I think it is common knowledge to everyone reading this that as Muslims we are commanded to learn and study, and knowledge occupies a grand and sacred position in our heritage.
Islam calls us to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. ‘Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.’ [Sunan Ibn Majah]. Even the first verse or command to be revealed to the Prophet was Iqra, which means to read or to lean.
Scholars like Imam Shafi’i categorise knowledge into two types, he said: “Knowledge is only of two kinds: religious knowledge and worldly knowledge. The knowledge that belongs to the domain of religion is Islamic Law and the knowledge that belongs to the domain of worldly matters is medicine.”
He is also quoted as saying: “After knowledge of what is lawful and prohibited, I know of no knowledge to be nobler than medicine, except that the People of the Scripture have outdone us in that field.”
He also said; “They have neglected a third of all knowledge and left it to the Jews and Christians.” [Quotes taken from al-Razi, Adab al-Shafi’i wa Manakibuhu ]
Therefore, science, medicine, technology, agriculture, ect are also important and necessary to learn because all these sciences are required in order to protect the five maqasid which Islam came to preserve. Without understanding the world which we inhabit, we will be unable to fully appreciate God and His sublime names and attributes.
However, it appears 21st century man is not very good at striking a balance in this regard. I say this especially as yesterday, while taking the train to Euston Square to deliver the Friday sermon (Khutbah) I thought I’d flick through a copy of the Metro lying on the seat next to me (not a big fan of the Metro by the way).
One particular news article caught my attention. The title read: ‘You have 1 new PhD in text messaging…’
It reported that Dr Caroline Tagg, a Birmingham University academic, spent three-and-a-half years typing out an 80 thousand word thesis about SMS messages and their language.
She asked friends and family to send her their messages and ended up poring over 11,000 SMS, containing 190 thousand words, sent by 235 people. So what was her conclusion? Her discovery that ‘actually, not many people use abbreviations’. She received her PhD on this subject and is also exploring text messaging amongst children.
At a time when people are arguing whether University degrees are getting dumbed down, this news seems to affirm what many have been trying to highlight.
So again, undoubtedly, as Muslims we honour knowledge and are obliged to seek it from the cradle to the grave. But I doubt studying for a PhD in text messaging would be considered a beneficial science in Islam to invest our energy and time on.
i’d like to disagree with you since any small and seems beneficial topic could lead to new knowledge discovery regardless of any fields e.g. sms. We can study human behaviour from this which relates to consumerism, attitude, language, ethic, knowledge level etc.
what relevance has imam shafis point in this? if you go back far enough everything was just knowledge – different subejects came about as the needs arose or as a result of normal specialisation. to say shafi said knowledge is islam and medicine. yes in his time the scholars were also lawers and dotors and engineers etc. we live in a different era now. the classical scholars are only relevant for islamic subjects, unless they also contributed to others fields.
long live sms.
also as muhammad said there may be other relevant aspects to this research that you havnt thought of. i must say this idea of benefeicial science in islam is very narrow minded. if that was the case people would have stuck to islam and medicine. thank god they didn’t think in this narrow mind.
What bothers me a lot is when certain people profess to know what they actually know not! I am a student of psychology and I know the significance of such research.
The author of the above blog seems to claim that the only beficial knowledge is the knowledge of Shari’ah and medicine. However from my limited knowledge of Islamic history I know that during the ‘golden’ era Muslims were seeking knowledge in all matters pertaining to deen and dunya.Can we then say that those Muslims wasted their time by seeking useless knowledge?
Imam Shafi’i is also reported to have said that ‘all knowledge other than that of Quran, hadith and jurisprudence is a ‘distraction’(mashgalah). Should we then abandon everything else and confine ourselves to seeking knowledge of the Sharia alone? The fact is what Imam Shafi’i or others said cannot be accepted as a proof!
This piece was written from an Islamic viewpoint about what constitutes beneficial and non-beneficial knowledge in islam. In that light, the author does indeed know what he is talking about given his shariah background.
The historical precedences of people in the ‘golden era’ of Islam, the philospohers and mathematicians etc. are not in themselves a legal source of proof for anything. Their pursuits are to be judged according to the merits of Shar’i principles. The mathematicians, doctors, engineers, etc. were all accepted and praised for fulfilling a kifayah duty from which the community benefits and without which would mean the stagnation of the Muslim community. However, the people of philosophy and kalaam were condemned based on Islamic criteria for indulging in useless and dangerous ‘thought’ for which the harms far outweighed the benefits, harming the community and themselves rather than the Muslim community.
