger of Allah. Wasam said which translates to whoever is asked about a knowledge a piece of knowledge and then proceeds to conceal it from the questioner. Allah will harness him with a rain of fire on the day of judgment. Harness him with a rain. Rain not R a I N. Rain R E I N. A rain. The rain that is in the horse's mouth. Well, that's actually called a bit in English. Call it a bit. It's put in the horse's mouth and then it's connected to the res on either side so that the horsemen can you know steer the horse and give the horse direction. So our prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that if someone is asked about a piece of knowledge and they proceed to then conceal it from the questioner on the day of judgment Allah will harness him and reign him with rains of fire. Now in order to understand this narration we need to understand the premise. The premise is concealing knowledge from the people in order to maintain a a level of authority over them to continue to make yourself to make yourself indisposed indisposable to the people so that others do not rise up with the people of knowledge. I don't know how many of the brothers here have worked in a field of a trade. I worked as a tradesman for many years as a welder and a fabricator. And anyone who's worked in a trade, whether it's carpentry or mechanic or anything of the sort, even in culinary in cooking, the people who are masters of those trades usually do not divulge the secrets of those trades very easily. You'll work with them as an apprentice for years, and they will. Some of them go as far as to make their apprentice leave or turn around while they do particular things. Why? Because what's going to happen? The apprentice is going to learn. He's going to outgrow the master. Then he's going to go off and become the master's competition. Well, we can't have that. But if we keep him ignorant, he stays under our thumb. This is the idea. This is the psychology. You'll find this in every trade. I if I had a if I had a nickel for every tradesman I worked with that were very talented, very skilled men in their work that actively concealed trade secrets and you know ways of the trade in order to keep me in the dark. I would be a rather wealthy man today, right? This is something that's common. And so our prophet sallall.aii wasallam he was described as not being this way. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala praised him in the Quran when he said.

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And so is someone who is very stingy, keeps things to themselves, hoards things for themselves. This knowledge is power. This is truly power. It has the keys of the dunya and the hereafter in it. It has the keys of all success in it. As a matter of fact, I will blow your mind now with something that I think few people really notice. You will find often that the great advances in science, thought, in trade, in all kinds of things, the great advancements that civilizations take is right on the heels of a messenger being sent to them. Because success, elements of success can be stumbled upon. Success in this dunya can be stumbled upon by a person who does not believe in Allah in the last day who is not divinely guided. He may stumble upon elements of success but all of the elements of success altogether that only comes from revelation only. Even medicine, the scholars tell us that medicine was always a knowledge that was brought by the prophets and messengers of Allah. However, the Jews after Musam started to teach the medicine of their prophets cheaply to everyone. And they used to sell knowledge of medicine to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, not for the purpose of guidance of humanity. And it then branched off into a separate discipline separate from the disciplines and the fields of the sciences of revelation. And so big advances in in in medicine, major advances in where did does armor come from? Armor that we wear, where did it come from? He was given incredible feats and metallurgy that were not these are not things you just stumble upon. These are things that would take millions of years to figure out without the guidance of Allah's messengers. And the idea that we're given usually is we're given the graph of the monkey and then the monkey starts to stand up slowly. You know what I'm talking about? And then he starts to walk upright and then he's a Neandrithal with the big forehead and he's got a club and he's wearing a skin and then suddenly he's, you know, standing up straight and then suddenly it's a guy in a business suit or it's, you know, Frank from down the road or it's , you know, Gary from next door, right? This is the idea. The ideas that humanity was this primitive race that slowly learned as they evolved to come out of the trees and become civilized. And that could not be more further from the truth. Humanity begins opposite of the rest of nature. Humanity begins at the pinnacle and then as their morality begins to erode their societies begin to decay. And it is exactly the opposite. We're often taught that monotheism, the worship of one god, the idea of the worship of one god, that this is an evolutionary step that all civilizations began with the worship of many gods and then slowly as they became more civilized and they became more logical, they started to worship one god. It is exactly the opposite of that. Adam was taught what? So he was given all of these trades, all of this knowledge before he was sent down to the earth, carpentry and metallurgy and many of these things. And then they were advanced and pushed along by prophets and messengers through time. The point here is that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam tells us that whoever is asked about a piece of knowledge and then they conceal it. Conceal it in the way we just described for any of those reasons, Allah will harness him with a harness of fire on the day of judgment. However, first we need to know what is knowledge. What's meant by knowledge? This is knowledge. This is the knowledge that everyone has a right to. Right? But it's not just any knowledge. Not even knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah is appropriate for every person at every time and place. If I sat up here in this chair every night and started to give a class instead of I start to give a class on abstract hermeneutics of right or the sciences of the chains of narration or the sciences of what would happen is that an appropriate subject matter for this kind of gathering? No, of course not. I'd be sitting here by myself eventually, right? This is not appropriate because so whoever is asked about a knowledge that is necessary for his journey to Allah and that knowledge is then concealed then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will harness him with a harness of fire on the day of judgment. However, if someone comes to ask about an issue in the differences of opinion in the is this considered knowledge in this sense something that a person needs. However, if many times the major scholars Abu Abdah the great muhadith and and and scholar of oftent times would be asked about abstract issues, peripheral issues on or even hadith and he would say Allah did not create you for this. It is not okay for a doctor to give the patient everything that he asks for. It is only appropriate for the doctor to give the patient what he needs. And this is no different. So when a person comes to ask the essence, the nature is the natural order of things is that he's given an answer. However, if it is something that he is too advanced for him or something that will have an adverse effect, then he cannot be answered. And so the answer now is whoever is asked about knowledge that is pertinent to his journey to Allah and then the questioned the scholar conceals it then he is in the wrong. However, if the questioner asks about something that is not pertinent and necessary for his journey to Allah, there is no obligation upon the scholar to answer. As a matter of fact, the obligation upon him is not to answer. But Allah in a general sense says says.

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[Arabic recitation]