Knowledge never comes without effort...

Knowledge never comes without effort, and some time off sleep or some time off rest time, and some time off the social media time. We mention this to show you what the author  means when he says i’lam. I’lam, he wants you to know. He wants you to know how to honor knowledge. Something important is coming, I am going to teach you. We are engaging in something important and that is what he is trying to tell you, sacrifice for what I am about to tell you. We mentioned examples that we could never be like, I know that. Why do we mention them? We mention those examples and if you be like five percent of that or possibly ten percent of that, you would be in good shape. Unlike if we mention our surroundings, those who waste their time in vain or possibly in sins. They can never get anywhere but if we mention these supreme examples and you are like five percent or you try to hit fifty percent like them, then you are good.

 

Look at an-Nawawi wrote volumes and volumes. What amazes me about this man is that he died when he was a few years older than I am today right now. He died when he was forty four years old. Do you know that he only started writing when he was in his thirties? People today just want to jump to the Khutbah and give Khutbahs. He started writing when he was in his thirties.

 

He wrote Sharh Muslim, Riyad as-Saliheen, al-Adhkar, al-Majmu’, Minhaj fīi al-Fiqh, at-Tibyan fi Adaab Hamalat al-Qur’an, a great book on the manners of those who carry the Qur’an, al-Idhah, Bustan al-‘Arifin, Minhaj at-Talibeen, Rawdhat at-Talibeen, Tahdhib al-Asma’ wal-Lughat, and at-Taqrib, it is a summary of the book of Ibn Salaah on the science of Hadith. He compiled Forty an-Nawawi Hadith. Who does not have that? Who does not say an-Nawawi tens of times a day? Every student of knowledge says that. He wrote Zawa’id ar-Rawdhah and it is a book on Usool al-Fiqh. He started the interpretation or elucidation of Sahih al-Bukhari but he was never able to finish it. It would have been a great, magnificent book like that of Ibn Hajr on Sahih Muslim.

 

One time an-Nawawi said I spent two years in my life, I never laid on my side on a mattress or on the ground. So they asked him how did you sleep an-Nawawi? Two years and his side never got a mattress or the ground. He said when I got tired, I used to lean over my books and take a little nap. People have different goals. You are going to find childish kids who want to criticize him, but the goals of these people are different. Some people want Firdaws, some people want A’raf and some people just want the front gate of Heaven. At forty four, he did more for the Ummah than what possibly millions at times did for the Ummah…

 

I imagine an-Nawawi laying in his grave now with such a big smile on his face, it is as if he has a smile on his face. Every time we say rahimahUllah, he gets reward for it. Every time we use his knowledge, that is an ongoing, never ending charity, sadaqah jariyah, and he sits in his grave and gets all that reward.Al-Badr Ibn Jama’ah said I went to visit an-Nawawi one time and I could not find a place to sit. He made room for me through his books and when I did sit, he kept searching and pursuing books. Al-Badr Ibn Jama’ah said he pursued knowledge in his books like a mother would be in pursuit of a lost son of hers, looking and striving.

[Excerpt from Sharh Usool ath-Thalaathah, By ash-Shaykh Ahmad Musa Jibril (hafidhUllah)]