Nations rise and fall as do individuals, in accordance with their faithfulness to one Book. Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings be on him) informed in an authentic hadith that, 'verily, Allah elevates with this book (i.e. Quran, some) people and He degrades others'. The question is how much a person turns to and lives in the shade of the Quran. A classic demonstration of this is in the life-story of a man who became known in Islamic history as 'habr-ul-ummah'. Roughly translated, his title means the scholar of this ummah with oceanic knowledge! Exactly how he got there is an inspiration for us to bring out the best in us toward the Book of Allah.
Abdullah ibn Abbas was only a youth in the life-time of Prophet Muhammad. From his love for this Book of Allah (i.e. The Quran), and with the du'a of the Prophet for him, Allah gave Abdullah the success to be one of the leading authorities in explaining the Book of Allah. People traveled across deserts to see him!
What was the secret to his success?
Things he did can be an inspiration for us even in the 21st century. Even as we go about with our daily chores in our lives, busy at University, busy at work, busy with family life, whatever it may be we still have the model of this great companion that we can truly try to be.
Abdullah ibn Abbas was a nephew of the Prophet and one of the closest people to the Prophet. We see in his life story a boy who turned wholeheartedly to the Quran, strove to be the best of Muslims and how this Quran was a major cause of his success.
At the time of the Prophet, Abdullah Ibn Abbas was still a boy. He loved the Quran and he loved the Messenger of Allah. The Prophet (May the peace and blessings be on him) did du'a for Ibn Abbas, he said: "Oh Allah give him understanding of the religion and teach him interpretation of the Quran."
Abdullah Ibn Abbas was still a youth at the death of the Messenger of Allah. Thereupon, Ibn Abbas and a friend of his decided to seek the knowledge of hadith (sayings of the Prophet), tafsir (interpretation of Quran) and of Islam generally. They traveled to whoever they knew who possessed this knowledge. After a while, his colleague said to Abdullah, 'Look, there are so many senior companions of the Prophet Muhammad still alive, like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmaan and Ali. They are all still alive, do you think that people are going to come to you little Abdullah and me, to ask for knowledge of the religion to benefit from while all these great companions of the Prophet are still alive?'
What did Abdullah do? Did he give up? No. He actually perservered. And we see from the rest of his story how his persistence one day really paid off. Because a day came when the older senior companions of the Prophet had all died. And this little youth, Abdullah, the teenager became an adolescent, then a man, then a Sheikh. And eventually he became one of the leading companions and one of the leading scholars of Islam at that time.
How did he go about acquiring that knowledge and understanding of the religion? While some of us attend universities and we spend five days a week seeking the knowledge of our secular studies, and that's fine if you are doing it with the intention of wanting to get a degree or to get a job so you can be a good husband and a father and look after your families as Allah has ordered us to do, we must remember that just as we strive to make the life of this world we also have to make the eternal hereafter as well. That eternal hereafter so many of us tend to forget while we are busy with our lives at university or at work. How often do we hear, 'Oh it's raining today, its cold its freezing I can't go out tonight. I'll give the Islamic class in the Mosque a miss!' Look at Abdullah Ibn Abbas. If you have been to Medina you will know how hot it is in summer. You would leave your place and go to the masjid in your local neighborhood and your head would be boiling from the heat of the summer of Madina. In winter the breeze is so cold, so chilly so uncomfortable.
Despite this, in summer and in winter Abdullah Ibn Abbas, as a little youth, would leave his home to see the other senior companions at his time, who were present right from the beginning of the Call in Mecca with the Prophet and had more knowledge than Abdullah about the religion of Allah. Little Abdullah would go to their houses and find them sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. He would take out his garment, put it onto the floor and would lie down by the door of the older companions' house waiting for him to wake up for the 'Asr prayer and to come out so Abdullah can ask him a question on religion! He would not even knock on the door and send a message that Abdullah the nephew of the Prophet is here, waiting outside. He only waited.
