And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on the virtue of knowledge, both learning it and teaching it for the sake of Allah: "Narrated by Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

God’s messenger as saying, “Two people only may be envied: a man to whom God has given property, empowering him to dispose of it on what is right; and a man to whom God has given wisdom who acts according to it and teaches it.”

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: لا حسد إلا في اثنتين رجل آتاه الله مالًا فسلطه على هلكته في الحق، ورجل آتاه الله الحكمة فهو يقضي بها ويعلمها

Mishkat al-Masabih 202

It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. And narrated by Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

Abu Musa (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "The guidance and knowledge with which Allah has sent me are like abundant rain which fell on a land. A fertile part of it absorbed the water and brought forth profuse herbage and pasture; and solid ground patches which retained the water by which Allah has benefited people, who drank from it, irrigated their crops and sowed their seeds; and another sandy plane which could neither retain the water nor produce herbage. Such is the similitude of the person who becomes well-versed in the religion of Allah and receives benefit from the Message entrusted to me by Allah, so he himself has learned and taught it to others; such is also the similitude of the person who has stubbornly and ignorantly rejected Allah's Guidance with which I have been sent." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: مثل ما بعثني الله به من الهدى والعلم كمثل غيث أصاب أرضًا فكانت منها طائفة قبلت الماء فأنبتت الكلأ والعشب الكثير، وكان منها أجادب أمسكت الماء فنفع الله بها الناس فشربوا منها وسقوا وزرعوا، وأصاب طائفة منها أخرى إنما هي قيعان لا تمسك ماء ولا تنبت كلأ، فذلك مثل من فقه في دين الله ونفعه ما بعثني الله به فعلم وعلم، ومثل من لم يرفع بذلك رأسًا ولم يقبل هدى الله الذي أرسلت به

Riyad as-Salihin 1378

It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his book *Riyad al-Salihin*, in the chapter on the virtue of knowledge, both learning it and teaching it for the sake of Allah, regarding the hadiths concerning the virtue of knowledge: The hadith of Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) preceded: Then he mentioned the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: Envy is mentioned, and what is intended by it is the forbidden envy, which is one of the major sins. It is when a person dislikes what Allah has bestowed upon another. This envy is when you dislike what Allah has bestowed upon someone else. You find a person who has wealth, and you dislike it, saying, "I wish Allah had not provided him with it." He has knowledge, and you dislike that and wish that Allah had not provided him with knowledge. He has righteous children, and you dislike that and wish that Allah had not provided him with them, and so on. This type of envy is one of the major sins and is one of the characteristics of the Jews, as Allah the Exalted said about them: And He said about them: As for the second type of envy, it is the envy of admiration (ghibtah), meaning that you admire another person because Allah has bestowed upon them wealth, knowledge, children, status, or something else. People admire one another for the blessings Allah has given them. You say, "What Allah willed, so-and-so, Allah gave him such and such; so-and-so, Allah gave him such and such; so-and-so, Allah gave him such and such." But there is no true admiration except in two things. The true admiration for which a person admires another is in two things. The first is knowledge: beneficial knowledge, which is what is intended by his saying: If Allah bestows knowledge upon a person and he uses it to judge between people, whether he is a judge or not, and he also uses it to judge in his own affairs and teaches people, then this is the object of admiration. Because knowledge is the most beneficial thing, more beneficial than wealth. It is the most beneficial thing for a person among righteous deeds. Because when he dies and people benefit from his knowledge, the reward of that continues to be recorded for him until the Day of Resurrection. Whenever any person benefits from it, he gets its reward. Knowledge increases the more you spend of it and teach it. For this reason, one of the strongest things that establishes knowledge and preserves its retention is for a person to teach it to others. Because Allah supports the servant as long as the servant supports his brother. So if you teach others, Allah will teach you. And if you teach others, the knowledge will be established in your own self. But do not step forward to teach unless you are qualified for it, so that Allah may benefit through you and so that you do not fail before people. Because the one who steps forward to teach without being qualified is between two things: either he says falsehood without realizing it, or he fails and, when asked, is unable to answer, for example. So this knowledge increases the more you spend of it. Also, knowledge does not require effort except in learning it, but it does not require, for example, vaults like wealth. Wealth requires vaults, accountants, calculations, and effort. But knowledge does not require this. Its vault is your heart, and this vault is with you wherever you are. So do not fear for it. Do not fear that it will be stolen or burned, because it is in your heart. So the important point is that knowledge is the best blessing Allah has bestowed upon a person after Islam and faith. For this reason, he said: As for the second, it is a man to whom Allah has given wealth. Now, look at knowledge and wealth: Meaning: he has become one who spends his wealth in what pleases Allah the Mighty and Majestic. He does not spend it in what is forbidden, nor does he spend it in vain, but he spends it in what pleases Allah. Allah has empowered him to spend it in the cause of truth. This is also one of the things for which one feels admiration. We do not admire a person who has great wealth but is stingy and does not benefit people. We do not admire him. Rather, we feel pity for him and say, "This poor man, how will he be able to answer on the Day of Resurrection regarding this wealth? Where did he acquire it? In what did he spend it? And how did he dispose of it?" But if we see a man to whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it in what pleases Allah, we say, "What Allah willed. This is one for whom one feels admiration." We do not admire a person to whom Allah has given wealth and He has empowered him to spend it in palaces, decorations, cars, and luxuries. No, we do not admire him for this. Rather, we say, "This is a wasteful person." If he has exceeded the limit in what he spends, we say, "This is a wasteful person, and Allah does not love the wasteful." Likewise, we do not admire a person who has wealth and spends it on prizes for things that people do not benefit from, neither in their religion nor in their worldly life. For some people give prizes for games and things that contain no good, neither in this world nor in the Hereafter. We do not admire him for this, because he has not been empowered to spend his wealth in the cause of truth. Rather, the one for whom one feels admiration is the one whom Allah has empowered to spend his wealth in the cause of truth. Also, we do not envy a person to whom Allah has given wealth and, whenever he feels like marrying, he marries, gathering around him beautiful women in a way that no one else gathers. We do not admire him for this either, unless Allah has empowered him to spend his wealth in the cause of truth and he intends by that to protect his private parts, fulfill the Sunnah, and increase offspring. Then this is a legitimate religious objective for which one feels admiration. The point of this hadith in the chapter on the virtue of knowledge is the first part of it: the one to whom Allah has given wisdom, meaning knowledge, so he judges by it and teaches it. And this is the better of the two men, meaning better than the owner of wealth who was empowered to spend it in the cause of truth. We ask Allah to grant us and you beneficial knowledge and righteous deeds.