Continuation of the Benefits: ((It is He who has revealed to you the Book, of which are clear verses, which are the mother of the Book...))

Among the benefits of this noble verse is the virtue of being firmly grounded in knowledge. What is the meaning of being firmly grounded in knowledge? It is stability in it and depth in it until we reach its roots, as He said: . The opposite of being firmly grounded in knowledge is superficiality in knowledge, and how much superficiality there is among us today. Most people today have superficial knowledge, and for this reason, you find that when they author or write, they rely heavily on quotations, because they have no accumulated knowledge. They say, "So-and-so said this, and so-and-so said that," because they do not have a scientific foundation. A person cannot express himself because he has no knowledge, so he excuses himself from speaking and brings in, "So-and-so said this," filling a page or more with it. But if you return to the people of knowledge, the true people of knowledge, you will find that they speak from their hearts with knowledge without quoting. For this reason, you sometimes find that their phrasing does not contradict the phrasing of other scholars. Among the clearest and most explicit books are those of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim; you will find that they speak about the knowledge of the firmly grounded, and there are many like them, but the point is that this is among the clearest things that have passed by me. Being firmly grounded in knowledge makes a person as if knowledge springs from his heart, whereas the superficial one, whose knowledge is only a shadow on the head, has a benefit that is close to that of the learner. Among the benefits of this noble verse is also that a person should strive to be firmly grounded in knowledge rather than merely collecting a large amount of it, because the criterion is being firmly grounded in knowledge. If a person has firm grounding in knowledge, he acquires a skill that enables him to bring some knowledge close to other knowledge and to analogize what is not explicitly stated to what is explicitly stated, and knowledge becomes for him like a firmly established nature. Among the benefits of this noble verse is that the firmly grounded in knowledge know that what is from Allah does not contain contradiction, as He said: . Among the benefits of this noble verse is that the implication of Lordship is that Allah the Exalted reveals to His servants a Book that does not contain discrepancy to cast them into doubt and confusion, as He said: . And what is from the Lord who cares for His servants with His Lordship will not contain anything that contradicts or differs. Among the benefits of this noble verse is that no one remembers by this Qur'an or by anything else except those who possess intellects, as He said: . Among the benefits of this noble verse is that the more a person increases in intellect, the more he remembers by the speech of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and the more his remembrance of the Qur'an decreases, the more it indicates a deficiency in his intellect, because if Allah has restricted remembrance to those who possess intellects, it implies that this remembrance is not beneficial to one who does not have intellect. Among the benefits of this noble verse is that intellects are not the same as intelligence; that is, intellect is not the same as intelligence, because we find many people who are intelligent but do not remember by the Qur'an. We do not call these people people of intellect. But the intellect that is absent in them—is it the intellect of perception or the intellect of conduct? It is the intellect of conduct and sound judgment, whereas the intellect of perception, they do perceive, and for this reason, the argument is established against them. Among the benefits of this noble verse is that there is in the Qur'an what no one knows its interpretation except Allah, on the reading of stopping . If someone asks: What is the benefit in revealing something whose interpretation is not known? We say the benefit is testing the servants by their etiquette with Allah the Mighty and Majestic: do they try to reach something their intellects cannot grasp, or do they stop at the limits of what their intellects can grasp? Because some people go and dare to attempt to grasp what the intellect cannot reach, while some people are polite and stop at what their intellect cannot reach. Among the benefits of this noble verse is the vastness of the knowledge of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, as He said: on the reading of stopping. Among its benefits is also that the speech of Allah the Mighty and Majestic differs: some of it is clear, some is ambiguous, some is a command, some is a prohibition, some is a report, some is a question, and other types that only Allah can count, contrary to those who said that the speech of Allah is of one type, and that the difference in phrasings or surahs does not indicate its diversity and difference, such as the Asha'irah. Because the Asha'irah hold that the speech of Allah is the meaning subsisting in the soul, and that it is one thing: if it is expressed in Arabic, it becomes the Qur'an, if it is expressed in Hebrew, it becomes the Torah, if it is expressed in Syriac, it becomes the Gospel, and if it comes in the form of a prohibition, it becomes a prohibition, and so on. Or if it is expressed in the form of a prohibition, it becomes a prohibition, and if it is expressed in the form of a command, it becomes a command, otherwise it is one thing. Undoubtedly, this is a statement that is refuted by reason and revelation.