The three types of people seeking sacred knowledge

Sacred knowledge of the religion is no doubt the most important knowledge that any human being could gain. All the physical sciences that one learns, without being coupled by sacred knowledge of the religion, cannot make someone closer to God. And in truth, to get close to, serve and please God is the only reason we exist.

Seeking sacred knowledge is an extremely praised act. However, this act can in fact destroy the person seeking it IF he does it for the wrong reasons. I am paraphrasing from a lecture I heard given by Ustadh Yahya Rhodus (may God preserve him) of Zaytuna, on the categorization of seekers of knowledge according to Imam Al Ghazali (may God have mercy on his soul) in one of his books.

The first type is the one that will be destroyed by his knowledge. These are the types of people who seek for sacred knowledge for purposes of this worldly life. They seek for knowledge for their career, to look good in front of other people, to debate other people with the knowledge that they have, and other worldly gains. These people will not get closeness to God through their knowledge.

The second type is the one that seeks knowledge to get close to God, but sometimes has the tendency or is tempted to use sacred knowledge for worldly matters. This is a dangerous position, because there is a possibility that he will get sucked into becoming the first category.

The third type is the best type, which is the one who seeks knowledge only for the sole purpose of bettering himself and getting closer to God.

Of course we should all aspire to be among the third type. But sometimes we are unsure about what group are we in. One way to check one’s self is through other people’s praises. If we feel good when other people praise us for what we know, then we are most likely in the first or second group, and need to get our acts straight.

May we all be true seekers of sacred knowledge, and have a noble rank with God.