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Allah Most High praised reason in many verses of His Book:
{ يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَن يَشَاءُ وَمَن يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ }
{ He grants wisdom to whom He pleases, and whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted abundant good; and none would take heed except those endowed with understanding.} Sura 2:269
{ وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ }
{ But most of them have no sense } Sura 5:103, 29:63
...
It is related that the Prophet ﷺ asked about a man who was being praised much [eulogized] by the Companions for his great piety and religion: "How intelligent is he?" (kayfa ʿaqluhu?). They replied: "Not much, Messenger of Allāh" (laysa bi shay'). The Prophet ﷺ said: "Your friend does not reach the level that you think". Another narratiion states that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Do not hasten to commend him" (arjūh).
The Prophet ﷺ also said:
أَلَا وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ أَلَا وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ
"Lo! Verily, there is in the body a small piece of flesh; if it is good the whole body is good and if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted; lo! it is the heart." 1
Al-Nawawi said:
"This hadith was used as proof that the seat of the mind is the heart (al-ʿaql fi al-qalb) and not the head.
There is a
well-known difference of
opinion concerning this. The position of our [Shafiʿi] scholars and the overwhelming majority of the scholars of
kalam is that it is the heart, while Abu Hanifa said it is the brain, and it might also be said to be the
head. The philosophers are said to hold the first position, the physicians
the second.
Al-Maziri said: "Those who hold that it is in the heart adduced as proof Allah's saying { Have they not
travelled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear? For indeed it is not the
eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within
the bosoms, that grow blind)} (22:46) and { Lo! therein verily is a reminder
for him who has a heart, or gives ear with full intelligence) (50:37).}" 2
The Prophet ﷺ said, pointing to the heart: "Fear of Allah is right here" (al-taqwā hāhunā). 3
Another narration states: "Verily, Allah looks not at your bodies nor at your faces but He looks at your hearts." 4
Imam al-Nawawi stated that these two narrations were also used as proof that the seat of the mind is the heart and Ibn Hajar similarly adduced all the above texts as evidence of the same. 5
ʿAli ibn Abi Talib 
said at the battle of Siffin: "The seat of reason is the heart (al-ʿaqlu fi al-qalb), that of mercy
is the liver, that of sympathy is the spleen, and that of breath is the lung." 6
Imam Ahmad defined reason (al-ʿaql) thus: "One of different types of necessary types of knowledge that
characterize animate beings endowed with
speech. Its seat is the heart." 7
Another authoritative definition was given by Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya
al-Ansari: "Lexically it means 'prevention' (al-manʿ), as it prevents its possessor from straying from the
correct path. By convention it denotes instinct (ghariza) through which one is prepared to comprehend the
theoretical sciences. It is also said to be a light cast into the heart." 8
Shaykh Taj al-Din ibn ʿAta' Allah al-Sakandari related in Lata'if al-Minan from Shaykh Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Mursi that the latter said:
"Once I
recited { By the fig and the olive } (95:1) until I arrived at His saying { Surely We created man of the best stature
Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low } (95:4-5).
I reflected upon the meaning of these verses,
and Allah inspired to me that their meaning is { Surely We created man of the best stature } - in soul and mind -
(ruhan wa ʿaqlan), { Then We reduced him
to the lowest of the low } - in ego and lust - (nafsan wa hawa)." 9
Among the sayings of ʿAli ibn Abi Talib -- Allah be well-pleased with him -- on this topic, narrated by Abu
Nuʿaym with his chains:
* From Abu Araka:
"I have seen a remnant of the Companions of Allah's Messenger ﷺ . I see no-one that resembles them. By Allah! They used to rise in the morning disheveled, dust-covered, pale, with something between their eyes like goat's knees, as they had spent the night chanting Allah's Book, turning from their feet to their foreheads. If Allah was mentioned they swayed the way trees sway on a windy day, then their eyes poured out tears until - by Allah! - they soaked their clothes. By Allah! It is as if folks today sleep in indifference."
