What are the causes and the cure for forgetting knowledge?
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The questioner : Many students of knowledge suffer from forgetting what they have memorized and losing the benefits of what they have read. So, what is the best solution in your view, O honorable Shaykh?
The Shaykh : From forgetting what is memorized.
The questioner : Yes, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh : And what else?
The questioner : And losing the benefits of what is read.
The Shaykh : And losing the benefits of the disliked things that are read.
The causes of weak memory are many, among them are sins, for sins necessitate forgetting. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:[Al-Ma'idah 5:13] And al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I complained to Waki' of my poor memory *** So he directed me to abandon sins
And he said, "Know that knowledge is light, *** and the light of Allah is not granted to a disobedient person."
This is one of the causes of forgetting: sins are a cause of forgetting. A cause of forgetting is that a person does not review what he has memorized, meaning he does not repeat it. The evidence for this is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): meaning, review it Sahih Muslim 791.
Thirdly: the multitude of preoccupations. If a person has many preoccupations, he will forget, because the heart is a container. Do you know what a container is? What is it? A vessel, whether a bucket or a basin or a vessel. This vessel has a limit, it has a capacity. If it is filled with something, it cannot hold anything else. So if a person is not free and has preoccupations, these preoccupations will cause him to forget one thing for another. Do you understand? These are three things, all of which are causes of forgetting.
Another cause of forgetting is not acting upon what you have learned. So if you act upon what you learn, your action is a study, a study of the knowledge. For example, if you learn that it is obligatory to maintain the order in the ablution, and then you perform the ablution in order, is this a study or not? It is undoubtedly a study. Yes, after that, please take the microphone for the recording. And what brought him here?
The questioner : Your Eminence, the Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Be patient, my brother, take it, come on.
The Shaykh : From forgetting what is memorized.
The questioner : Yes, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh : And what else?
The questioner : And losing the benefits of what is read.
The Shaykh : And losing the benefits of the disliked things that are read.
The causes of weak memory are many, among them are sins, for sins necessitate forgetting. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:
So for their breaking of the covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their [proper] usages and have forgotten a portion of that of which they were
فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِيثَاقَهُمْ لَعَنَّاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَا قُلُوبَهُمْ قَاسِيَةً يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ وَنَسُوا حَظّاً مِمَّا ذُكِّرُوا"I complained to Waki' of my poor memory *** So he directed me to abandon sins
And he said, "Know that knowledge is light, *** and the light of Allah is not granted to a disobedient person."
This is one of the causes of forgetting: sins are a cause of forgetting. A cause of forgetting is that a person does not review what he has memorized, meaning he does not repeat it. The evidence for this is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):
Review the Qur'an
تعاهدوا القرآنfor I swear by Him in Whose Hand is the life of Mahammad that it is more liable to escape than camels which are hobbled.
فوالذي نفسي بيده لهو أشد تفلتًا من الإبل في عقلهاThirdly: the multitude of preoccupations. If a person has many preoccupations, he will forget, because the heart is a container. Do you know what a container is? What is it? A vessel, whether a bucket or a basin or a vessel. This vessel has a limit, it has a capacity. If it is filled with something, it cannot hold anything else. So if a person is not free and has preoccupations, these preoccupations will cause him to forget one thing for another. Do you understand? These are three things, all of which are causes of forgetting.
Another cause of forgetting is not acting upon what you have learned. So if you act upon what you learn, your action is a study, a study of the knowledge. For example, if you learn that it is obligatory to maintain the order in the ablution, and then you perform the ablution in order, is this a study or not? It is undoubtedly a study. Yes, after that, please take the microphone for the recording. And what brought him here?
The questioner : Your Eminence, the Shaykh.
The Shaykh : Be patient, my brother, take it, come on.