Why scholars matter more than you think
The Virtue of Scholars and the Importance of Seeking Islamic Knowledge
Summary
This lecture discusses a hadith narrated by Abu al-Darda about the virtue of scholars over the devout worshippers (al-'abidin). Sh. Ali Mashhour explains that a scholar's superiority is compared to the Prophet Muhammad's superiority over the least of his companions, and in another narration, to the moon's superiority over the stars. The lecture emphasizes that scholars, teachers of good knowledge, receive prayers (salah) from Allah, His angels, and all creation. The second part focuses on the importance of seeking Islamic knowledge, arguing that ignorance is a fatal disease in the modern age of information, and that Muslims have a responsibility to learn Islam properly from qualified scholars rather than relying on good intentions alone.
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.
You can wish Santa.
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Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
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In real Abu.
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Abu OM is one of the probably lesserk known companions of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to the general masses. However, Abu alahi is known as albei is one of the great companions and scholars of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's disciples. He narrates to us that the messenger of Allah sallall.aii said, he says, "The virtue that a scholar holds over a aid or someone who is very dutiful. Arabid is someone who has kind of devoted himself and devoted the mass bulk of his or her time to the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he's referred to as what? as aid is someone who is very devout, very dutiful in his worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from amongst the general population of the Muslim. He says the virtue that a scholar holds over aid is the virtue that I hold over the least amongst you. He's speaking about himself. He's saying that the virtue that the scholar holds over thee dutiful dutiful in the worship of Allah devout but is not a person of knowledge as a layman a lay Muslim but he is or she is someone who has devoted the majority of his or her life to the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala constantly in fasting or remembrance of Allah or or salah or zaka or jihad. This is the prophet sallall.aii wasallam says to the companions the virtue that a scholar holds over the most dutiful is the virtue that I hold over the least amongst you. the most obscure unknown companion who maybe just interacted with the prophet sallall.aii wasallam once in his life because again what is a companion? A companion is anyone who saw the prophet sallall.aii wasallam as a believer and died upon Islam. That's what a companion is. So the bare minimum is that a person be Muslim and see the prophet sallall.aii wasallam even if he doesn't speak to him. This is now a companion as long as he dies upon that belief. So he's saying the virtue that a scholar holds over is the virtue that I hold over the least amongst you. sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And in another wording of this same narration in the prophet Sam says he said the virtue that a scholar holds over aid is the virtue that the moon holds over the rest of all the stars in the sky. meaning how much more pronounced is the moon? How much more necessary, how much more dire is the moon to our existence and our experience here on this earth. So much more than our need for the rest of the stars. We need all of these celestial bodies. We need it all. They're there for a reason. But the moon cannot be done without. If one of the stars in the sky went out or 10 or 20 or 100 or 200, maybe perhaps certain people wouldn't notice. The majority of humanity may not notice. However, if the if the moon didn't rise tomorrow, if it disappeared, what would happen to humanity? Everything would change. Even the deepest part of the ocean would change. and the most obscure part of the earth would change because of the absence of the moon. And so the prophet sallall.aii wasallam says the virtue that a scholar holds over the rest of the devout is the virtue that the moon holds over the rest of the stars in the sky. The virtue that a scholar holds over the generally devout is the virtue that I hold over the least amongst you. He then says.
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He then follows this up with saying, "Indeed, Allah and his angels and the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, even an ant in its hole, and a fish in the sea, all are making a salah upon those who teach the people good." making a salah upon them. A salah. What is this from the people?
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What is in this context? Salah from the rest from humanity is a dua. But it's not just any dua. It's not just any supplication. A salah. When I say for instance or you say Allah, oh Allah, may your salah be upon whoever the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. It is a dua that Allah raise that person's esteem.
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A is that a person is saying Allah. It means oh Allah raise the mention and the esteem of this person and make mention of him in the highest of company in the heavens. you know those who are closest to Allah, the ones who carry his throne and Gibl and Mika and the angels that are essentially more or less as his courtiers those who are closest to Allah subhanahu.
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Is that you are making dua that Allah make mention of that person in that gathering to those who are closest to Allah. So when you sayham, you are essentially saying, "Oh Allah, I ask that you raise the esteem and mention of Muhammad in the highest of levels and in the highest of settings. That is what a salah is." So the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam. Here he tells us that Allah and his angels and the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and even the ant in its hole and the fish in its sea all make a salah upon those individuals who teach the people good. Teach the people good meaning the scholars. That's how it ties in to the first part of the narration. And what is meant by knowledge? What is meant by scholar? A scholar is someone who has learned immensely and is deeply rooted in knowledge of the Quran, the Sunnah, and the companions. That's what knowledge is.
