Indeed if people specify a day for the honoring of learning and the teacher, getting knowledge has always been part and parcel of our Islamic identity. It is disliked in Islam that man be uneducated, for Islam gets people out of ignorance to lead them into knowledge so that they be acquainted with science on all levels.
In a clear evident verse of the Holy Qur'an that everyone should understand and meditate upon, it is decided by the Exalted Allah who said: "Say", and the addressee is our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), the owner of the Message who gets people out of darkness and leads them into light, "Say: are those equal, those who know and those who do not know?" (Az Zumur, 9).
This is the title of our Message, in which the first revealed word is "Read". The Exalted Allah said: "Say: are those equal, those who know and those who do not know?"
The title of our Message is not: "Are those equal, those who have wealth and those who do not ?"; "those who rule and those who do not ?";
"those who eat and those who do not ?"; or "those who laugh and those who do not ?"
The title of our Message is rather: "Say: are those equal, those who know and those who do not know?"
The one who conveyed this title was our Master, Muhammad (PBUH) to whom the Exalted Allah said: "and taught thee what thou knewest not {before}; and great is the Grace of Allah unto thee" (An Nisa', 113). The source of the knowledge conveyed by our Master to humanity is Heavenly, so it is transmitted to us from the Exalted Allah.
Describing this great Qur'an conveyed to us by means of our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), the Exalted Allah said: "For We had certainly sent unto them a Book, based on knowledge, which we explained in detail" (Al A'raf, 52).
The Exalted Allah prohibits man to follow other than the path that depends on knowledge. He, Exalted He is, recommends man to start off from knowledge and go through its straight path. He said: "And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge" (Al 'Isra', 36).
This is our Message: "And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge".
In our method and behavior, in our dealings and our life, we follow no other path but that recommended by knowledge.
Confirming this issue, in the purified Sunnah of Al Mustafa (PBUH), there is a Hadith that says: "Certainly, worldly life is cursed, and everything in it is cursed too, except for remembering Allah and the obedience of Allah ".
In another version: "Except for remembering Allah and, and the obedience of Allah, as well as a literate or a scholar ".
When the Prophet (PBUH) adopts a principle, he conveys it to us and wants us to adopt it too.

In the above mentioned Hadith, the Prophet (PBUH) wants to tell us that the material life with all its embellishment and pleasures is valueless unless it is based on mentioning Allah and knowledge. Mentioning Allah gives the material its value, so it becomes ascribed to Allah instead of the material itself, and when there is remembering of Allah together with the material, we understand the material as the embellishment sent by Allah that is not forbidden: "Say: who hath forbidden the beautiful {gifts} of Allah?" (Al A'raf, 32).
That is how mentioning Allah changes the material and its consideration. How great is the difference between the one who lives for the material without remembering Allah, considering the material as material, and the one who lives with consideration of the material as ascribed to the Exalted Allah: "Say: who hath forbidden the beautiful {gifts} of Allah, which He hath produced for his servants?" (Al A'raf, 32).
That is how the people of the material who have faith are distinguished from the people of the material for the sake of the material, for when the bodies are in the material, remembering the Exalted Allah prepares their hearts so that they live this relationship between the material and its Creator.
Knowledge prepares the Muslim's heart, first of all, to be cognitive of Allah. On the other hand, the heedless materialist has no recognition of Allah. He lives with the owned, ignorant of their Owner. He lives in the universe, but he is cut from the Lord, the Creator, and the Owner of the universe. The first thing the Muslim has knowledge of is:
Recognizing the Lord of the Universe:
He is the One Who supplies the Muslim with communication with Him wherever he goes; the One Who is the Motivator of the universe. Consequently, he does not live only with the Motivator, he also recognizes Him with his heart.
Recognizing Allah is derived from Heavenly inspiration. Mankind cannot obtain this knowledge unless they understand this inspiration and react with it. When human beings are cut from inspiration, they will be, first of all, cut from recognizing Allah. How valueless is man when he has the illusion that he is knowledgeable, and that he owns knowledge, while he lacks the great recognition of the Motivator of the universe .
How valueless is man when he deals with plants, with animals, with man's body, with the laws of the universe…, but he is completely ignorant of the Establisher of these laws, the One Who created this universe and produces these plants; the One Who, by His Wisdom and His marvelous Ability, produces the miracles of the signs of the universe in man, in animal, in trees and in stone!?
Recognizing Allah makes man be endowed not only with mere knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It rather produces a practical effect. It is not as some pragmatic people say that it is not employed in its practical place. The knowledge we talk about produces discipline in behavior, faith, good manners, constant awareness of Allah that is missing nowadays from our societies.