Beneficial Deeni knowledge is that which leads to action and obedience of Allah (swt). Information by itself in this regard does not suffice (otherwise Iblees would be considered ‘knowledgeable’ due to the information he has regarding the prophets, books, et.). It must be coupled with action in order to be considered beneficial…In this category of deeni knowledge there is the ayni (individually incumbent) type like the knowledge of the pillars of Iman, fiqh of salah, etc., and the kifaa-ee type (collective communal duties) like specialist knowledge of hadith, tafseer etc. with which the community would benefit and without which the community would fall into harm.
Likewise, with regards to the worldy knowledge, there are the ayni types which differ from person to person (e.g. it may be incumbent on an individual to learn the laws of the road without which he may end up in prison etc. or for someone to learn English without which he may be unable to get a job and feed his family etc.). Then are the kiafaa-ee types with which the community will benefit and without which the community will fall into harm. Such as medicine; no doctors means the whole community is at fault and in harm. No scientists means no advance in technology for Muslims and eventual harm. No journalists means no say for Muslims and an eventual harm, etc.
The question comes here whether investing precious time and resources (treasures in a Muslims lifetime, things which he should be using to worship Allah and contribute to his community as a religious responsiblity) of years, research, stress and pain in drawing up a thesis on SMS text messaging and concluding ‘people don’t use abbreviations’ is indeed a ‘benficial knowledge at all given what was said above. What religious or other benefit does the Muslim community achieve from knowing this? From the individuals point of view, what excuse can he/she give to Allah about how he used his time and the thousands of pounds of university fees (’the feet of the son of Adam will not move on the Day of Qiyamah until he is asked about 4′, one being time and the other being money)? Can he confidently reply to Allah that he was researching about text messaging and finding out who does and does not use abbreviations? How did this benefit him let alone his Muslim community? If he did not spend this precious time and resources in this idle pursuit, what harm and loss would he and his community experience? What are some othe other things those tousands of pounds and years and mind and sweat could have been used for?
What meaning then does the dua of the Prophet (saw) have when he said “O Allah, I ask you for knowledge that benefits and seek refuge in you from knowledge that does not benefit?”. We must always refer back to the early generations for guidance in this regard and see what they spent their efforts and resources in pursuing. Did they spend thousands of their dinars and years of their time learning so ‘called ‘human behaviour’ through the fashion of the people of Makkah etc.? What did they spend their time and efforts and resources pursuing? What were their intellectual pursuits? What did they dedicate their lives to? It would be useful if the author of this blog post supported his case by providing some insights into the lives and pursuits of the earlier generations.
Wallahu A’lam.
Mashallah Br Abdullah Hasan a very timely reminder on the issue of what is true knowledge. Islamically true knowledge has 2 components he first is the actual information/data and the second is application/amal; these two components are needed to fulfil true knowledge otherwise this supposed knowledge is just data without the application. I do not want to repeat some of the points made by Passer-by, but i am sure that everyone now is clear on what knowledge is.
What i wanted to clarify is a point that was made by Hasan which is below,
“The author of the above blog seems to claim that the only beficial knowledge is the knowledge of Shari’ah and medicine. However from my limited knowledge of Islamic history I know that during the ‘golden’ era Muslims were seeking knowledge in all matters pertaining to deen and dunya.Can we then say that those Muslims wasted their time by seeking useless knowledge?
Imam Shafi’i is also reported to have said that ‘all knowledge other than that of Quran, hadith and jurisprudence is a ‘distraction’(mashgalah). Should we then abandon everything else and confine ourselves to seeking knowledge of the Sharia alone? The fact is what Imam Shafi’i or others said cannot be accepted as a proof!”
I agree that Hasan has limited knowledge on islamic history! Br. Hasan the actual ‘GOLDEN’ era of islam was the time just before the Prophet Muhammed passed away as he had established the islamic state, sharia and had the best community (the sahabah) and the best leader (prophet muhammed). The supposed golden era you are referring to is that which the kuffar also refer to aswell. The kuffar see that when the mulims conquered lands and expanded their empire that was glory. In fact when the islamic kahlifah spread there was more division, many small kahlifahs, sects, disunity and exploration into deviancy.
Due to the ’seeking of knowledge’ in all spheres this led to deviancy and also led to the downfall to the islamic empire starting with modern day spain. Many sects arose and YES they were wasting their time in pursuing this useless dunya knowledge like philispohy and left the akhira. In spain they pursued many useless knowledge and became indulged in controversy and dunya and led very extravagant lives. Spain is in its self enough evidence that pursuing all knowledge (which is not beneficial to the religion or community) has major consequences.
