It is then that such a servant earns perfect happiness...

It is then that such a servant earns perfect happiness through the knowledge which prompts one to act upon it, a deed springing out of knowledge and the happiness which is perfected through the compounded accumulation of knowledge and action. Yet the best portion of both in the sight of Allah is knowledge itself; it is through it that one servant of Allah is distinguished from another.

Our master, the Commander of the Faithful (‘a), has said, ‘A touch of knowledge is better than a great deal of deeds, and they both are like intention and action: intention receives distinction. Or they may be compared with the soul and the body: the soul is distinctive.’ What we have stated here should suffice one who seeks guidance, and surely Allah is the Master of success. [^1]: This refers to a point which must not be overlooked by the elite.

Knowledge is nothing but the manifestation of the reality of the intellect in its best condition; otherwise, the cases of incompatibility and compounded ignorance are prevalent in all branches of knowledge. Thereupon, making a profession of storing a portrait of the reality in one’s sub-conscience and deriving pleasure from so doing, such as one who collects books just to make a show, can never be regarded as something sacred which brings the servant closer to the supreme truth.

Accumulated knowledge which is not implemented, therefore, may turn into an occupation to which one gets accustomed. He, hence, will not consider the Hereafter acting upon it because this will reveal intellectual discoveries regarded as worthless in the outside world. Previous…