Contrast him to our efforts to attend Islamic lessons to improve ourselves as Muslims in this society. We leave our homes to go to University to get that knowledge of engineering, of IT. But when it comes to boost our emaan, when it comes to boost our knowledge of the religion, which is going to give us eternal goodness in the hereafter, we think, it's a bit cold tonight I might give it a miss. Look at Abdullah Ibn Abbas he used to patiently wait long in the fierce wind and heat of Medina!
When that older senior companion would get up for the prayer, he would come out and find Abdullah Ibn Abbas waiting there. He would say to him, 'Oh nephew of the Prophet had you simply sent a message inside to me that you were here I would have come out for you and I would have invited you into my house, why didn't you just inform me?' But Abdullah, he was not like that. He went to seek the knowledge and he respected the one he was going to seek the knowledge from for the knowledge of Islam that Allah gave him. He was willing to put up with any hardship he had to undergo to boost his emaan and to get that knowledge which eventually made him a star in the history of Islam.
This is how he sought the knowledge of this religion. Notice that the Prophet as I said earlier made du'a for him. So, Abdullah could have simply said, 'I have got the du'a of the Messenger, I'm just going to relax because I'm going to be a successful Muslim.' Many of us think that because we are born into a Muslim family we will be alright as long as we know our religion. But we don't realize, even if we know our religion, the human being is such that we need a constant reminder to increase our emaan, we need a constant reminder to replenish our emaan and our devotion to the religion and to Allah. That is why, even if we know everything of the knowledge of this religion we still need to constantly attend those lessons on religion to boost our emaan and to become better Muslims. We remember that there is no upper limit on how good a Muslim we can be.
Remember we were not born into Islam with the knowledge of this religion, when we were little our parents did a great service to us and May Allah reward them and they taught us everything they could. But again with knowledge, the sky is the limit and the more knowledge of the religion we seek, the more our Emaan increases and more benefit we get with the knowledge of Allah's religion.
Another example of Abdullah's zeal for the knowledge of Allah's religion, on one occasion, going back to the life of the Prophet; in order to learn of the life of the Messenger, he used to, at times, go and sleep in the house of his aunty Maymuna who was one of the wives of the Prophet - one of the mothers of the believers.
One night, he was was in Maymuna's house in order to learn more about the Messenger of our Creator, in order for him to follow him even better, in order to get first hand experience and to participate with him practically. One night he found the Messenger of Allah in the later part of the night, left the comfort of his bed and got up to pray Tahajjud. And Abdullah, did he just wake up from his sleep, glance at him briefly from corner of his eye, and think 'alright, so I learnt today that its sunnah to pray Tahajjud, let me write it down that's the sunnah I've got the knowledge and that's it now I go back to sleep!!'
No, he didn't think like that. He wasn't just satisfied with the theoretical academic knowledge of the religion.
He left the comfort of his bed, did wudu and joined the Messenger of Allah in his prayer. This shows us that it is not sufficient only for us to get the academic knowledge of the religion, that whatever little we learn we should practice it, because the more we practice the better we become and that is the real show of our claim of being Muslim.
Remember, as the Prophet said, 'Verily I have been sent to you only so I can complete the best of the characteristics (character).' And this we learn, not just by learning what Sunnah is and what is not, but by actually practicing it and implementing it as much as we can.
As Allah describes in the Quran on the day of judgment, we will be standing, this whole life compared to just that one long day, will be like a short morning or just a part of the morning. So lets not waste our whole lives in seeking the secular knowledge for the short life of this world or at workplaces but lets also spend some time on the weekend or during the weekdays to get that knowledge of Islam that will take us for the eternal good of the hereafter.
We can get an idea of the knowledge that little boy had acquired by the following incident. In the reign of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab as the leader of Muslims, Umar used to have all the senior companions that had memorized the Quran to be present in his company for consultation on all matters ranging from spiritual to military and political affairs. One day Umar noticed that these companions who were senior in age, they used to wonder why does he always bring Abdullah Ibn Abbas, the little youth, into that gathering of senior companions.