*From al-Hasan ibn ʿAli:
"Blessed is the servant that cries constantly to Allah, who has known people while they have not known him, and Allah has marked him with His contentment. These are the true beacons of guidance. Allah repels from them every wrongful dissension and shall enter them into His own mercy. They are not the wasteful tale-bearers (10) nor the ill-mannered self-displayers." 11
* From ʿAsim ibn Damura:
"The true, the real faqih is he who does not push
people to despair from Allah's mercy, nor lulls them into a false sense of
safety from His Punishment, nor gives them licenses to disobey Allah, nor leaves the Qur'an for something else.
There is no good in worship devoid of knowledge, nor in knowledge devoid of understanding, nor in inattentive
recitation."
* From ʿAmr ibn Murra:
"Be wellsprings of the Science and beacons in the night, wearing old clothes but possessing new hearts for which you shall be known in the heaven and remembered on the earth."
* "Thus does Knowledge die: when those who possess it die. By Allah, I do swear it! The earth will never be empty of one who establishes the proofs of Allah so that His proofs and signs never cease. They are the fewest in number, but the greatest in rank before Allah. Through them Allah preserves His proofs until they bequeath it to those like them (before passing on) and plant it firmly in their hearts.
By them knowledge has taken by assault the reality of things, so that they found easy what those given to comfort found hard, and found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate. They accompanied the world with bodies whose spirits were attached to the highest regard. Ah, ah! How one yearns to see them!" 14
Al-Hasan al-Basri said:
"Have you ever seen a faqih? The faqih is he who has renounced the world, longs for the hereafter, possesses insight in his Religion, and worships his Lord without cease." 12
Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Tustari:
Al-Barbahari said: I heard Sahl say:
"Allah created the world and placed in it those who are ignorant and those who
have knowledge. The best knowledge is that which one acts upon. For knowledge is all a proof [against oneself]
except what is put into practice. But what is put into practice is all wind except what is sound and correct. As for
what is sound and correct: I do not declare with certainty any act to be so, except what Allah wills." 15
Imam al-Awzaʿi:
Baqiyya ibn al-Walid said that al-Awzaʿi said:
"O Baqiyya! Do not mention any of your Prophet's ﷺ Companions except kindly.
O Baqiyya! Knowledge (al-ʿilm) is whatever came to us from the
Companions of Muhammad ﷺ . Whatever did not come
to us from them, is not knowledge." 16
Imam Malik:
* From Ibn al-Qasim: "I heard Zayd ibn Aslam say: { And unto each of them We gave judgment (hukm) and
knowledge } (21:79) that wisdom (al-hikma) is reason (al-ʿaql).
What comes to my heart is that wisdom is
superlative understanding (al-fiqh) in the Religion of Allah. What clearly shows this is that you may see someone
quite reasonable and clear-sighted in worldly matters, and someone else weak in worldly matters but
knowledgeable and judicious in the matter of his Religion. Allah gave him this but deprived the former of it. This
wisdom, therefore, is superlative understanding in the Religion of Allah (al-fiqhu fī dīnillāh)." 17
Related to Mālik's words are the Prophet's ﷺ hadīths:
"O Allah! Do not make any loss of ours be in our Religion, nor make the world the greatest concern, nor make it the sum total of our knowledge!"
"Most of the people of Paradise are the naive (al-bulh)."
"Forbidden to the fire is every gentle, lenient, easy-going one who is near to the people."
"Paradise says: None enters me except the weak and the wretched among the people and their simple-minded (ghirratuhum)."
"The believer is guileless [h1] and noble (al-mu'minu ghirrun karīm) while the wicked man is perfidious and miserly (wal-fājiru khibbun la'īm)." [h2]
"The believer is easy and lenient (hayyinun layyinun) to the point you will think him a fool (ahmaq) in his leniency."
