True knowledge is that which induces fear of God
Al-Risala (English), April-May 1993, p. 29
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
True knowledge is that which induces fear of God
1993 4-5 April-May 29 True knowledge is that which induces fear of God (202) Once, when some of the Prophet’s companions were sitting with him, he looked up to the heavens and said: “The time is coming when knowledge will be taken away.” One of the Ansar, who went by the name of Ziyad ibn Labeed, asked the Prophet how knowledge would be taken away from them, when they were in possession of the Book of God, and taught it to their wives and children. “I always thought of you as the most intelligent man in Medina,” the Prophet told him, “don’t you see how the Jews went astray, even although they were in possession of the Book of God?” The narrator of this tradition, one Jubayr ibn Nufayr, went to Shaddad ibn Aus and went into the details of the tradition with him. “Do you know how knowledge will be taken away?” Shaddad asked him. Jubair replied that he did not. “By its vessel taken away,” said Shaddad, and he went on to ask; “Do you know which knowledge will be taken away?” When Jubayr once again replied in the negative, Shaddad explained that it was the fear of God that would be taken away. “There will not be a God-fearing man to be seen.”
