🌱 WORDS OF WISDOM: LESSONS FOR THE STUDENT OF KNOWLEDGE — PART TWO | MADRASA IBN ʿABBĀS 🌿
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مَوْتُ الْعَالِمِ مَوْتُ الْعَالَمِ
“The death of a scholar is the death of a world.”
🌱 **Reflection:** The departure of a scholar is not merely the loss of an individual. It can mean the loss of knowledge, experience, wisdom, and guidance that may have taken decades to acquire.
This is why beneficial knowledge should be learned, practiced, preserved, and passed on to others while scholars are alive.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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فِعْلُ الْحَكِيمِ لَا يَخْلُو مِنَ الْحِكْمَةِ
“The action of a wise person is not without wisdom.”
🌱 **Reflection:** A wise person considers consequences before acting. Sometimes the wisdom behind an action may not immediately be apparent to everyone.
This teaches us not to rush to judgment and to seek understanding before criticizing what we do not fully comprehend.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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كُلَّمَا أَرَدْتُ أَنْ أَكْتُبَ عَنْ أُمِّي فَأَدْرَكْتُ أَنَّنِي أُمِّي
“Whenever I wanted to write about my mother, I realized that I wasUnlettered / Illiterate .”
NOTE : The two words may sound similar, but their meanings are different:
Umm → أُمّ → Mother 🌱
Ummī → أُمِّيّ → Unlettered / Illiterate 📖
🌱 **Reflection:** A mother holds a place of immeasurable value in the life of her child. Through her love, patience, sacrifices, nurturing, and guidance, she helps shape the person her child becomes. Much of what we carry within us—our manners, values, strength, and compassion—may have first been planted by her. Her care is often given quietly, yet its effects can remain with her children for a lifetime. Truly, the honour and gratitude owed to a mother are among the greatest blessings a child can recognize.
It reminds us to appreciate our parents and recognize how much of our character may have been shaped by their care and upbringing.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الِانْتِقَامُ بِجَوَابِ الْمَثَلِ لَا يُنَافِي مَكَارِمَ الْأَخْلَاقِ
“Responding with an appropriate answer does not necessarily contradict noble character.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Islam encourages good character, restraint, wisdom, and justice. A person does not have to answer every provocation with anger.
There is a difference between defending oneself appropriately and responding with arrogance, abuse, or injustice.
The believer should always consider whether his response brings benefit or merely increases conflict.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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مَنْ طَلَبَ وَاعِظًا فَالْمَوْتُ كَفَاهُ
“Whoever seeks a preacher, death is sufficient for him.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Death itself is one of the greatest reminders.
A person may hear countless lectures and read numerous books, but the certainty that every soul will eventually taste death should be enough to awaken the heart.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ
“Every soul shall taste death.”
— Qur’an 3:185
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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كَفَى بِالْمَوْتِ وَاعِظًا
“Death is sufficient as an admonition.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Death puts worldly life into perspective.
We should therefore use our time wisely, repent before it is too late, fulfill our responsibilities, and prepare for the meeting with Allah.
The believer remembers that this world is temporary while the Hereafter is everlasting.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الطُّيُورُ عَلَى أَشْكَالِهَا تَقَعُ
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
🌱 **Reflection:** A person's companions can have a powerful influence upon his character, habits, and priorities.
For this reason, Islam places great importance upon choosing righteous companionship.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
الْمَرْءُ عَلَى دِينِ خَلِيلِهِ
“A person follows the religion of his close friend.”
📚 Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4833; Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 2378
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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كَلِّمِ النَّاسَ عَلَى قَدْرِ عُقُولِهِمْ
“Speak to people according to the level of their understanding.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Knowledge must be communicated with wisdom.
A teacher should consider the age, background, ability, and understanding of the person being taught. Complicated matters may need to be explained gradually.
The goal of teaching is not to demonstrate how much we know, but to help another person understand and benefit.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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⑦⑨
لَا يَعْرِفُ مِنْ كَوْعِهِ إِلَى بُوعِهِ
“He does not even know the difference between his elbow and his wrist.”
🌱 **Reflection:** This expression describes someone who lacks basic understanding of a matter.
It reminds students that there is no shame in admitting what they do not know. The real danger is speaking about matters without knowledge.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
“So ask the people of knowledge if you do not know.”
