His sole motivation for study must be to achieve God's good...

His sole motivation for study must be to achieve God's good pleasure and to attain felicity in the Hereafter; not for the sake of gaining worldly wealth, fame, and honour. The student must put into action whatever he learns and understands, so that God may increase his knowledge. The Prophet (S) has been quoted as saying: من اخذ العلم من اهله وعمل بعلمه نجا ومن أراد به الدنيا فهي حظه.

One who acquires knowledge from the learned, and acts according to it shall be saved, and one who acquires knowledge for the sake of the world shall receive just that [and shall receive no reward in the Hereafter]. The pupil must honour his teacher, being humble and obedient towards him. The proper conduct for the teacher consists of the following: Teaching should be for the sake of God, and not for any worldly ends.

The teacher must encourage and guide his student, be kind to him, and speak to him on the level of his understanding. The teacher must transfer his knowledge only to those who deserve it; not to those who do not deserve it and who may abuse it. The teacher must speak only of what he knows, and abstain from topics of which he is ignorant. Here it is necessary to explain what we mean by knowledge and learning and the kind of learning we are talking about.

In other words, the question arises whether honour and respect for knowledge and scholarship, which characterize Islam, apply to all the sciences or to only some of them? The answer is that fields of learning can be divided into two groups: firstly, the sciences which have to do with this world such as medicine, geometry, music etc.; secondly, the sciences which are concerned with man's spiritual development.

It is this second kind of learning which is highly honoured by the holy teachings of Islam. However, the first group of sciences are also considered important, and their pursuit is wajib kifa'i for all Muslims. That is, all Muslims are obliged to pursue them to the degree necessary for meeting the needs of the Muslim community.

Those sciences whose learning is necessary for spiritual development of man are: knowledge of the Principles of Religion ( usul al-Din or Islamic doctrines), ethics (akhlaq) -which was formulated to guide man to those things that bring about his salvation, and keep him from those things that lead to perdition-and the science of jurisprudence ( fiqh )-which concerns itself with individual and social duties of human beings from the point of view of Islamic Law.