Take my ten steps to help you quit making excuses and make Seeking Sacred Knowledge a priority in your life: 1. Recognise & identify the benefits to you ~ Listing how seeking sacred knowledge will impact your life and reading up on the virtues of seeking knowledge will help motivate you. Allah ennobles the sincere seeker of knowledge and makes the path to Jannah easy for them, the impact on your prayers and acts of worship is potentially huge & knowledge is a means to drawing closer to Allah. 2. Make du’a and tell Allah about your dream ~ Allah the Most Knowledgeable: Al-‘Aleem is the one who grants us knowledge and its fruits. He teaches us this supplication in the Quran: Rabbee zidnee ilman (O my Lord, increase me in Ilm). Ask Him to be your guide and mentor on this journey, renew your intentions & tell Allah about them. 3. Find an ‘Ilm mentor and teachers ~ Seek advice from a reliable Scholar or Student of Knowledge to help you formulate your own personal road map to knowledge. Their input will help you avoid pitfalls and time wasting so that you focus on the most important and beneficial areas. Studying with scholars will help keep you level-headed and allow you to learn good manners and the correct implementation of knowledge. Look for the right teachers for the right subjects. 4. Identify your structured road map to knowledge ~ Its imperative to study in a gradual and structured way. What are the subjects you need to focus on first? Which areas will you need to study in depth? What do you need to concentrate on now and how do you hope your studies will progress over the next few years? 5. List possible means for you to follow your roadmap ~ Perhaps you could attend a centre or follow an institutes structured course for your Islamic knowledge, or maybe online learning is the only viable option for you at the moment. Could you go abroad? 6. Set 6 monthly goals ~ What are the books or areas you will cover in the next 6 months? How much Quran will you memorise in that time? Set out clear, realistic and specific, time limited goals. 7. Schedule Knowledge-seeking into your week ~ A weekly diary is a useful way of planning your studies into your week. Schedule lessons, study time, memorisation time into your week just as you would any other appointments you may have and stick to them. 8. Enrol your loved ones into your vision ~ Your family may well be affected by your studies, so sit them down and explain to them how important this is to you and enlist support from your spouse and other family members. Clearly express what you need from them and adjust your plans according to their feedback. 9. Be prepared to strive for the sake of knowledge ~ You may need to sleep a little less, work more, push yourself harder, spend money, travel and get out of your comfort zone. These are all expected aspects of your Tarbiyah or Islamic nurturing on this path. You will need patience and perseverance to continue upon your journey and not be swayed nor give up. 10. Act upon your knowledge ~ Allah describes the person who possesses knowledge but doesnt act upon it, as a donkey carrying books. On the Day of Judgement, knowledge could be a proof for us if we act on it or against us if we don’t. In the words of one of our teachers: Remember that if your knowledge is above average, our worship should also be above average.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 02:26:02 +0000
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