The ghirr and bulh are those who were ignorant of evil ways in the world but knowledgeable in their Religion, or those whose hearts were guileless [h1] towards people, or those who lacked skill in worldly ways, or those like old women, Bedouins, and their like, who remained staunch in their Religion. Ibn al-Āthir cites some of these narrations under the entries b-l-h and gh-r-r in al-Nihāya (1:154, 3:353), as well as Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Razi in Mukhtār
al-Sihāh (p. 26).
From Ibn Wahb: "In the verse { and he shall instruct them in the Book and in wisdom } (2:129, 62:2), 'wisdom' is the Sunna. In the verses { And We gave him wisdom when a child } (19:12), { He said: I have come unto you with wisdom} (43:63), {And He will teach him the Scripture and wisdom } (3:48), { And bear in mind that which is recited in your houses of the revelations of Allah and wisdom } (33:34), 'wisdom' is obedience of Allah, observance of Him, superlative understanding in the Religion, and deeds in conformity with it."
Ibn Wahb also said: "I heard Malik say: "Wisdom and knowledge are a light by which Allah guides whomever He pleases; it does not consist in knowing many things." 18
Another version states: "Knowledge does not consist in narrating much. Knowledge is but a light which Allah places in the heart." This is similar to the statements of Ibrāhīm al-Khawwās: Knowledge does not consist in narrating much. Only he is learned who follows up on knowledge and puts it into practice, obeying the Sunan, even if he knows little"; and ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtba: "Knowledge does not consist in narrating much. Knowledge is fear of Allah (al-khashya)."
Imam al-Shafiʿi:
"Knowledge is what contains the words: 'Narrated to us.' All else is satanic whisperings. 19
"Knowledge is not what one has memorized. Knowledge is what benefits."
This is a corrective for those content to define knowledge as "the knowledge of the proof" (maʿrifa al-dalil). { He gives wisdom to whomever He will, and whoever receives wisdom receives immense good } (2:269). 20
"You [the Scholars of hadith] are the pharmacists but we [the Jurists] are
the physicians."
This was explained by ʿAli al-Qari in his book Muʿtaqad Abi Hanifa al-Imam (p. 42):
"The early
scholars said: The hadith scholar without knowledge of fiqh is like a seller of drugs who is no physician: he has
them but he does not know what to do with them; and the fiqh scholar without knowledge of hadith is like a
physician without drugs: he knows what constitutes a remedy, but does not dispose of it."
Imam Ibn Hibbān al-Bustī:
Among Ibn Hibbān's notable remarks in his Sahīh in his definition of "knowledge" to mean "knowledge of the Sunna" in the Prophet's ﷺ hadīth: "Time shall grow short and knowledge decrease,"20 in view of the increase of every other type of knowledge in modern times.
Imam Ibn ʿAta' Allah al-Sakandari:
"The Knowledge that benefits is that whose rays expand in the breast and whose veil is lifted in the heart." 20
Ibn
ʿAta' Allah, Hikam (#213).
Al-Dhahabī:
"[Knowledge (al-ʿilm) is] not the profusion of narration but a light which Allah casts into the heart. Its condition is followership (ittibāʿ) and the flight away from egotism (hawā) and innovation."
Make no mistake: The hadith in no way contradicts the aya cited but rather confirms it, in the sense of following your heart in issues that raise an ethical scruple in you even if people give you fatwa to go ahead. Meaning, if your heart tells you there is something wrong with it, then leave it. This explanation is confirmed by another hadith that states: "Sin (al-ithm) is whatever pricks the conscience."
And Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad ©
The printed text with extensive footnotes can be found in the book 'Sunna Notes' Volumes 1 1 Narrated from al-Nuʿman ibn Bashir in the Six Books. The complete hadith states:
"Verily, the lawful is
manifest and the forbidden is manifest, but
between them there are dubious matters which many people do not know. Therefore, whoever bewares of dubious
matters has made himself exempt [of guilt] for the sake of his religion and his honor, and whoever falls into
dubious matters, falls into the forbidden.
It is as with the shepherd that
grazes his herd around guarded grounds: he greatly risks grazing it inside
it. Lo! Every king possesses guarded grounds. Lo! Verily, Allah's guarded grounds are His prohibitions.
