Website: www.aaiil.uk

Seeking knowledge “even if it be in China” – 2

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 29 September 2023

“O mankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you. Surely Allah is Knowing, Aware.” — ch. 49, Al-Hujurat, v. 13	یٰۤاَیُّہَا النَّاسُ اِنَّا خَلَقۡنٰکُمۡ مِّنۡ ذَکَرٍ وَّ اُنۡثٰی وَ جَعَلۡنٰکُمۡ شُعُوۡبًا وَّ قَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوۡا ؕ اِنَّ اَکۡرَمَکُمۡ عِنۡدَ اللّٰہِ اَتۡقٰکُمۡ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ عَلِیۡمٌ خَبِیۡرٌ ﴿۱۳﴾
“And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colours. Surely there are signs in this for the learned.” — ch. 30, Ar-Rūm, v. 22	وَ مِنۡ اٰیٰتِہٖ خَلۡقُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ وَ اخۡتِلَافُ اَلۡسِنَتِکُمۡ وَ اَلۡوَانِکُمۡ ؕ اِنَّ فِیۡ ذٰلِکَ لَاٰیٰتٍ لِّلۡعٰلِمِیۡنَ ﴿۲۲﴾

I am continuing with the subject of last Friday’s Khutba, in which I dealt with the hadith: “Seek knowledge even if it be in China, for the seeking of knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim”. I showed that, although the first part of this hadith, about seeking knowledge even if it requires going as far as to China, cannot be reliably traced to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, yet this idea in general terms is supported by the Quran. The Quran says that people should travel in the earth to gain knowledge of His creation. Obviously the earth includes China. I also showed from history that China was known to the Companions of the Holy Prophet, certainly in the time when Hazrat Uthman was Khalifa. It is, therefore, quite plausible that the Holy Prophet Muhammad might have said: “Seek knowledge even if it be in China.” So now in this present khutba, I have read out two more verses of the Quran which clearly imply that humans must travel to acquire knowledge.

According to the first verse, humanity consists of different nations and ethnic groups, and their differences constitute their identities. The only way to, as the Quran says, “know each other”, and identify each other, is by travelling in the world to visit and see the different nations which inhabit it. Knowledge about different nations cannot be acquired by sitting at home or going no further than the borders of your own country. This verse addresses all humanity, and of course what it is suggesting for all humans, that they should gain knowledge of each other, applies also to Muslims, that they should seek knowledge of the different nations of the world. According to the second verse, the diversity and variety of the languages and colours of mankind provides signs of the existence of God to the learned ones, the ‘ālimīn or alims. This diversity is a source of knowledge or ‘ilm. Again, it is obvious that to acquire knowledge about the languages and colours of mankind you would have to travel among different nations.

There are also Hadith reports speaking highly of travelling in search of knowledge. In Sahih Muslim, in a long hadith which mentions various qualities of believers, the Holy Prophet Muhammad is reported as saying: “…whoever treads a path in search of knowledge, Allah would make it easy for him, through it, the path to paradise” (book 48, ch. 11, hadith 2699a). This part also occurs as a hadith by itself in Tirmidhi (book 41, ch. 2, hadith 2646). Thus, travelling along a path physically in this world to seek knowledge is like an exercise or practice which makes it easier to walk along the road to paradise. What is meant, of course, is that by your journeys in the world you learn lessons which increase your faith and make you a better person. In Ibn Majah there is the following hadith: “Whenever anyone goes out of his house, leaving it in order to seek knowledge, the angels lower their wings in approval of what he is doing” (hadith 226). In Tirmidhi we also read the hadith: “Whoever goes out seeking knowledge, he is in Allah’s way (fī sabīl-i-llāh) until he returns” (book 41, ch. 2, hadith 2647), meaning that in going out to seek knowledge he is performing an act in Allah’s way.

There is a well-known hadith, also in Tirmidhi, in which the Holy Prophet said: “The word of wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it he has a better right to it” (book 41, ch. 19, hadith 2687). Maulana Muhammad Ali has included this hadith in his book A Manual of Hadith, and commented on it as follows: “This hadith lays down upon every Muslim the obligation of acquiring knowledge. Hikmah means wisdom or knowledge, and ḍāllah means a lost animal or an object of persevering quest, so that the believer should set out in search of knowledge as perseveringly as the owner of a lost animal would search for it.” Now to search for something you have lost, you will go everywhere where there is a possibility that it may be found. You will search not only open spaces, but concealed places as well. You will turn things over to look under them. To find your possession you will, as the saying goes, leave no stone unturned. Of course, knowledge you find somewhere is not like a thing which was previously your possession and you misplaced it and lost it. In fact, it is something new which was not in your knowledge before. What is meant is that you must look for knowledge with the same eagerness and urgency with which you try to find your lost property. Again, if a believer follows this hadith then he would travel all over the world to find knowledge.

