The first command Allah revealed was "Read!". In our religion knowledge is not a means to something else — it is itself a goal: it lifts the human being above the angels, makes him an heir of the Prophets, and keeps his deeds rewarding him long after death. This sermon examines the place of knowledge in the Qur'an and Sunnah, the scholar's superiority over the ordinary worshipper, the unbounded duty of seeking knowledge, and the Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) policy of education.
"Read!" — The First Command of Revelation
The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to withdraw to the cave of Hira on the Mountain of Light to reflect upon his own existence and the state of his society. One day, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him with the first revelation:
ٱقۡرَأۡ بِٱسۡمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَ. خَلَقَ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ مِنۡ عَلَقٍ. ٱقۡرَأۡ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلۡأَكۡرَمُ. ٱلَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِٱلۡقَلَمِ. عَلَّمَ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ مَا لَمۡ يَعۡلَمۡ
— Surah Al-Alaq 96:1-5Read! In the name of your Lord who created. He created the human being from a clinging substance. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen — taught the human being what he did not know.
In his Tafsir, Ibn Kathir comments: "These verses are the first mercy and the first favour Allah granted to His servants." The command to read does not specify what is to be read — the scope embraces every branch of knowledge useful to the self, the community, and humanity at large. That the first revelation to an unlettered Prophet should speak of reading and writing by the pen is the most striking sign of the value our religion places on knowledge.
Knowledge Was the Reason Adam Was Preferred Over the Angels
When Allah appointed Adam (peace be upon him) as His vicegerent on earth, and the angels asked the reason, Allah displayed Adam's knowledge: "Tell Me the names of these things," He said to the angels — and they could not. He turned to Adam, who named them all (Al-Baqarah 2:30-33). Vicegerency was given to Adam by means of knowledge. The Qur'an's reproach of those who treat the learned and the unlearned as equal is open and direct:
أَمَّنۡ هُوَ قَٰنِتٌ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيۡلِ سَاجِدٗا وَقَآئِمٗا يَحۡذَرُ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةَ وَيَرۡجُواْ رَحۡمَةَ رَبِّهِۦۗ قُلۡ هَلۡ يَسۡتَوِي ٱلَّذِينَ يَعۡلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَۗ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُواْ ٱلۡأَلۡبَٰبِ
— Surah Az-Zumar 39:9Is one who is devoutly obedient during the night, prostrating and standing, fearing the Hereafter and hoping for the mercy of his Lord, like one who is not? Say: 'Are those who know equal to those who do not know?' Only those of understanding will remember.
Surah Al-Mujadilah makes knowledge itself an independent cause of elevation:
يَرۡفَعِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ مِنكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ ٱلۡعِلۡمَ دَرَجَٰتٖۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ خَبِيرٞ
— Surah Al-Mujadilah 58:11Allah will raise those who have believed among you, and those who were given knowledge, by degrees. And Allah is well aware of what you do.
And Surah Fatir gives the deepest reason why the learned are honoured: it is they who truly recognise the reality of Allah.
إِنَّمَا يَخۡشَى ٱللَّهَ مِنۡ عِبَادِهِ ٱلۡعُلَمَٰٓؤُاْ
— Surah Fatir 35:28Among His servants, only those who have knowledge truly fear Allah.
The Scholars Are the Heirs of the Prophets
Kathir ibn Qays narrates that a man came from Madinah to Damascus to sit with Abu al-Darda' for no other reason than to hear a single hadith. He came neither for trade nor for any other affair. When Abu al-Darda' learned the man's intention, he related to him this saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him):
— Sunan Abu Dawud, Knowledge, no. 3641"Whoever takes a path in search of knowledge, Allah eases for him a path to Paradise. The angels lower their wings, well-pleased, before the seeker of knowledge. All that is in the heavens and the earth, and even the fish in the depths, ask forgiveness for the scholar. The scholar's superiority over the worshipper is like that of the moon over the rest of the stars. The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets; the Prophets bequeath neither dinar nor dirham — they bequeath only knowledge. Whoever takes from that inheritance has taken a great fortune."
In another tradition the Prophet (peace be upon him) explains the wisdom behind the scholar's superiority over the worshipper: the scholar illuminates not only himself but his whole environment; the worshipper, however praiseworthy his devotions, lights only himself. "For Allah to guide one person through you is better for you than this world and everything in it" (al-Bukhari, al-Jihad) is the explicit expression of that superiority.
Knowledge Is the Lost Property of the Believer
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
الْحِكْمَةُ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ، فَحَيْثُ وَجَدَهَا فَهُوَ أَحَقُّ بِهَا
— Sunan Ibn Majah, Zuhd, no. 4169Wisdom is the lost property of the believer; wherever he finds it, he has the most right to it.