Recognizing Allah annuls crimes, bribery, behavioral aberrations that have increased day by day in our Islamic societies: "Those truly fear Allah, among His Servants, who have knowledge" (Fater, 28).
A society ruled by a Positive Law that is void of Allah-fearing, will not penetrate into the smallest particles of man's activities, however exact its application is (if it were applied).
As man is a greatly intelligent creature, he can find thousand subterfuges through which he can be rebellious against the law. Consequently, Man cannot be disciplined unless there is cognition of Allah in his heart. When this happens, the effect will definitely appear on his behavior. He will become good and guiltless in his manners and in his dealings because he fears Allah, and because he takes into consideration the Greatness of the Lord of the universe.
If fear of Allah existed in the hearts of those who spread ravage on the earth, what has happened, will have never happened.
There is a crisis. It is the crisis of the non-existence of the cognition of Allah that produces social absurdity, haphazardness, and chaos.
After all, Islam that considers learning as an Islamic necessity after recognizing Allah, requires the Muslim to be acquainted with two types of knowledge:
Knowledge of the Exalted Allah's law in the universe; and knowledge of the Exalted Allah's law that disciplines man's behavior.
Knowledge of the Exalted Allah's law in the universe:
The Exalted Allah has decreed a law that never changes nor alters. It is the law of the universe whose regulation the Exalted Allah has set, and ordered the Muslim to be acquainted with.
An example of the Exalted Allah's law is:

-When an atom of Oxygen is mixed with an atom of Hydrogen, water that constitutes life is produced: "We made from water every living thing" (Al Anbiyax, 30).
-That life is produced by water is one of the Exalted Allah's laws.
-Man's body needs pure air and pure water.
-The existence of trees on the earth improves man's life because they constitute part of the breathing cycle.
-The pollution that man emits, unaware of its bad effects, destroys life on the earth.
There is balance in life on the levels of plants, animals, and man's life, as well as on the level of the outside sphere of heavens and earth: "O ye assembly of Jinns and men! If it be ye can pass beyond the zones of the heavens and the earth, pass ye! " (Ar Rahman, 33).
Islam makes us be accustomed to flexibility. Moreover, it teaches us how to have meditation, pondering and reason: "He Who created the seven heavens one above another: no want of proportion wilt thou see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious" (Al Mulk, 3).
Islam motivates you to look carefully and consider the creation of the Exalted Allah: "Again turn thy vision a second time " (Al Mulk, 4).
Islam motivates us to see, to look, to search and to walk… "so traverse ye through its tracts" (Al Mulk, 15).
" Do they not travel through the land, so that their hearts may thus learn wisdom?" (Al Haj, 46). Certainly, Islam orders us to walk and move, because inactivity does not agree with Islam. Inactivity makes the customary and the familiar dominate man's mind, but movement leads to meditation and pondering in man…
Consequently, Islam requires man to be acquainted with the Exalted Allah's laws in the universe.
Where are we from the knowledge of the laws of the universe in our Islamic world today?
Have our universities got superiority over the universities of materialism? Have they been superior in their researches?
Have we established research scientific centers that surpass the centers of the others, or we have been busy in disputes?
Germany got out of the war defeated, so did Japan. Did Japan get into the war of ideologies, or they got into the labs so that their industry rivaled the greatest international industry?
Sorrowfully, we went on depreciating one another, finding fault with one another, killing one another, quarrelling with one another, inactivating thereby the actual productive movement. Each one of us presumes to be the most knowledgeable, the most able, the nearest to contemporaneousness, the nearest to science, and that he is more advanced and the others are reactionary.
That is how we moved backward step by step, confining one another, restricting talking and action, and tying man's limbs so that he would not be able to move.
This is the reality of our Islamic world, while the others are moving forward in research, presenting rewards to those who set out to do researches and be advanced in science.
Accordingly, we are contradicting our Islam. The fact is not as some ignorant people say: "Our Islam has made us in the rear". Certainly not, for our Islam calls us to advancement, but we are busy away from our real Islamic mission. We are skillful only in manufacturing mere statements.
When we become superior in the knowledge of the laws of the universe, we will be able to rule the universe, but when we abstain from researching in these laws, the ignorant and the materialists will rule us. Consequently, the result will be what is taking place nowadays, namely, the one-pole policy, as it is said, and Judaism moves the world to live in chaos, absurdity and personal interests, a state in which the strong become distinguished from the weak, and the countries of the North become distinguished from those of the South.
No doubt, up till now, we have fallen behind with the knowledge of the laws of the universe, because of our personal interests. We petrify objects and put thousands of restrictions and restraints that hamper the movement of advancement on all levels of scientific and educational research..
