The Danger Of Unrestrained Scholars And Unwise And Foolish...

The Danger Of Unrestrained Scholars And Unwise And Foolish Ignorant People In a well-known hadith , the Prophet (S) states: “Two groups broke my back; a religious scholar who is unrestrained in performing indecent deeds and a devoted worshiper who is ignorant and uninformed.”[^2] Imam Khomeini ( ‘a ) used to state that sanctimonious people succeed at discharging their devotional obligations but ignore their original duty, which is acquiring knowledge.

They travel the course with those same aberrant inclinations of theirs and even insist and persist on it. The damage inflicted upon Islam by these people is more than the damage inflicted by libertine people.

This category of people neither succeeds at anything nor lets other people make progress, as Imam al-Sadiq states: “A person who discharges his obligations without knowledge produces more corruption and aberration than what he corrects.”[^3] Likewise, the unrestrained religious scholar who does not do as he says deceives people as they respect him because of his knowledge while they inflict blows on Islam as a result of impiety; blows which the ignorant can never succeed at inflicting.

It is for this reason that wherever piety has been defined and praised, the idea has been righteousness which is accompanied by knowledge, or else if these two get separated from each other, not only will it not be profitable but detrimental as well. Also, if religious expertise and knowledge have been praised, the purport has been religious expertise and knowledge accompanied by works, because the religious scholar who does not put his knowledge into practice is a robber.

Allah, the Exalted, addresses Prophet David ( ‘a ) thus: “O David! Do not place as an intermediary between you and I a religious scholar who has fallen in love with the world, because he will prevent you from traversing the course of love of Me. Verily, they are robbers on the highway ambushing Allah-seeking slaves.

The least punishment I inflict upon them is that I drive out of their hearts the sweetness of supplication of Me.”[^4] A scholar without works is like a thief who robs a caravan in broad daylight. He knows better how to outwit people because he has knowledge. Such an academic is of no benefit to the religion; therefore, we ought to guard against being fed with deception.

Therefore, piety and religious expertise will be effective and will result in the prosperity of the individual and society once they co-occur.