This hadith declares that neither place, time, age nor gender stands as an obstacle to the seeking of knowledge. The same spirit is preserved in the well-known maxim: "Seek knowledge even as far as China." The Prophet's policy after the Battle of Badr places the matter beyond doubt: he ruled that prisoners of war from Makkah who could not pay ransom would be released if each one taught ten Muslim children to read and write. Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) learned to read and write by this very means. The ransom a victorious Prophet asked from prisoners was not gold — it was literacy.
Stories from the Tradition
Abu Hurayrah and "The Inheritance of the Prophet Is Being Distributed!"
The close Companion Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) one day walked through the streets of Madinah and saw the people going about their business. He called out: "The inheritance of the Prophet is being distributed, and you are wasting your time here! Go and take your share of it!" They cried in surprise: "Where is it being distributed?" When he answered "In the mosque," they hurried off. After a while they returned. Abu Hurayrah asked what had happened. They said: "We went to the mosque, but we did not see anything being distributed. We saw only people praying, reciting the Qur'an, and discussing what is lawful and unlawful." Abu Hurayrah then spoke the sentence the moment called for: "Woe to you — that is the inheritance of the Prophet!"
— al-Bayhaqi, Shu'ab al-Iman, no. 1696Ali ibn Abi Talib's Love of Knowledge
Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) once described his love of knowledge in this way: "Knowledge is better than wealth, because wealth diminishes as you spend it but knowledge increases. Wealth requires you to guard it; knowledge guards you." In another narration, when someone asked him "Is knowledge better, or wealth?" he answered: "Knowledge is the inheritance of the Prophets; wealth is the inheritance of Qarun and Pharaoh." These words of Ali capture the spirit of our religion, which commands us to invest in knowledge before wealth.
Imam al-Bukhari's Memory and Steadfastness
The author of Sahih al-Bukhari, Imam Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, began memorising hadith as a child and travelled from Bukhara to the Hijaz, Egypt, Sham, Basra, and Kufa in search of prophetic tradition. It is narrated that the hadith scholars of Baghdad once tested him by deliberately mixing the chains and texts of one hundred hadith and presenting them to him. Imam al-Bukhari corrected every one — "You quoted this in such a way; the sound version is this" — until the scholars unanimously confirmed that he deserved the title "Commander of the Faithful in Hadith". The Sahih itself is the fruit of sixteen years of meticulous work, during which he is reported to have performed ghusl and prayed two units of prayer before recording each hadith.
The Scholar Who Went to the Market in His Student's Place
A young man in the gathering of the Tabi'i scholar Bishr al-Hafi had continued his studies for years, but the day came when he had to leave the circle to earn his living. Bishr al-Hafi said to him: "You are leaving? No — you stay. I will go to the market in your place." Such sacrifice from the people of knowledge is the living example of the truth "the one who enables an action shares its reward"; it shows what a believer can bear in order to raise a person of knowledge.
The Bond Between Knowledge and Action
The Prophet (peace be upon him) clarified the purpose of seeking knowledge: "Be a teacher, a learner, a listener, or a lover of knowledge — but never the fifth, for you will be ruined." The seeker learns in order to live by it, to teach it, and to be of benefit. Otherwise the Qur'an reproaches openly those who possess knowledge but do not act on it: "Do you order righteousness for the people and forget yourselves?" (Al-Baqarah 2:44).
For those who die while still on the road of learning, the Prophet's promise is striking: "The one whose appointed time arrives while he is in pursuit of knowledge will meet Allah with only a single degree between himself and the rank of the Prophets." (al-Darimi, Muqaddimah)
Putting Knowledge Into Practice With VAAZ
The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah collection in the VAAZ app presents Allah's names Al-Alim (the All-Knowing), Al-Khabir (the All-Aware), and Al-Hakim (the All-Wise) with examples — these names are the divine source of all knowledge. To strengthen your daily practice of remembrance, recite the supplication "My Lord, increase me in knowledge" (Ta-Ha 20:114) morning and evening — this was the practice of the Prophet himself. For practical extensions, see Sermon on Faith and Its Impact and the Sermon on the Fear of Allah.
To summarise with Ali's words: "Knowledge is the true inheritance; leave your children knowledge, not wealth." We ask Allah to increase us in knowledge, and to make that knowledge a means of our salvation rather than an argument against us.
References
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Alaq 96:1-5.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Az-Zumar 39:9.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Mujadilah 58:11.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Fatir 35:28.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Ta-Ha 20:114.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah 2:30-33 and 2:44.
- Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Knowledge, hadith no. 3641 (Seeking knowledge as a path to Paradise).
- Sunan Ibn Majah, Book of Zuhd, hadith no. 4169 (Wisdom is the believer's lost property).
- al-Bayhaqi, Shu'ab al-Iman, hadith no. 1696 (The inheritance of the Prophet).
- al-Darimi, Muqaddimah, on the one who dies while seeking knowledge.