Lo! Verily,
there is in the body a small piece of flesh; if it is good the whole body is good and if it is corrupted the whole body
is corrupted; lo! It is the heart."
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2 Al-Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim (1972 ed. 11:29).
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3 Narrated from Abu Hurayra by Muslim, and in various wordings from Abu Hurayra, Anas, and others by
al-Tirmidhi (hasan gharīb), Ahmad, al-Tabarani, Abu Yaʿla, and Abu Nuʿaym. Also narrated from Wabisa ibn
Maʿbad al-Asadi by Ahmad with the wording: "Righteousness (al-birr) is whatever your chest becomes dilated in
doing, while iniquity (al-ithm) is whatever your chest becomes constricted in doing, regardless of what people recommend."
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4 Narrated from Abu Hurayra by Muslim and Ibn Majah.
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5 Respectively in Sharh Sahih Muslim (16:122) and Fath al-Bari (1959 ed. 1:129).
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6 Narrated from ʿIyad ibn Khalifa by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (p. 192) with a fair (hasan) chain
because of Muhammad ibn Muslim al-Ta'ifi, and al-Bayhaqi in Shuʿab al-Iman (3-4:161).
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7 Ahmad ibn Hanbal in Tabaqat al-Habanila (2:281).
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8 Zakariyya al-Ansari, al-Hudud al-Aniqa (p. 67).
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9 In al-Suyuti, Asrar Tartib al-Qur'an (p. 153).
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10 Those who fanned dissension between ʿAli and the other Companions.
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11 The Khawārij.
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12 As cited by al-ʿAyni in ʿUmda al-Qari, Book of ʿIlm, in his commentary on the hadith: "He for whom Allah desires great good, He grants him understanding in the Religion".
Cf. Ibn al-Jawzi, Manaqib al-Hasan al-Basri (p.
16).
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13 Cited by Ibn al-Jawzi in his chapter on ʿAli in Sifat al-Safwa.
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14 Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifa al-Safwa 2(4):10 (#570) and 1(2):203 (#254); Abu Nuʿaym, Hilya al-Awliya'
(6:155) and s.v. "Abu Hashim"; Ibn Taymiyya, al-Sufiyya wa al-Fuqara', beginning of volume 11 of his Majmuʿa
al-Fatawa entitled al-Tasawwuf; al-Harawi al-Ansari, Tabaqat al-Sufiyya, 1983 Mawlayi ed. (p. 1, 159);
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Gilani, al-Ghunya (p. 840); ʿAbd al-Rahman Jami, Nafahat al-Uns, ed. M. Tauhidipur,
1336/1957 (p. 441).
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15 In Ibn Abi Yaʿla, Tabaqat al-Hanabila (2:18). Sahl also said:
"No-one is
given a better knowledge than that by which he increases his utter dependence on Allah."
Abu Nuʿaym, Hilya
al-Awliya' (10:204 #14934).
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16 Cited by al-Dhahabi in Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala' (1997 ed. 7:95) and Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (1959 ed.
13:291).
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17 As cited by al-Tabari in his Tafsir (verse 21:79) and al-Mahdawi in al-Tahsil as quoted by Hamid Lahmar in al-Imam Malik Mufassiran (p. 279). Related to Malik's words, note the Prophet's ﷺ hadith: "Most of the people of Paradise are the naive (al-bulh)." Narrated from Anas by al-Bazzar in his Musnad (#1983) who graded it weak, while al-Qurtubi declared it sahīh in his Tafsir (verses 26:83-89), but this was questioned by al-ʿIraqi in al-Mughni ʿan Haml al-Asfar, who quoted Ibn ʿAdi's rejection of the hadith in al-Kamil fi al-Duʿafa' (3:313 #773). Ibn ʿAdi said "condemned as narrated through this chain" (hādha al-hadīth bi hādha al-isnād munkarun), and did not mean the content of the hadith, as its veracity is confirmed by the Prophet's ﷺ hadith narrated from Abu Hurayra by Muslim: "Paradise says: None enters me except the weak and wretched among the people and their simple-minded (ghirratuhum)."