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Says that knowledge is Allah said, his messenger said, the companion said, and he says that ignorant Ignance is a deadly disease. It is fatal. Ignorance 100% fatal. I know sometimes we get confused because we have told ourselves certain excuses. Well, if I don't know any better than my heart is in the right place and you know I just didn't know but my heart is in the right place, I'll be okay because Allah knows what's in my heart. If your heart was in the right place, you would learn what Allah wants from you. If you haven't learned what Allah wants from you, your heart is not in the right place. No matter if you don't double park or take your garbage out every Tuesday and Thursday or whatever else you figure is makes you a good person, a good person is only the one who is good in the scales of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the whole concept of, well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy over there. Trust me, on the day of judgment, that guy over there will not factor in to your judgment in front of Allah in any way. And that's why as human beings, one of the reasons psychologically we to hear about, you know, true crime and terrible murderers and serial killers and it makes us feel well, I'm not so bad. Look, I didn't kill a bunch of people and bury them in my basement. I didn't dress up a clown and kidnap children. I'm not that bad. And so ignorance when a person says a Muslim in today's society, is there any one person amongst us here who is illiterate? does not know how to read or write. A person amongst us who does not have access to the Quran and Sunnah. A person amongst us who does not have access to the scholars of Islam or at least one scholar. The problem is is that if that is your situation, you will be held accountable for not learning. You will who what gives you the right to attempt to worship Allah without knowing how Allah wants to be worshiped? What gives you that right? What gives you that right? What gives me that right? When you get a job, do you just march in, put your feet up on the desk, and do whatever you and say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, my heart's in the right place. Relax." Is that what you say? Imagine someone goes barreling down the road 100 miles an hour. police officer stops him, says, "You You're driving recklessly. How could you speed that fast?" And your answer is, "Oh, I didn't know speeding was illegal." Would that be a good answer? Tell me. I Speeding is illegal. I didn't know. See, I looked at the car. It goes up to 220 mph. I assumed that that's as fast as I could go. How old are you? Where have you been born? How long have you lived in this country? You never heard you got a driver's license. You never heard that speeding is illegal. Does that work with the IRS? Do we p prepare ourselves with the IRS in the same manner? In the same way that we prepare ourselves for Allah. Well, my heart's in the right place. What happens if I don't pay my taxes? Well, the IRS will show up and I will tell them emphatically in no uncertain terms, I'm not an accountant. I don't know. But I did not intend to break the law. My heart was in the right place. Has any of us prepared for that? Not one of us. We would assume that person is either disingenuous or something's wrong upstairs. Maybe the elevator isn't going all the way to the penthouse kind of thing. That is not an argument in any reasonable setting. So why has that become our argument in front of Allah? Well, I didn't know or I'm not a scholar is the exact same answer as giving I'm not an accountant to the IRS. Same thing. You're not an accountant. Why didn't you take your taxes to an accountant? Why didn't you ask? You didn't care. That's the reason or you're being disingenuous. And so in this age, the age of information, and I will not say the age of knowledge, this is the age of ignorance, people have never had more access to to information and have never been more ignorant at the same time. to the to the point that every single field of human knowledge and epistemology has all dipped. All of them. All of them. We have more information than we know what to do with and we have more ignorance rampant amongst us than we have ever seen perhaps in the history of humanity in a holistic way. So knowledge it is your your your honor when you learn what Allah said and the prophet said this is why says ignorance is a deadly disease 100% fatality rate ignorance he says and the the cure to ignorance is a verse from the Quran or a statement of our prophet sallall.aii wasallam and the prescription is to be taken from from a scholar. He is the prescriber to those those medicines. You don't just open the Quran and jump in. You go to a scholar. You say, "This is the issue that I'm having." That's what he's for. Just when you go to the doctor, you say, "This itches or this hurts or this is uncomfortable." He gives you the antidote. You don't just go into the pharmacy and start picking stuff up off the shelves a bull in a china cabinet and saying, "Maybe this will work. Maybe I'll try some of this. Maybe I'll try some of this. These taste good. Ooh, that tastes nasty. I don't want that." You're going to kill yourself. And that is exactly what happens when you just jump in to the vastness of the Quran and Sunnah is very vast. You have to have a doctor prescribe to you exactly what ails you. He will give you the prescription. You have to take the medicine and you will by Allah's will be cured. Allah subhu.
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Alhamdulillah. He's going to Where's he going? California.
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