Courtesy of Nurayn.com
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Alhamdullilah wa salaatu wa salaaamu ala Rasool’Allah
Ashadu an laa ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna Muhammadan ab’dahu wa Rasooluhu
On Saturday of IlmFest 2008 in NYC, Shaykh Waleed Basyouni stepped onto the stage to give the festival of hundreds of people what is one of the most precious commodities available to a person in their life, and one that – as a person grows older – always seems to be lacking and escaping more and more: Time.
Shaykh Waleed’s address was entitled Studying Ilm in America: Pitfalls and Difficulties. Anywhere in the world a person goes, there are obstacles on the path to gaining knowledge of the deen.
Shaykh Waleed focused on the situation in America, and in particular the situation of students who would like to have a career and knowledge other than the sharia, yet at the same time be well educated in their religion and worship Allah based upon knowledge.
After having talked with many brothers and sisters across the nation during his time in the States, Shaykh Waleed shared a number of points regarding the pitfalls and difficulties on the path to seeking knowledge.
He emphasized that learning knowledge requires studying and does not come by a magical touch. “Ilm will be gained by learning”, Shaykh Waleed quoted the Prophet, peace be upon him.
Shaykh Waleed then solicited hands from the audience: “Who here – really, I want you to raise your hand, among the brothers and sisters – has full-time job, who among you feels that his schedule is busy, raise your hand…” Audience members then raised their hands. “And among those who raised their hand, who among you really love to learn knowledge – I’ll put everyone, OK. Who among you really WANT to acquire knowledge, let me see the hands…”
Scanning the audience, Shaykh Waleed selected a brother to come up on stage and began to question him, albeit humorously.
As expected, the brother was nervous and admitted it. He was still quite good at not showing it!
Noticing his nervous volunteer, Shaykh Waleed gave the young man a cup and then poured some bottled water into it. Take a drink, he told him. Perhaps that would calm him down.
That was until Shaykh Waleed started pouring more and more into the cup until it overflowed and spilled onto the stage.
Shaykh Waleed then broke the analogy down.
“Whenever you try to bring the knowledge inside the heart: No space, you have no time, you have no strength to absorb any more knowledge. You’re already full! You’re already occupied. You cannot add any more to it – exactly like this cup. Whatever I give you, it will just go and fall off, it will never settle. So I think you learn from this, that one of the biggest challenge that we have here is that you need to take some time out of your busy schedules. You need to make time for knowledge, you need to make some time for learning. Don’t expect to just add ilm along with your daily schedule and have it stick. I would not imagine that’s going to be easy.”
Shaykh Waleed then pointed out sentiments some people may have.
“I will imagine the problem is, “Shaykh Waleed I read, I learned” – but nothing settled…. you know why? because it’s already full, because all what you have filled your heart with – not necessary knowledge, sometimes work, sometimes other things like games and other things. ”
Shaykh Waleed then went on to explain that a person needs to make space in their heart, in their daily schedule, their weekly schedule, or even their monthly schedule.
“Tell yourself that this time is for knowledge, this is what I want to do, and I want to free myself. I don’t want to use all my ability, all of my strength in one area (outside of knowledge), and then when it comes to knowledge I remain so weak such that I cant observe, learn, or memorize because I’m already too occupied with other things in my life..”
He said that Imam Shafi, may Allah have mercy on him, used to say: “If my family will depend on me to get them basala” – to purchase onions and things for the house – “I will not be able to do what I am doing.”
Reminding the audience to keep the balance, Shaykh Waleed pointed out that he was not telling the audience members to quit their jobs, or quit studying, or not cook for their husbands, and not to buy whatever they -the wives – tell you, but to be moderate.
“Try to make time for Ilm; I want to make time for knowledge, and that’s something I’m proud of, I will work hard on it, I have every week this amount of hours that I’m going to dedicate to it – this is for my Qur’an, this is for my memorization, this is for my reading, this is for some articles, this is for research, etc.. I want to know why I have to say ameen out loud and other people they don’t do that. ……I want to know why, I want to go research this, read it, write it down. I need to be ready psychologically because I’m preparing myself for gaining knowledge. This is a key point to learning knowledge. Make sure that you have space in your time, in your heart, and in your mind for learning.”
So if you feel your cup is a little too full or even overflowing, now is the time to clean up the mess and let it dry out, and make room for what truly benefits, insha’Allah.
May Allah bless all of our time and grant us knowledge that is beneficial, and grant us refuge from knowledge that does not benefit, ameen.
http://nurayn.com/2008/07/08/the-overflowing-cup-shaykh-waleed-basyouni-ilmfest-08/#more-144
