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1. List of Important Books
Some of these books are advanced & are in arabic. So go through them in stages. It is nice to have a list of books you can refer to & create a mini library on the topic of Thalibul Ilm
⭐ = Highly Recommended
2. Course Material
- In AMAU, we don’t base foundational courses from specific books. This is against the normal methodology used in AMAU (classical books from beginning to end).
- However, the foundational courses are aimed to cover the fundamental points of each sciences. So what is done in foundational courses is to give understanding of the basic terminologies in order to move on to the next level (using books).
- This foundational course, is the exception to the rule, since it is based on a book that is written in modern times. But the value of the book is immense & covers everything we need in short amount of time.
- Whoever truly understands what the sheikh has written in the book, they will truly have known the path to become a scholar. That doesn’t mean they will reach the end goal, but it means you can say you know the path you need to take to become a person of knowledge in Islam.
- No one can say they failed except the reason has been mentioned in the book.
- The book we will be studying is Ta’dheem Al-ilm by Sheikh Shalih Al-Utsaimin
- We many not cover everything the sheikh said, but will try our best to cover the most important topics.
Introduction to Ta’dheem Al-ilm
(p.2) Knowledge does not cease to be a great legacy in which people of nobility follow one another, generation after generation. For those who seek out things of high value, there is no other concern but this, and no desire for any other goal besides this. How could it not be so, when the happiness of both worlds and the good of both lives are achieved by getting it!?
(p.4) It is the honour of everything that exists, and the light of every peak and valley. It is the adornment of the greats, and the pleasure of those who behold it. Whoever is inclined toward it is blessed, and whoever carries it around with them has gained a great prize, and whoever acts according to it will be safe. If it were a product that was sold, huge amounts of money would be spent on it, and if it were high up in the sky, the people of nobility would have risen up to it. Out of every marketplace, it is the most profitable, and out of every source of pride, it is the most honourable. Achievements in it are the most noble of achievements, and its resources are the most praiseworthy of resources. The eternally happy is the one who spurs himself to seek it, and encourages the journeying of his soul towards it; while the wretched is the one who turns away from it or he makes others do so, and distances himself from it, or makes others do so. His nose is blocked from the fragrance of knowledge, and his neck is sealed with the words ‘This is a slave who is bereft’.
Knowledge enters the heart of every successful one; without any doorman or seeking permission; And the bereft repels it due to his failure; O Allāh! Do not make us wretched by prohibiting us from it!
(p.4) From that which fills a person with happiness, and expands his chest and fills it with light, is to see creation turning to the sittings of learning, and seeking out the straight path. The clearest and most truthful proof of this is the increasing number of lessons and the continuous stream of educational seminars a sweetness in the heart of the believers and a wound in the throats of the disbelievers and the hypocrites - for the lessons are being carried out and the journeys are ongoing; the benefits are there for all to see
(p.6) From the acts of goodness towards this upcoming multitude and the generations to come is to guide them to the secret of possessing knowledge which will give them the success to achieve that which they hope for, and which will take them to a place of safety, out of mercy towards them, so that they are not lost in the desert of opinions and the darkness of desires.
- This book is a summarized guidebook that will tell you what it takes for you to achieve your goal, and what you need to become a person of knowledge.
(p.6) In implementing this principle, the core message, O believers, is that of revering knowledge, since the amount of knowledge that a person gains is dependent upon the amount that his heart reveres it and honours it. So, whoever’s heart is filled with the reverence of knowledge and honouring it, that heart is suitable to be a place where knowledge resides; and depending on the extent to which the prestige of knowledge is lacking in the heart, the servant’s amount of knowledge will be lacking, to the extent that there are hearts in which there is no knowledge at all. Whoever reveres knowledge, its light will be apparent on him, and the messengers of its sciences will come to him in delegations. There will be no purpose to his ambitions except receiving it, nor any pleasure for himself except thinking about it. It seems as though Abu Muhammad ad-Darimi(may Allāh have mercy on him) alluded to that, concluding The Book of Knowledge within his sunan (which is named al-Musnad al-Jāmi’) with a chapter about the reverence of knowledge. The greatest of help in achieving the reverence of knowledge and venerating it is to know the principles of revering it; they are the comprehensive principles, those which establish the greatness of knowledge in the heart. Whoever takes them onboard will be one who reveres and honours knowledge, and whoever forsakes them
- The word ‘Tadzim Al-Ilm’. The word Azim means Great. Something which is highly significant & important. So the word Tadzim here means to treat knowledge like that. Like something great. It could be translated to Revering Knowledge. Revere means to have deep respect & admiration towards something. To respect, to honour it.
- The sheikh mentions that the amount of knowlegde a person gains depends on how much they put emphasis/respect towards it. The rest of the book is basically explaining this. This is the core concept. The more your heart honours knowledge, the more knowledge you will get.
- The one who reveres knowledge, its light will be apparent on them.
(p.8) and whoever forsakes them has truly lost himself and obeyed his desires, so he must not blame anyone but himself if he is deficient in it - Your own hands (tied the knot) and your own mouth blew on it - and the one who does not honour knowledge, knowledge will not honour him.
- A person must not blame anyone but himself if he is deficient in knowledge.
- The expression in bold is similar to the English expression “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it”.
- The story behind the expression: A group of people got separated by water and they couldn’t reach their destination except by swimming. What they did was they took their water skins and blew on them with air until it was filled with air and behaves like a float that they could use to help them cross the water body. And while swimming, one of the float deflated until he was left with virtually nothing. When he cried to one of his companions, the companion said Your own hands (tied the knot) and your own mouth blew on it meaning it is your problem now.
(p.8) We will bring forth, Allāh willing, a discussion of twenty principles through which knowledge can be revered, without going extensively into them, since the situation cannot accommodate it, and going into them to the full extent of every point would need a prolonged amount of time. The intention here is to enlighten and remind, since something small which remains and benefits is better than something vast which is delivered and then forgotten.
- This is why the book is suitable for this AMAU course.
(p.8) So, take the biggest portion from these principles, and you will gain the best portion of the beautiful gardens of these sciences and the gardens of knowledge. Stay away from inclining towards the statements of people whose hearts have been veiled, and who themselves have become weak, and so they mistakenly believed that these reports are full of exaggeration and burden, and unconvincing strictness; for a wall has been placed between (those people) and (these principles) with a door, its interior containing mercy, but on the outside of it is torment.
- A group of people will discourage you, and these people won’t have evidence to support their statements.
(p.8) These people do not have for their claim the proofs of legislation which would give truth to it, nor events observed which would support it. It is nothing more than the excuse of the weak-minded, and the proof of the impotent. What kind of exaggeration and burdening are found in something which revelation gives witness to, and the early generations took to. Every point among these is proven by an unequivocal āyah, or an accepted sunnah, or narrations from the best of the generations past.
- Here the sheikh tells us about his methodology. For each point he will bring an evidence from the Quran, Hadith, or statements from the early generations to prove that these points are islamically correct & is following the way of the salaf.
(p.10) So, if you trust their veracity, and you have internalised their knowledge and the information they contain, then do not let your aspirations be tied up by the sermons of laziness and dawdling, who delve into these things, proclaiming: These are how the early generations of this ummah and the best of mankind used to be, so where is the sand in comparison to the stars!
(p.10) Rather, the one who raises himself to mirror their standards will achieve it:
Resemble them, even if you are not like them; for indeed resembling the noble one is itself success.
So let your heart bear witness to these principles, and reflect upon what is transmitted about them and what you understand from them, and extract from them their literal evidences and what is understood from them, for words are the depositories of meanings.