So please do not refer to the incorrect era as the golden era and YES seeking all knowledge can lead to people moving away from the deen.
@Naz
What I believe Abdullah Hasan was infering to (islamic scinece) is not necessarly everything islamic only. But that what is a necissity in our community which actually is islamic. So an engineer, doctor, builder, cleaner, electrician, teacher and the list goes on are all neede to make the community folurish. But i agree knowledge in texting and philisophy are useless and muslims should avoid it as we will be accountable for that which we learnt and had no benefit. This point is not being narrow minded but actually logical/rational/islamic.
I belivee your point is narrow minded you refuse to distingusih that there are some knowledge which is not useful.
To be fair to Hasan, he used the term golden in quotes. Meaning it is commonly used but may be disputed.
All knowledge except those that are clearly harmful is Islamic. Distinction should not be made, as a sewerage company worker is performing a vital Islamic function of keeping a town free of disease and hence preserving life. That knowledge he gained to do his job will be rewarded and is Islamic.
About the SMS PhD. Instead of quickly declaring it to be useless based on some tabloid headline. We need to know what PhD research involves. I doubt any of the posters here know much about it. Three or more years of research cannot be condensed into one headline!
I’d assume the research has implications on the development of language (especially English – so called text speech), type of expression – implications on length of sms so that future technology can be geared maybe towards long hand…?
Without reading the research, it is very silly to make such absurd conclusions of whether it is ‘Islamically beneficial’ – a term which is bidah in itself. The scholars of the past has only one prism. Everything was either beneficial or useless. There is no such thing as ‘Islamically beneficial’, to make such a distinction is to adopt the secularism paradigm, and divide everything into two distinct parts!
i think its rather quite simple what abdullah hasan was saying gentlemen (and any ladies, for that matter), i.e. that many of us think that we are super fast texters, others, great at shorthanding texts… however, in the case of this woman, she is a professor of text messages or a doctor in the field of sending/writing text messages.
In the days when people heard phd, professor or doctor, one thought of areas of huge achievement such as engineering, medicine, other useful sciences, etc. Nowadays, you can excel in text messaging by conducting huge three year time and effort expending research as ahmed pointed out. The point is… thats valuable time, energy and a space at university (and the money) that was spent tediously, arduosly, accurately and professionally writing about a non-issue… sms messaging.
1. the article above made the point that the focus of research is disproportionately shifting towards subjects of no value or little value when there are innumerable relevant and necessary areas that could do with a breakthrough. (cancer? oil crisis? global warming? terrorism? even in the field of human behaviour/psychology/phylosophy/sociology, there are relevant pressing subjects to conduct a doctorate in, such as gun/knife crime, gang violence, drugs/alcohol abuse/addiction, underage pregnancies, single parenthood… all of the things that are tearing british society to pieces)
2. the rest of the guys have explained beneficial knowledge, necassary knowledge amongst other things and what the golden era of islam was not! Notice how everytime one reads up on islamic history, the scholars have constantly indicated that it was our very indulgence in unnecassary things, amongst them non beneficial knowledge and our pursuit of worldly material possessions at the expense of abandoning practices/principles of the true and pure religion that actually contributed and caused our downfall. We shouldn’t preoccupy ourselves in matters that are not worthy of merit.
to be fair to you ahmed, i’m assuming YOU know what phd research involves, i mean, it isn’t rocket science. Now there’s a worthy subject to submit a phd research on.
You guys have missed the point You are all crazy and need to think clearly. Only Sharia knowledge is good everything else is haram!
Yo Geez losin it bro. How can any benefit be derived from SMS the knowledge of human behaviour is of no benefit to muslims, same goes for consumerism and behaviour. This kind of knowledge is needed in the western life and not ours. Islam need people to attain ilm which improves our community not just looks into this rubbish adding nothing. These degrees being handed out left right and centre will in turn devalue ture phds like medicine etc.
So stop being silly children and bikering over this silly phd. GET REAL and learn someting useful stop wasting your time.
Indeed there are numerous ayat in the Qur’an and ahadith that encourage us to maximise the seeking of knowledge. For example Allah says:
“Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): “Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire.” (3: 191)
Our great ancestors exerted their efforts in trying to seek knowledge in different feilds. Even Imam Al-Shafi’i himself was well versed in philosophy and greek medicine!