— Qur’an 16:43
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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لَا تَتَّبِعْ زَلَلَ كُلِّ عَالِمٍ فَتَضِلَّ
“Do not follow the mistakes of every scholar, lest you go astray.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Scholars are respected because of their knowledge, but they are human beings and can make mistakes.
A student should learn with humility, verify evidence, and understand that an isolated mistake does not erase a scholar's beneficial knowledge.
At the same time, a mistake should not be followed simply because it came from someone respected.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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مَا تَكَرَّرَ تَقَرَّرَ
“What is repeated becomes established.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Repetition is one of the foundations of learning.
A student who repeatedly reviews Qur’an, hadith, Arabic vocabulary, principles, and beneficial notes will gradually strengthen what has been learned.
Knowledge should not merely be collected; it should be reviewed, practiced, and retained.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الْعِلْمُ عِلْمَانِ: عِلْمٌ كَسْبِيٌّ وَعِلْمٌ وَهْبِيٌّ
“Knowledge is of two types: acquired knowledge and gifted knowledge.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Some knowledge is acquired through study, reading, memorization, teachers, and sustained effort.
Other forms of understanding may be granted by Allah as a gift: insight, wisdom, sound judgment, and the ability to recognize how knowledge should be applied.
A serious student therefore combines effort with humility, knowing that beneficial understanding ultimately comes by the permission of Allah.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الْحَقُّ يَجِبُ أَنْ يُقَالَ
“The truth must be spoken.”
🌱 **Reflection:** Truthfulness is a fundamental quality of the believer.
However, speaking the truth also requires wisdom, sincerity, appropriate timing, and good manners. The objective should not be humiliation or argument, but establishing what is correct and beneficial.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ
“And say: Truth has come and falsehood has vanished.”
— Qur’an 17:81
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الْحَقُّ مُرٌّ
“The truth can be bitter.”
🌱 **Reflection:** People do not always find the truth easy to accept.
A sincere person must sometimes accept advice that challenges his desires, corrects his mistakes, or requires him to change.
The believer should therefore ask Allah for sincerity and humility so that he accepts truth even when it is difficult.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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الْعَوَامُّ كَالْأَنْعَامِ
“The masses are like grazing animals.”
🌱 **Reflection:** This expression is understood as a warning against living without knowledge, direction, or conscious reflection.
It should not be used as an excuse to insult ordinary Muslims. Rather, the lesson is that a person should not blindly follow whatever he hears.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى repeatedly calls people to think, understand, reflect, and follow guidance.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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خَاطِبِ النَّاسَ عَلَى قَدْرِ عُقُولِهِمْ
“Address people according to the level of their understanding.”
🌱 **Reflection:** This principle is especially important for teachers, parents, students, callers to Islam, and anyone who communicates religious knowledge.
Not every audience requires the same vocabulary, depth, examples, or explanation.
Wisdom in teaching means giving people what they can understand while gradually helping them progress.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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أَنْزِلِ النَّاسَ مَنَازِلَهُمْ
“Give people their proper place and position.”
🌱 **Reflection:** People differ in knowledge, age, experience, responsibility, and circumstances.
Giving people their proper place means recognizing these differences and treating each person with appropriate respect.
The student should respect the scholar, the young should respect the elderly, and everyone should be treated with justice and good manners.
True wisdom is knowing how to deal with different people appropriately without arrogance or injustice.
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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🌱 FINAL REFLECTION 🌿
These sayings remind the student of several important principles:
Knowledge requires humility.
Truth requires courage.
Teaching requires wisdom.
Companionship affects character.
Death is the greatest reminder.
Repetition strengthens knowledge.
Scholars should be respected, while mistakes should not blindly be followed.
People should be addressed according to their understanding and treated according to their proper position.
The student of knowledge should therefore seek not merely to collect words, but to transform beneficial knowledge into character, wisdom, worship, and action.
رَبِّ زِدْنِي عِلْمًا
“My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”
— Qur’an 20:114
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🌿 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌿
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🌿 A FINAL REMINDER 🌿
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READ • BENEFIT • SHARE
وَذَكِّرْ فَإِنَّ الذِّكْرَىٰ تَنْفَعُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
“And remind, for indeed the reminder benefits the believers.”
— Qur’an 51:55
صَدَقَةٌ جَارِيَةٌ • ṢADAQAH JĀRIYAH
🌱 AHMADTRINI • MADRASA IBN ABBAS 🌱
