[^6] The Dangers of Possessing Knowledge without Prior...

[^6] The Dangers of Possessing Knowledge without Prior Purification (of the Soul) Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi, an inhabitant of Basra, was a judge, a teacher of the Shafi’i jurisprudence and a contemporary of Sheikh Tusi.

He narrates: I had expended great effort in writing a book on the religious rulings relating to transaction and business, and had memorized all the details in connection with the topic such that when the book reached completion, it crossed my mind that I was the most learned of all in this topic; I was overcome with pride, conceit and vanity. One day, two Arab bedouins came to my assembly and sought to know from me the ruling in connection with a transaction that had transpired in their village.

The issue also had four other offshoots to it; however I was unable to provide answers to any one of them. For a while I was lost in thought, I then said to myself: You claim to be the most learned of all your contemporaries in this chapter of jurisprudence; how is it that you are unable to answer the questions of the inhabitants of the village? Turning to them, I confessed: I do not know the answers.

Astonished, they said: You ought to study more in order that you are able to answer the questions. They left me and proceeded to refer their queries to a person, who in terms of knowledge, was inferior to even some of my students, but when they presented their questions to him, he was able to provide them with the answers. The Bedouins were delighted to hear the answers and praising him, left for their village.

Al-Mawardi says: This incident caused me to come to my senses and extricate my soul from conceit and vanity of knowledge so that I may not incline towards self-praise in the future. [^7] Asma’i and the Officious Grocer Asma’i[^8] narrates: The initial period of my education was endured in poverty and indigence. Every morning when I would leave my house for acquiring knowledge I would have to pass by an officious grocer who would question me: Where are you going?

I would reply: I am going to gain knowledge. On my way back home, he would repeat the same question. At times, he would say: ‘Don’t waste your life. Why don’t you learn some work so that you can become wealthy and affluent? Give me these books and papers of yours; I shall put them in the wine-jar and you will see nothing shall remain of them.’ He would constantly reproach me as a result of which I would become disturbed, mentally.