I think before we dismiss something as ‘useless’ we should seek to understand its importance and relevance. I am sure Caroline Twigg, the lady who did her Phd on text messaging, was trying to learn something beneficial. Caroline Twigg is a linguist from Birmingham university and here’s what she had to say about her research:
“There is a panic in the media about the effect of text messaging and people are genuinely worried about it.
“It is perceived to have a negative impact on language but a lot of people don’t really look at the text.”
Therefore I think rather than dismissing her research as a ‘useless’ piece of exersise we should try to find out a bit more about it.Our beloved Prophet said i a hadith:
“Wisdom is a lost treasure of the believer he seeks it wherever he may find it.”
The early Muslims were not narrow minded people like the author of the above blog. Someone mentioned that he is a shari’ah gradutate but frankly speaking that doesn’t realy prove anything. There are many so-called graduates out there who are confused and they confuse others.The Muslims of the past were poeople of knowledge and discovery that’s why we had the likes of Al-Ghazzali, Al-Khawarizmi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Biruni and others. Ibn Rushd, the author of Bidayat al Mujtahid, was a scholar of the deen and a philosopher.Likewise Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Hazm, Ibn Khaldun and others were also scholars of both religious and secular sciences. Many non-Muslims academics have written Phd thesis on some these great scholars. For example the IBM research scientist John Safa published his thesis describing Ibn Taymiya’s influence on Analogical Reasoning in the International Conference on Conceptual Structures (http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/)
And yes brother ‘Wiki’ the golden age of Islam extends from the time of the prophet and his companions. But even during the time of the companions the Muslims were engaged in researching in different fields of knowledge.
And Allah Knows Best
Regardless of how Islamic it is, sociology or linguistics will never be as beneficial a subject as science or mathematics.
That, however is no reason to simply dismiss this woman’s work. None of us here have read her thesis. ‘Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.’
The pass judgement on the validity of her study, with out proper knowledge of the work, is to speak from a position of ignorance and portray it as wisdom.
it’s straight and simple, don’t exhonorate a deed more than it deserves. that’s being disproportionate and is a disservice and very offensive to those ladies and gentlemen who have attained phds in medicine, biology, engineering, nuclear physics.
It’s ignorant to accuse others of ‘dismissing’ Dr twigg’s/tagg’s phd when none have done so, they merely put it into its rightful perspective in comparison to the hugely beneficial works produced by many NON MUSLIM doctors and professors during thier phd submission. Furthermore, it’s just sheer arrogance and pride on part of some who exclaim that the author inc some posters are ‘narrow minded’ simply because their view doesn’t agree with theirs. This is a quality of the wacky leftists being intolerant of others’ views while ‘championing tolerance and liberty’. None here has even defined narrow mindedness while others here somehow assume rather foolishly that one has to have read the entire 80 thousand word thesis to have a view on this. What utter garbage!
Again, and one more time, we must be clear that as sabiha akther’s shaykh, shaykh wiki had said, there IS no golden era after the collapse of the khulafaa arraashideen. STOP… can sabiha say that there were any philospher sahaabah during that golden age of islaam? Why was that age referred to the golden age? because of their progress in philosphy and sms messaging? Such shameless self importance! How dare you? yeah, a phd is hard work but hard work wasted on a non issue. Know your place… Again, and one more time, we must be clear that the downfall of the muslims was caused (amongst other things) by our deviance into such subjects of danger and no value such as philosophy, astrology and other arts while abandoning core practices and sciences useful to all humanity.
sabiha, the ulamaa you listed were scientists and mathemeticians, not philosophers! You compare them to the professor of text msging? the other ulamaa, who DID engage in ilm ul kalaam, philosophy only engaged in this area in order to benefit peoples understanding of GOD, purpose of life, their existence and the marvel of God’s creation, the universe. They weren’t dilly dallying 3 years of their lives away studying sms messaging, which can hardly be called philosophy! Despite all this, many contemporaries of the very same ulamaa you listed vehemently criticised their delving into these subjects…
So please, know youre place, when a shariah graduate like abdullah al hasan speaks to you!
excuse the poor spelling, call it text speech if you want
Most readers are missing his point
I think his main idea is captured in this line “However, it appears 21st century man is not very good at striking a balance in this regard”
Yes there are some interesting psychological and sociological studies that are sometimes done. but most studies today can be classified as pseudo-science or unprioritized topics. Many research topics would actually shame governments and policy makers to shift alot of policies that contribute to violence, homelessness, and tougher family financial security.
I think all we are reminded is to take studying seriously whether in the areas of the Shariah or life rather than the average Muslim who does not do this yet. Ramadan Mubarak