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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ethical Discourses: Volume 1 Discourse 20: Five Life Giving Lessons and Refraining from Doubtful Things قَالَ رَسُولُ اللٌّهِ : أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ! لاَ تُعْطُوا الْحِكْمَةَ غَيْرَ أَهْلِها فَتَظْلِمُوهَا، وَلاَ تَمْنَعُوهَا أَهْلَهَا فَتَظْلِمُوهُمْ، وَ لاَ تُعَاقِـبُوا ظَالِماً فَيَبْطُلَ فَضْلُكُمْ، وَ لاَ تُرَاؤُوا النَّاسَ فَيَحْبَطَ عَمَلُكُمْ، وَ لاَ تَمْنَعُوا الْمَوْجُودَ فَيَقِلَّ خَيْرُكُمْ، اَيُّهَا النَّاسُ!

إِنَّ الأَشْيَاءَ ثَلاثَةٌ: أَمْرٌ اسْـتَبَانَ رُشْدُهُ فَاتَّبِعُوهُ، وَ أَمْرٌ اسْـتَبَانَ غَـيُّهُ فَاجْـتَنِبُوهُ، وَ أَمْرٌ اخْتُلِفَ عَلَيْكُمْ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلـى اللٌّهِ. The Messenger of Allah (S) has said, “O' mankind! Do not convey wisdom to those people who are not worthy (of receiving such teachings), as you would have done oppression to the wisdom; and do not deprive those people who are worthy of receiving such teachings, as then you would have done oppression to them.

Do not seek revenge from the person who has oppressed you for if you do, you would make your worth and value null and void; and do not perform (good) acts for other people to see, for through this you would eliminate (the good) of such acts. Do not prevent yourselves from giving charity otherwise you will reduce the good that is to come to you. O' Mankind!

Verily things are of three types: (1) some of which whose correctness is apparent to you so then follow these (and perform them); (2) actions whose incorrectness is apparent to you so then avoid performing these acts; (3) actions whose performance is of doubt, so then refer the ruling on these to Allah…”[^1] This tradition consists of five sections.

In the first section, the Prophet of Islam (S) has given us five commandments: We must not convey wisdom and knowledge to those who are not worthy of such teachings, for then we will do oppression to knowledge. We must not deprive those people who are worthy of gaining knowledge from our knowledge since if we do this, we will commit oppression to those people.

From the wordings of this part of the tradition we can deduce that there are specific conditions which must be met for a student of knowledge - the most important is that one must have the (spiritual) ability to accept such knowledge and if this is not within a person, then one is not worthy of acquiring knowledge - that knowledge whose acquisition has been promised a great reward.

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