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The importance of knowledge as stressed by the Holy Quran – 3

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 15 November 2024

“Allah bears witness that there is no god but He, and (so do) the angels and those possessed of knowledge, maintaining justice. There is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise.”  — ch. 3, Āli-‘Imrān, v. 18

شَہِدَ اللّٰہُ اَنَّہٗ لَاۤ اِلٰہَ اِلَّا ہُوَ ۙ وَ الۡمَلٰٓئِکَۃُ وَ اُولُوا الۡعِلۡمِ قَآئِمًۢا بِالۡقِسۡطِ ؕ لَاۤ اِلٰہَ اِلَّا ہُوَ الۡعَزِیۡزُ الۡحَکِیۡمُ ﴿ؕ۱۸﴾

“And those who have been given knowledge see that what is revealed to you from your Lord, is the Truth and it guides into the path of the Mighty, the Praised.” — ch. 34, Al-Saba, v. 6

وَ یَرَی الَّذِیۡنَ اُوۡتُوا الۡعِلۡمَ الَّذِیۡۤ اُنۡزِلَ اِلَیۡکَ مِنۡ رَّبِّکَ ہُوَ الۡحَقَّ ۙ وَ یَہۡدِیۡۤ اِلٰی صِرَاطِ الۡعَزِیۡزِ الۡحَمِیۡدِ ﴿۶﴾

“Say: Believe in it or do not believe. Surely those who are given the knowledge before it, fall down prostrate on their faces, when it is recited to them, and they say: Glory be to our Lord! Surely the promise of our Lord was to be fulfilled.” — ch. 17, Bani Isrā’īl, v. 107–108

قُلۡ اٰمِنُوۡا بِہٖۤ اَوۡ لَا تُؤۡمِنُوۡا ؕ اِنَّ الَّذِیۡنَ اُوۡتُوا الۡعِلۡمَ مِنۡ قَبۡلِہٖۤ اِذَا یُتۡلٰی عَلَیۡہِمۡ یَخِرُّوۡنَ لِلۡاَذۡقَانِ سُجَّدًا ﴿۱۰۷﴾ۙ  وَّ یَقُوۡلُوۡنَ سُبۡحٰنَ رَبِّنَاۤ اِنۡ کَانَ وَعۡدُ رَبِّنَا لَمَفۡعُوۡلًا ﴿۱۰۸﴾

I am continuing with the topic of the importance of knowledge as stressed by the Holy Quran, and will look this time more at knowledge of religion, whereas previously we dealt with what the Quran says about the knowledge of the world around us. The first verse I recited says, about the basic doctrine of Islam that there is no god but Allah, that Allah Himself is a witness to it, the angels are witnesses to it, and “those possessed of knowledge, maintaining justice” bear witness to it. Allah bears witness to it means that the world created by Allah shows that it has one and only one Creator. Angels bear witness to it because they bring revelation from God to His prophets, and even to other righteous persons, with the message that there is only one God to be worshipped. Thirdly, it says that those who acquire knowledge, who­ever they might be, but they are just and fair-minded, they will also attest that there is only one God. In particular, if they have knowledge of previous scriptures before the Quran, they will realise through their knowledge, if they are fair-minded and leave aside any prejudice, that those scriptures also teach the same oneness of God as the Quran.

Notice here that this verse mentions the evidence of God, the angels and then the knowledgeable people as being the most important arguments. This shows the high position assigned to those who possess knowledge, that when mentioning human beings, after having mentioned God and the angels, only those possessing knowledge are mentioned. It doesn’t say those who possess power or leadership or wealth. The people whose evidence should be given the highest importance, who should be taken most seriously, are those who possess knowledge and are unbiassed.

The second verse says that those who have knowledge, in fact those who have been given knowledge, meaning that they have been blessed with it as a result of their efforts, can see the truth of the Quran, the truth which guides people to God. This is a strong incentive to those who believe in the Quran to acquire knowledge because they will then be in a better position “to see”, as the verse says, its truth.

The third passage I recited, consisting of two verses, begins by giving the choice to people: “Believe in it or do not believe.” That is your choice. But then it adds that “those who are given the knowledge before it, fall down prostrate on their faces, when it is recited to them.” Those who have knowledge, especially of the earlier scriptures, they on hearing the Quran fall prostrate before Allah and say: “Surely the promise of our Lord was to be fulfilled.” This is usually taken to mean that, before the coming of the Holy Prophet, the learned ones among the followers of the Bible were already aware of prophecies in the Bible of the coming of a great Prophet, so when they heard the revelation of the Quran they recognised that the Promised Prophet had come, bringing this Book.

But it can be more general than just knowing about the prophecies. Those who were know­ledgeable about the previous scriptures knew what would be the qualities of a true revelation and what they needed from a religion to satisfy their minds and hearts. And the Quran struck such a chord with them and their knowledge, that they submitted to it. It is also significant that these two verses occur at the end of the chapter entitled The Israelites. The suggestion is clear, that the knowledgeable among the Jews would fall down prostrate before the Quran. It happened in history before, and it can happen again, impossible as it may seem to human eyes.

