KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT REALISATION

Knowledge is necessary for attaining maarifah. Knowledge plays a pivotal role in attaining God-Realisation. Such an individual possesses the ability to transcend superficial knowledge and gain insight into the inner spiritual realities.

The Quran says: “Be mindful of God; He teaches you” (2:282). In this verse, ilm means understanding. The meaning of this is that God-consciousness (taqwa) in a person will engender in him a proper understanding of the religion (At-Tafseer al-Qurtubi, Vol. 3, p. 406). From this, we learn that it is possible for a person to possess knowledge or information about religion and yet not possess a proper understanding of religion. This is because the source of true understanding of religion is God-consciousness, not mere knowledge. There is a supplication in a hadith report as follows: “O God, I seek refuge with You from the knowledge that is of no benefit.” (Sunan an-Nasa’i, Hadith No. 5470)

To understand this point, consider an example. In present times, some emotionally driven Muslims have unleashed violence at different places wrongly in the name of jihad, for which they have had to face one-sided devastation. And now, in line with a defeatist mentality, some of them are even resorting to suicide bombing. They strap bombs around their bodies and enter the areas of their supposed enemies and, exploding the bombs, knowingly kill themselves and others too. This is clearly a case of suicide, and suicide has been declared to be haraam (forbidden) in Islam. However, some Muslim scholars, giving this the name of istishhaad (desire for martyrdom), have declared it ja‘iz (permissible). In this regard, they seek to back their claim by drawing on some incidents in the age of the Prophet’s Companions. For instance, these people cite an incident from the time of the Caliphate of the first Caliph, Abu Bakr Siddiq (d. 634 C.E.), and wrongly claim that it is proof in support of their ideology. This incident is about a Companion of the Prophet named Al-Bara ibn Malik (d. 20 A.H.), which took place during the battle against Musaylimah, the false claimant to Prophethood (d.632 C.E.).

In the period of the Caliphate of Abu Bakr Siddiq, a battle took place between the Muslims, led by Hazrat Khalid, and Musaylimah and his supporters from among the people of Yamama. In the last stage of this battle, a group of rebels entered a walled garden and shut its sturdy door from the inside. At that time, Al-Bara ibn Malik was among the Companions of the Prophet who were engaged in fighting the rebels. He was famous for his bravery. He told some of the Companions of the Prophet to make him sit on a shield and to lift up the shield with the help of spears and get him to the top of the wall of the garden. Once he got to the top of the wall, he leaped over and entered into the garden. The rebels who were inside attacked him, but he fought them. Managing to get to the door of the garden, he opened it. As soon as the door was opened, a group of the Prophet’s Companions entered. Fighting the rebels, they overpowered them.

Now, this step of Al-Bara’s was an act of great risk. It contained a threat to his life. But the rebels could not succeed in killing him and he was able to come out alive. In fact, after this incident, he lived for another eight years and died a natural death, in the year 20 A.H. (Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, Vol. 2, p. 218;  Al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, Vol. 9, p. 469-70; Al-A‘lam by al-Zirikli, Vol. 2, p. 47)

There is a big difference between the act of Al-Bara and modern-day Muslim suicide bombers. Putting himself in danger, Al-Bara took a step that had two possible outcomes—either he would come out alive, or he would be killed. In contrast to this, the step that suicide bombers take has only one possible outcome—their own death. They strap bombs to their bodies and explode them. The outcome of this action is dependent on their own death. This is a clear issue of knowingly and deliberately committing suicide. There is, thus, a clear difference in the nature of the two actions.

But on account of not knowing this difference, some people wrongly assume both actions to be identical in nature, and so an action that was clearly an act of suicide was wrongly accorded by them the status of ‘martyrdom.’

This is an example of knowledge without realisation or maarifah. If a person possesses knowledge (in the sense of information) but does not possess the insight of maarifah, he will not understand the difference between one thing and another. What he speaks will be based simply on the information that he possesses. But in actual fact, it will be based on ignorance, and nothing else.

For maarifah, knowledge is necessary, but a person of maarifah is able to go beyond external knowledge to see inner realities. He is able to properly analyse information. He can read between the lines. He can see events in their proper perspective. These are some of the attributes of a person of maarifah. Only for a person of maarifah can his knowledge become beneficial. Without maarifah, knowledge is an enormous depravity.