The best grading for the chain of Anas's narration is that of "soft" (layyin) in
al-Fattani's Tadhkira al-Mawduʿat (p. 29) and al-ʿAjluni's Kashf al-Khafa' (1:164, 1:286) because of Salama
ibn Rawh. See also al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal (26:113 #5465), al-Qudaʿi's Musnad al-Shihab (2:110
#989-990), al-Suyuti's al-Durar al-Muntathira (p. 93 #68), al-Sakhawi's al-Maqasid al-Hasana (p. 74),
and al-Zarkashi's al-Tadhkira (p. 170).
The hadith is also narrated with a weak chain from Jabir as stated by Ibn
ʿAdi (1:191 #31), Ibn al-Jawzi in al-ʿIlal al-Mutanahiya (2:934-935 #1558-1559), and Ibn Hajar in Lisan
al-Mizan (1:240 #755).
The ghirr and bulh are those who were ignorant of evil ways in the world but knowledgeable in their Religion, as explained by Abu ʿUthman and al-Awzaʿi in Kashf al-Khafa' and Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala' (1997 ed. 7:92), also al-Munawi in Fayd al-Qadir (2:79); or those whose hearts were guileless towards people as stated by Ibn Qutayba in Ta'wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith (1995 ed. p. 270 =3D 1972 ed. p. 297); or those who lacked skill in worldly ways as explained by al-Nawawi in Sharh Sahih Muslim and al-Suyuti in al-Dibaj (6:191 #2847); or those like old women, beduins, and their like, who remained staunch in their Religion as stated by al-Qari in Al-Asrar al-Marfuʿa (p. 125-127 #53).
The "Salafi" editor of the latter, M.L. al-Sabbagh, rejected the hadith as munkar and exclaimed: "Islam was never for one day a Religion that supports naiveness or the simple-minded!" This is refuted by Muslim's narration from Abu Hurayra quoted above, as well as al-Tirmidhi (gharīb), Abu Dawud, Ahmad, al-Hakim (1:43), and ʿAbd al-Razzaq's narration from him that the Prophet ﷺ said:
"The believer is guileless and noble (al-mu'minu ghirrun karīm) while the wicked man is perfidious and miserly (wa al-fājiru khibbun la'īm)":
a fair narration as indicated by al-Dhahabi in his Talkhis and stated by Ibn Hajar in al-Ajwiba ʿala al-Qazwini [al-Qari's Mirqat 1994 ed. 1:546-549] and al-Suyuti as quoted in ʿAwn al-Maʿbud.
Al-Bayhaqi also narrated from Abu Hurayra, as stated in al-Qari's al-Mirqat (1994 ed. 8:813): "The believer is easy and lenient (hayyinun layyinun) to the point that you will think him a fool (ahmaq) in his leniency." hier1 Ibn al-Athir cites some of these narrations under the entries b-l-h and gh-r-r in al-Nihaya (1:154, 3:353), as well as Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Razi in Mukhtar al-Sihah (p. 26).
[h2] guileless; → guile: the quality of being very cunning and good at deceiving people.
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18 In Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Jamiʿ Bayan al-ʿIlm (1:83-84), al-Qadi ʿIyad, Tartib al-Madarik (2:62), al-Shatibi,
al-Muwafaqat (4:97-98).
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19 Al-Shafiʿi, Diwan as cited by al-Qari in his introduction to Sharh al-Fiqh al-Akbar.
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20 Narrated from Abū Hurayra by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dawūd, and Ibn Mājah: "Time shall grow short,
knowledge decrease, dissensions appear, avarice confront the people, and massacres abound." He was asked: "O
Messenger of Allah, what is the latter?" He replied: "Killing, killing!" See the discussion of this hadith in
al-ʿIraqi's Tarh al-Tathrib (4:26-29).
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Allah's blessings and peace on the Prophet ﷺ , his Family, and his
Companions.
GF Haddad ©
[1999-06-30]
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