Regarding seeking knowledge “even if it be in China”, it is a historical fact that the early Muslims brought knowledge and inventions that existed in China, they developed them further for their own use, and then through the Islamic world these were passed to Europe. After coming to Europe, this knowledge was instrumental in creating the modern science-based Western civilisation. Paper, on which writing and printing is done, is a prime example. It was invented in China long before Islam and was in use there. The writing material used at that time in the Middle East and available to Muslims when Islam came was rare and expensive, and awkward to write on. This limited the spread of literacy and knowledge in the world. It also hindered the efficient running of institutions such as the government and held back economic progress.

It so happened that in the year 751, which was 120 years after the Holy Prophet’s death, when Islam had spread into Central Asia, there was a battle between Muslims and the Chinese Tang dynasty of the time at the western end of the Chinese empire. The Muslims won the battle and captured Chinese prisoners of war. It is said that these prisoners brought the art of papermaking to the notice of the Muslims. Paper was a much better material to write on, easier to mass produce, and cheaper than the earlier materials available to the Muslims. Muslims adopted paper production but they also modified and improved this process, and produced their own kind of paper.

Knowledge of paper production was not just knowledge on its own, going no further, but it was revolutionary for the transmission of knowledge itself. In other words, what Muslims learnt from China was not just knowledge itself, but a way of spreading all kinds of knowledge. Perhaps this is why the saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, no doubt inspired by Allah, specifically mentioned China, that not only was knowledge to be found there but, more than that, knowledge which would enable you to spread knowledge itself more widely. Muslims went on to establish the first paper mills in Spain, and from there paper manufacture spread into Europe. It was known in Europe as Arab paper or Islamic paper.

There is an academic research paper published in 2018 by a researcher in a university in Canada entitled The Adoption of Paper in the Middle East, 700-1300 AD. In its conclusion, the author notes that someone has said: “Technological innovation will not occur in a society, which is malnourished, superstitious or extremely traditional with tight social constraints preventing it from being open to diversity and tolerance.” Having quoted this, the author adds this: “Early Islamic society represented just the reverse. … Islamic society reached into a pool of existing cultural heritage and knowledge and developed tools to exploit local and international scholarly traditions. It was an ethnic mix which displayed tolerance of diversity, a condition necessary for technological innovation to occur. Together, these were infrastructures that made Islamic society more disposed to adopt, implement, benefit and generate technological innovation on its own.”

It is, therefore, sad and tragic to note that the development of knowledge went into decline in the Islamic world some four or five hundred years ago. In a journal, The New Atlantis, there was an article in its Winter 2011 issue about this decline. It says: “the disparity between the intellectual achievements of the Middle East then [8th to 13th centuries] and now — particularly relative to the rest of the world — is staggering indeed. … Today, however, the spirit of science in the Muslim world is as dry as the desert.”

Perhaps we can see in a new light the words of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which I quoted above: “The word of wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it he has a better right to it”. Muslims have lost the knowledge which they would have possessed if they had continued on the path of enlightenment which the Quran and the Holy Prophet set them on. That lost property was inherited largely by the Western world. Muslims had a better right to it, but they gave up their right by their lack of concern and interest.

Far from going to search for knowledge, when the modern branches of knowledge were brought to their doorstep in the Indian subcontinent during British rule of India, they were greatly reluctant to accept it. The Muslim religious leaders, some 150 years ago, declared it as un-Islamic to undertake the Western form of education and to learn the English language. As a result, Muslims of the Indian subcontinent suffered deep and long-lasting damage, whose effects still exist even now. Perhaps this may be why the Holy Prophet Muhammad urged Muslims to seek knowledge even if it were to be found in China, meaning that there is nothing wrong in accepting knowledge from non-Muslim nations.

So may Allah enable Muslims to follow the very vital, wise and beneficial guidance of the Quran and the Holy Prophet in this respect — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk