A word by Shaykh Abu Malik on the virtue of knowledge and scholars, and on the trial of wealth.

Abu Malik: All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to mislead, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger. As for what follows, the truest speech is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are those newly invented, for every newly invented matter is a religious innovation, every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. My brothers, may Allah bless you, I wish to address three issues in this talk, allocating to each what is feasible and what Allah opens up for me to say about it.
As for the first issue: There is no doubt that we are in an age in which knowledge has declined and its radiant face, which our previous scholars or the scholars of this Ummah in past centuries possessed, has disappeared. This knowledge has truly become foreign in this time. If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , then the foreignness of those who reform is the foreignness of knowledge. And the foreignness of knowledge undoubtedly causes foreignness among people or among the scholars who are upon the methodology of truth and who established the pillar of Islam with the knowledge by which Allah opened up to them in past centuries. When this knowledge becomes foreign among people due to the foreignness of the scholars who are being extracted from the Ummah—not by death, but by the ignorance that rides upon the Ummah—the Ummah takes a direction or path other than the path of our predecessors in past centuries. This is what our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) refers to in his saying: From here, it is obligatory for us to remember that we are in a gathering like this, in which Allah has bestowed upon us knowledge that is rare to find in any other gathering except this one or a similar one. I say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has bestowed or poured upon us knowledge such that we are not capable of being anything but its bearers. As for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) enabling us to explain it, speak about it, and excel in it in the manner we heard from our Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good, this is not feasible for all but a few in this time. From here, we must strive to grasp every word we hear in a gathering like this, because our striving confirms that the seeking of knowledge is also only for the very few among people whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has chosen for the support of His religion, the upholding of the command of the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the calling to both. They do not distinguish between them, based on his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): From here, I say it is obligatory for us to strive for such precious, rare scholarly gatherings where our Shaykh, may Allah reward us and the Ummah with good, is present. We have truly felt that we are in a time when scholars are few. However, since Allah has been generous to this Ummah with a Shaykh like ours, we feel, praise be to Allah, that this knowledge which was in the Salaf of this Ummah and in its first three centuries has been made by Allah a path to us through the hand of our Shaykh, may Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) reward him with good. This knowledge is not achieved except through perseverance, continuity, effort, patience, and knowing the treasures, gems, and riches of this knowledge, which cannot be facilitated by merely memorizing their names, reciting them, and knowing their authors and writers. Rather, they are truly known through the effort that must be exerted to recite their pages, extract their treasures, and preserve them in the breasts and minds, so that one of the students of knowledge is like the students of knowledge in bygone times and past centuries. This is the first issue.
As for the second issue: In these days, we fully realize that we are in need of remembering the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): I say, I recall this verse as I read it, or as we all read it in Surat al-Anfal, recalling the meaning of this verse as if it is still being spoken by the mouths of those believers who fought in the path of Allah in the Battle of Badr, the Battle of Uhud, and other battles that revealed the reality of brotherhood among those Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) through preference, affection, sacrifice, patience, love, and other great morals that cannot manifest except in one who understands this verse and acts upon its great meanings which it contains: Since the matter is so, and we know that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the One who united these hearts without any expenditure of wealth, even a small amount, but rather this unification was through the love that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) cast into the hearts of this great group, and this love was never in such hearts, nor did it grow, nor did its stalks lengthen, nor did it bear fruit, except through the faith they learned at the hands of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Therefore, we are in this time in need of recalling this meaning and keeping it present in our souls, and not letting it be absent from us for a single moment, and removing from ourselves everything that can affect this matter which Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) distinguished this group with, and they are the group of believers, and it was not for the disbelievers at all. And whatever love people contend for, or fill, or try to display among themselves, if they are not upon the methodology of truth, this love will not last long before it disappears and vanishes. And if we follow the path of those in our calling for love, this love will also diminish and vanish, joining that love which cannot last if they are as they are. Therefore, we should preserve this verse well and know that this love, or this brotherhood which was based on the love that established a tall tree in the hearts of its Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), will not be in us except as it was in those sincere believers. It is a heavenly gift in which humans have no merit except to preserve it, reap its fruits, and make their path to it a path of reform and preservation. Otherwise, this blessing will vanish. And you have seen the disappearance of some of it in that trial that struck the Ummah and surrounded it from all sides. And now, praise be to Allah, we see the verification of this verse, and this meaning has moved away from us due to this great trial in the home of honorable brothers from the country, from the country where we sit in their home, and we ate from their food, and we truly felt that trials, however great, and however the enemies of Islam try to ignite their fire, intensify their blaze, and cut their causes, remain in us, and their remaining was only because we understood, praise be to Allah, the saying of our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He): Therefore, this is a blessing that we must thank Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) for bestowing upon us. It is also something we should know that its permanence is only through knowledge, and the knowledge we learned from our righteous predecessors, and Allah has left a remnant of them in us, among them our ShaykhThe Shaykh : Nasser, may Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) reward us with good.
As for the third issue, which is the last: there is no doubt, my brothers, that the greatest trial that has befallen the Muslim community in this time, and will befall it in the times to come, and which it also suffered in the past, is the trial of wealth. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding it: So wealth, my brothers, is not the path by which the affairs of this community will be rectified. You see now that the wealth flowing like rivers before the Muslims has been the cause of their destruction, the ruin of their homes, the corruption of their land, and the dominance of their enemies over them. If wealth were the cause of the community's revival, its rise, the building of its glory, and its catching up with the ranks of the predecessors of this community, then the community today would be the highest of nations on earth. But this community, having been struck by the trial of wealth and surrounded by it from all sides, has been swept away from the positions of good, affection, and love. This community should know that it has fallen into a great and dangerous experience that has shaken it, disturbed its rest, and carried it on ships in seas, in rough seas with crashing waves. Its affairs will not settle unless it knows that wealth is not its path to revival, nor its path to unity, nor its path to the unification of its word. You see this, and there is no need for me to give examples or bring the matter closer to you beyond what I have indicated, for the indication here is sufficient, sufficient, and sufficient. Therefore, we must know that the wealth which was the cause of extinguishing the flame of faith, severing the bonds of affection between hearts, enslaving this community under the hands of its enemies, enslaving this community under the hands of its enemies, diminishing its land, stripping it of its bounties, and causing it to strike one part against another, we must know that this trial is the most dangerous trial, and that we must rid ourselves of it, and that our hearts must not be attached to it. And what takes the place of this trial, without doubt, is that we know that the Hereafter is better for us and more lasting, and that the Hereafter, regarding which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said what He said about prioritizing it and preferring it over this world, and encouraging people to work for it, will not be attained by wishing, nor will it be except by striving with righteous deeds, continuous giving, unceasing effort, and seeking knowledge and understanding, for the Hereafter necessarily requires knowledge, and knowledge is not achieved except by...