I may add that knowledgeable Jews are mentioned in other places in the Quran as well, and they are classed along with Muslims. In chapter 4, an account is given of the wrongs and misdeeds done by the Israelites in their history, going against their own religion, and especially their persecution of their own prophets and of Jesus by attempt­ing to kill them. After listing all this, the Quran says:

“But the firm in knowledge among them and the believers believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you” (4:162).

Here it is indicated that the “firm in knowledge” among the Jews, who are well-grounded and deeply-rooted in knowledge, will come to believe in the truth of the Quran.

Here two groups are mentioned and two items of belief are mentioned. The two groups are: the firmly and deeply knowledge­able Jews, and the Muslims. The two items of belief are: belief in the Quran and belief in revelation before the Quran. Both groups believe in both. Muslims believe in the Quran, and on the basis of the Quran they then accept belief in earlier revelations. The knowledgeable Jews first believe in their own scriptures and then on the basis of the guidance found in those, they come to believe in the Quran. It is quite remarkable and extraordinary that the Quran, after giving a list of the wrongs and misdeeds of the Jews, ending with their attempt to have Jesus killed, immediately tells us that the “firm in knowledge” among the Jews will come to believe in the Quran and act upon it. This is implying that the committers of wrong among the Jews were those who did so out of ignorance and lack of proper and full knowledge.

The Quran also says that those who hold false beliefs and indulge in evil prac­tices cannot put forward any knowledge to support and justify their beliefs and mis­deeds. About some such followers of previous scriptures, it says in one place that they are illiterate, cannot read their own books, anything they know is only from hear­say, and they just indulge in conjecture and guesswork (2:78). Here I may quote from Mau­lana Muhammad Ali’s comment on this verse. He writes that the word translated as “hear­say” also means to repeat words without knowing their mean­ing. So the verse means that all they know is how to repeat words parrot-fashion. The Maulana then writes:

“What is said here about the Jews is to a very large extent true of the Muslims of our day. In the early days of Islam, every individual Muslim, man as well as woman, sought light direct from the Quran. Not so the Muslims in this age who depend entirely on their learned men. They do read the Quran but look upon mere reci­tation as a meritorious deed without trying to learn what it says, and then act upon it.”

The Quran also describes those who hold baseless beliefs and indulge in wrong practices as people who “follow their low desires without having any knowledge” (30:29). It challenges them to put forward any knowledge in their support: “Inform me with knowledge if you are truthful” (6:143) and “Bring me some knowledge” (46:4). This shows that people should be prepared to justify the beliefs and practices of their religions by presenting knowledge and arguments in their support. You cannot justify a belief or practice by saying that we have always believed it or done it, or that we are following the traditions of our forefathers who couldn’t have been wrong. According to the Quran, all religions should put forward knowledge and evidence in their support. Then everyone can judge who is right and who is wrong.

There is a long verse in the Quran which informs us that there are verses in the Quran which use symbolic language, and that it is only those who are firmly grounded in knowledge who can interpret them correctly, while others misinterpret them. That verse is as follows:

“He it is Who has revealed the Book to you; some of its verses are decisive — they are the basis of the Book — and others are allegorical. Then those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation. And none knows its interpreta­tion except Allah, and those firmly rooted in knowledge. They say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord. And none are mindful except those who have understanding” (3:7).

This says that some of the verses of the Quran are absolutely clear in meaning, and they are the basis or fundamentals of the book. They must be accepted and followed exactly as they are. Others are “allegorical”, which means that they use certain words not literally but symbolically or as what are called figures of speech. Some people, who have a perverse mentality, who are not right-thinking, take the allegorical verses in a physical sense and draw from them wrong conclusions. It goes on to add that no one knows the right interpretation “except Allah, and those firmly rooted in know­ledge”. It calls such people as “who have understanding”, who have a strong intellect. Those people say about the Quran: “it is all from our Lord”.

I will give one example. The Quran mentions that a certain prophet brought the dead to life and made the blind to see. Most people think it means that he performed the miracle of raising actually dead people to life. Now in this case this verse means that the knowledgeable people say: But the Quran also says that a dead person who is raised to life by Allah is given a light with which walks among people, whereas in his previous condition he was in darkness and unable to get out of it (6:122). This shows that the persons whom any prophet raised from the dead were not physically dead but were in darkness and were given a light by that prophet.

Many Muslims believe that the words in this verse, “And none knows its interpre­ta­­tion except Allah”, mean that there are some verses whose real interpretation cannot be discovered by people. But there is a hadith that the Holy Prophet prayed to Allah for his young cousin Hazrat Ibn Abbas as follows:

اللَّهُمَّ عَلِّمْهُ الْحِكْمَةَ وَتَأْوِيلَ الْكِتَابِ ‏ — “Allah, teach him wisdom and the interpretation of the book” (Ibn Majah, Book of Sunnah, hadith number 166).

And Ibn Abbas later became an authority on interpreting the Quran. Allah has not revealed anything in the Quran whose knowledge He has kept only to Him­self, and prevented people from understanding and interpreting it, so that they merely read the words but can never reach their significance!

May Allah enable us to acquire knowledge of our religion in a full and proper way  — ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk