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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Kashaf-ul-haqaiq CHAPTER 3: DO WE HAVE TO BE IGNORANT ALL THE TIME? I do not know whether you consider ignorance as something which is good or bad, but I know that every person trains his child from the age of three or four. Then he spends time on the child and then money. He tries very hard to enable the child to be in a position to earn enough money in the battlefield of life.

And if a child only manages to have a mediocre standard of education then he is reprimanded for it. But, when it comes to religion the situation is totally opposite. The father tells the son: ‘My son, be ignorant, do not learn or reflect on any matter. I am ignorant, my father is ignorant, our forefathers were also ignorant people, and in fact our whole community is ignorant. So what is the problem?

There are some people that we can ask from, and were they to tell us something wrong and we act upon it then Allah (s.w.t.) will question them and is not going to question us now is He?.’ Tell me the truth, is this not the situation? And he (s.a.w.) has also said: AL KAFI - AL KAFI H 35, Ch.

1, h1 Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub has narrated from Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim from his father from al-Hassan ibn abu al-Husayn al-Farisi from Abd’ al-Rahman ibn Zayd from his father from abu Abd’ Allah, recipient of divine supreme covenant, who has said the following: “The Messenger of Allah has said, ‘Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim.

(People should) know that Allah loves those who seek knowledge.’” But it is due to a conspiracy that has been established over centuries that the Shiites have been told not to worry. Acquisition of religious knowledge is not an obligation on you for this only for certain people. This is not ‘Wajib Ayni’, but it is ‘Wajib Kifayi’. You are the general public and are crippled and therefore not subject to questioning.

You go and get jobs, run businesses and enjoy yourselves, and when you have a religious matter to sort out then come to us for we are the specialists. The reward for our efforts is that you should give us a fifth of our wealth (In whichever way you may have earned it) then you are free for a whole year and no more burdens are on you. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) did not leave a single stone unturned on this matter. He used the words ‘on every Muslim’ in the above tradition.

So even if a single person were to opt out of the seeking of knowledge then he will no longer be a part of the whole.