فضیلتِ علم

Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever travels a path seeking to learn some knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise; and the angels spread their wings for the seeker of knowledge out of pleasure at his deed.” (Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi)

Every Muslim is obliged to learn at least that much of the religion by whose light he can save himself from the ways of ignorance and set his life on the right course — by which he can live his daily life in accordance with Islamic teachings: that is, the essential rulings of prayer, fasting, Hajj and Zakah, and those necessary matters that arise in his life concerning what is lawful and unlawful and what is permitted and forbidden. The light of religious knowledge is the fountainhead of all good; whoever attains it has gained the felicity of both this world and the Hereafter, for by it he will make his whole life beautiful and become a means of guidance for other servants of Allah, and he will keep increasing his own good deeds. Indeed, through knowledge a servant reaches the ranks of the best of the ummah and attains the lofty stations of the Hereafter.

The importance of knowledge can also be gauged from this: that the first revelation which Allah sent to His beloved Muhammad ﷺ was the opening five verses of Surah al-'Alaq, whose subject too is knowledge. So wherever one gets the chance to learn something of the religion, one should regard it as a treasure, for knowledge is an ocean whose shores have no limit; knowledge is the inheritance of the Prophets (peace be upon them); without doubt, knowledge is the sign of the paths to Paradise.