₦airaland Forum

Seeking of (Islamic) knowledge is an act of ibadah(worship) therefore it must satisfy the two conditions that an act must satisfy before its acceptance with Allah:

1) Sincerity (ikhlas) and
2) Conformity with the Kitab and sunnah (mutaabah).

sincerity is that you do your deeds only to seek Allah's pleasure and be saved from His punishment.

The evidence for sincerity is the statement of Allah (and they were not commanded but that they should worship Allah, and worship none but Him alone) bayinnah:5

The evidence from the sunnah is the hadith compiled by Imam Tirmidhi and authenticated by Imam Albany in 'soheeh targheeb wa tarheeb' (pg 13):

Sufyan al-Asbahiyy said he entered madinah and met a man that was surrounded by people, so he(Sufyan) said : who is this? they said :Abu Hurayrah,

He (Sufyan) said: so I went closer to him till I sat in front of him while he was teaching the people, when he finished and was alone, I said to him I ask you in truth and in truth, relate to me a hadith you heard from the messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) that you understood and memorized,

So Abu Hurayrah said: I will, I will definitely relate to you a hadith that the Messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) told me and I understood and memorized, then he (Abu Hurayrah) collapsed suddenly for a short while then resuscitated and said: I will definitely relate to you a hadith that the Messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) told me particularly while I was in this house, there was no one else with us except he and I.

Then he collapsed again and resuscitated and wiped his face, and said: I will, I will Definitely relate to you a hadith that the Messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) related to me particularly, he and I alone in this house, no one else was with us except he and I, then Abu Hurayrah fainted again a very severe one and was descending on his face, then I supported him for a long time, then he resuscitated and said The messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) told me:

Allah the most high and esteemed on the day of qiyamah will descend to His slaves to judge among them and every nation will be squatting, then the first to be called is a man who gathered the Quran (i.e memorized it and understood it), and a man who died in the course of Allah, and a man with great wealth, so Allah will say to the reciter: didn't I teach you what I revealed to my Messenger? he will say: of course my Lord, (Allah) will say: so what did you do regarding what you knew, then the man will say: I used to pray with it (or study it) throughout the day and night, so Allah will say: you have lied and the angels will say: you have lied, and Allah will say: rather you wanted it to be said that "so-and-so person is a reciter (i.e you wanted the praise of people) and it has been said.....
.....then the messenger of Allah (alyhissolaat wassalaam) beat my thighs and said: oh Abu Hurayrah "those three are the first of creations to be burnt in hell on the day of qiyamah).

note: the fainting and collapsing of Abu Hurayrah was due to the severity of the meaning the hadith contained.

......to be continued, in shaa Allah