Umar Ibn Al-Khattab on an occasion invited Abdullah Ibn Abbas to that auspicious gathering and asked the people about what they understand from the Surah An-Nasr. The senior companions gave from what they understood from the surah. Then Umar questioned Abdullah, the youth, what he understood from that surah and he explained what he understood from that surah in Quran, that it was an indication from Allah to the Prophet Muhammad that he and his mission is now about to come to an end so he should do istighfar to Allah (i.e. seek His forgiveness) even more and so on. When he said this, Umar in front of everyone acknowledged the superior understanding of this little boy, he said that I did not understand from this surah anything except what he understood. Surely all praise if for Allah!
See how the Prophet did du'a for him to understand the Quran, but notice he didn't just stop there at the du,a, he went ahead and put that hard work into it seeking the knowledge and see how high it raised him!
Lets go back to the story where little Abdullah and his friend who were going out to seek the knowledge of this religion. The other one said, 'what's the point' and he left. But Abdullah Ibn Abbas continued and continued to an extent where a time came when the senior companions of the Prophet had died. Then a time came when in the latter life of Abdullah Ibn Abbas, the two greatest scholars/companions were none other than Abdullah Ibn Abbas and Abdullah Ibn Umar! And if people had questions, they would travel far to ask them for the answers. They would cross deserts just to ask him for fatwa on a difficult matter of religion. Two of the madhabs at the time of the companions of the Prophet of the latter period were the madhabs of Abdullah Ibn Umar and Abdullah Ibn Abbas. That is how knowledgeable and successful he became by persisting in the beginning!
When he was a little kid, Abdullah would have never thought that this day would come. That people would come from so far to seek knowledge from him! And remember as Allah says 'whoever does Jihad (strives) in Our Path We will guide them to Our ways.' He will guide to His pathways that take us to the never-ending fun in the Hereafter – a Paradise that is maximum pleasure and comfort.
It starts off with that little effort; it starts off with people going to one lesson on Islam on the weekend. You may have to go through certain hardships where it might be cold and raining, but you force yourself that this is the minimum I can do for my Lord. You can't see then how high in Paradise and in this life its going to take you; but you remember the words of the Messenger of Allah, 'whoever tred a path to seek knowledge, Allah will facilitate for him with it a path to Paradise.'
Lastly, lets gauge the heights that Abdullah Ibn Abbas reached from his perseverance in the path of seeking knowledge of Allah's religion. Muaawiah, the companion of the Prophet in his lifetime, was now the leader (Caliph) of the Muslims. He used to pray salatul-Witr during the night as only one rak'ah. And the people some found it objectionable because they always saw the Prophet pray 3 rak'ah for witr. People were becoming upset that their Leader was praying one rak'ah only for witr and not 3 rak'ah. So on one occasion they went to Abdullah Ibn Abbas to get his verdict on the correctness of the leader of the Muslims. Abdullah Ibn Abbas said, 'leave him for he understands (fiqh) the religion'!
He was the same boy whose friend once left seeking the knowledge of Allah's religion because he thought none will come and ask him. Yet, a day came when the people came from far to check with him if an action of Leader of the Muslim Empire was correct and acceptable, whether they should protest against him or not!!
Yet, that which is important to many was insignificant to Ibn Abbas for he had achieved something even better – the contentment that he drew from the Quran!
And the authority the possessor of knowledge of Allah's religion wielded over the Muslims was undeniably greater than that of the political and military ruler of the greatest empire in the world that day! In the words of Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), 'verily, Allah elevates with this book (i.e. Quran) some people and He degrades with it others'!
May Allah give us the wisdom to let the Quran be the guiding lamp in our lives. That would only come when we open it to understand its message. As the Prophet used to do supplicate to Allah, the Exalted, to 'make the Quran the springing fountain of our hearts, the light of our chests (thoughts and beliefs), the source that brightens up the sorrow and drives away the worries and concerns in our lives'.
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