Seizing Opportunities and Making the Most of Time in Righteous Deeds
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You, my Muslim brother, must fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and seize opportunities, and not let a single hour pass without you having a righteous deed in it:Or a specific act of worship from: Prayer, reciting the Qur'an, dhikr (the remembrance of Allah), and so on.
-Or in a general act of worship: Such as knowledge you spread among your brothers, your colleagues, and the general public.
Or by enjoining good and forbidding evil.
Or by dutifulness to parents and maintaining family ties.
Or by being kind to neighbors, being kind to orphans, and others.
Or by striving to reconcile people.
And so on, of the many matters that Allah the Exalted has prescribed for the servants as mercy, favor, and excellence from Him.
Were it not that Allah prescribed these things, they would be among those that do not bring one closer to Allah, but Allah prescribed them to be means of drawing near to Him and for the servants to benefit from them.And among them: Traveling in the pursuit of knowledge:For the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that: (Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise).
And the paths in which knowledge is sought are of two types: Physical and spiritual.
As for the physical ones, they are: The markets in which a person walks to the houses of knowledge; mosques and non-mosques.
And as for the spiritual ones, they are: That a person travels with his thought, contemplation, and reflection in the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), or in reading the books of the scholars who exerted much appreciated effort in spreading the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) with their correct meanings; whether that is directly in the Qur'an, such as tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), directly in the Sunnah, such as explanations of hadiths, or separately, such as books of jurists and books of scholars on 'aqidah (creed) and tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and the like. Indeed, all the books of 'aqidah and tawhid that you find, in which their authors argue from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, are in reality an interpretation of the Qur'an, but an indirect interpretation. Likewise, what you find in the books of jurists who argue for the rulings of the Shari'ah from the Qur'an and Sunnah is in reality an interpretation of the Qur'an. So the one who reads books of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) based on evidence is in reality reading tafsir; but it is indirect. And the one who reads books of 'aqidah and tawhid that argue for what they state from the Book and Sunnah is in reality reading tafsir.
-Or in a general act of worship: Such as knowledge you spread among your brothers, your colleagues, and the general public.
Or by enjoining good and forbidding evil.
Or by dutifulness to parents and maintaining family ties.
Or by being kind to neighbors, being kind to orphans, and others.
Or by striving to reconcile people.
And so on, of the many matters that Allah the Exalted has prescribed for the servants as mercy, favor, and excellence from Him.
Were it not that Allah prescribed these things, they would be among those that do not bring one closer to Allah, but Allah prescribed them to be means of drawing near to Him and for the servants to benefit from them.And among them: Traveling in the pursuit of knowledge:For the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that: (Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise).
And the paths in which knowledge is sought are of two types: Physical and spiritual.
As for the physical ones, they are: The markets in which a person walks to the houses of knowledge; mosques and non-mosques.
And as for the spiritual ones, they are: That a person travels with his thought, contemplation, and reflection in the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), or in reading the books of the scholars who exerted much appreciated effort in spreading the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) with their correct meanings; whether that is directly in the Qur'an, such as tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), directly in the Sunnah, such as explanations of hadiths, or separately, such as books of jurists and books of scholars on 'aqidah (creed) and tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and the like. Indeed, all the books of 'aqidah and tawhid that you find, in which their authors argue from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, are in reality an interpretation of the Qur'an, but an indirect interpretation. Likewise, what you find in the books of jurists who argue for the rulings of the Shari'ah from the Qur'an and Sunnah is in reality an interpretation of the Qur'an. So the one who reads books of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) based on evidence is in reality reading tafsir; but it is indirect. And the one who reads books of 'aqidah and tawhid that argue for what they state from the Book and Sunnah is in reality reading tafsir.