Consequently, the first knowledge is recognition of Allah that produces faith, and afterwards, it produces behavioral result and cleanliness in society.
The second knowledge is being acquainted with the laws of the universe.
The third knowledge: is being acquainted with the law of Allah that disciplines man's behavior.
All the universe is obliged. It runs by the Ability of the Exalted Allah, but man has the freedom of choice that makes him able to agree or disagree with the Exalted Allah's law.
The Exalted Allah gives man freedom of choice, but the sun cannot change its course, so is the case with the moon and the stars. The water that goes up the roots of the tree to its branches cannot change its course too; the apple that gets ripe cannot be one day late for the appointed time of its ripeness; the fish that give their eggs in a place and get married in another, and run through river or sea courses cannot change their way…, but man is given freedom of choice by the Exalted Allah Who makes him move through a large space, between the best mould and the lowest one. The Exalted Allah said:
We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, then do We abase him {to be} the lowest of the low" (At Tin, 4-5).
Man is an intelligent, brilliant creature given the freedom of choice. He is able to move between the best state that is mastery over the world through his humanity bestowed upon him by the Lord of man, through a behavior taught to him by the Exalted Allah Who said to him: "This is My law through which you can preserve your best position, but by your own choice too, you might decline so that you become more perverted than cattle: 'They are like cattle, nay more misguided" (Al A'raf, 179).
Thus, the third knowledge is being acquainted with the law of Allah in man through which man learns how to live and how to behave …
Recent studies state (as I was informed by a friend of mine who was acquainted with a scientific report on the position of urination), that when man passes urine while he is sitting, the level of fecundity in him rises, but when he does that while standing, sexual rate decreases.
This is a statistical study produced by the highest research centers.
On the other hand, Islam, without lab experiments, supplied by the knowledge of Allah, says to man: "I dislike your passing urine while standing", then legal rule comes to say to the Muslim: "pass urine while you are sitting".
Islam does not deal only with man's activity in industry while calling for manufacturing. It also calls man to spread the science of industry. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "Help the weak or work for a person who does not know how to work for himself " As is stated in Sahih Muslim.
"Help a worker" is one of the best deeds that makes man closer to Allah.
"or work for a person who does not know how to work for himself" , i.e., the ignorant person who does not know how to do something, so you work for him to teach him how to work.
Islam does not only call for cultivation. If one feels that the Hour is about to begin while he is planting a sapling, he should not wait for the Hour to begin. He has to finish planting it.
I shall not refer, in this instant, to the influence of planting in making the danger of earthquake less (and the Hour is an earthquake), I shall not also talk about the behavioral effect of planting a sapling, but I only say that Islam motivates man to take care of the land. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "Whoever has a land, let him cultivate it. If he does not, let somebody else cultivate it".
Islam aims at making the land interactive with man, and vice versa. It does not only talk about industry, agriculture and commerce, nor does it talk about getting benefit wherever it is. It rather presents a title, that is: "Whoever is able to benefit his brother, let him do so". It is a general rule. Consequently, if you are able to find a way of benefiting the others, do that. Islam teaches you to benefit the others, not to be the cause of their harm: "Do not inflict injury nor repay one injury with another".
This is a behavioral human rule that makes man be promoted. It teaches man even how to pass urine, how to drink, that is, whether to drink when he is standing or sitting.
The one who understands Islam well does not wait until laboratory experiments say: "Drink while you are standing, and pass urine while you are standing because doing that causes such and such diseases". But when one has trust in the Teacher Who is Allah, and the transmitter who is Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), the Master of all human teachers, one accepts the matter without waiting for the result of the labs.
Consequently, the real Teacher is Allah, and the Master of all human teachers is our Master, Muhammad (PBUH) who said: "I am sent as a teacher". This statement is said when the Prophet (PBUH) went to the mosque and found an assembly reciting the Qur'an and invoking Allah, and another assembly learning and teaching. Thus he (PBUH) said (as is related by Ibn Majah in Sinanihi, and Ad Darami: "Those are reading the Qur'an and invoking Allah. Allah might answer their invocation or not as He wills, while the others are teaching and learning. I am sent as a teacher" Thus he (PBUH) sat with the second assembly.
The Prophet (PHUH) distinguishes between the assembly of worship and that of knowledge. He (PBUH) said: "I am going to sit in the assembly of knowledge". He (PBUH) did not trifle with the activity of the group of worship because it was supporting, but the group of knowledge set up a foundation. Thus, he stayed with the second assembly.
When are we going to understand that when Islam presents the information in a Qur'anic text or Prophetic Hadith from our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), it teaches man certain behavior?
When are we going to understand that it is the Heavenly law in man through which he is promoted?
There is no exertion of judgment in legislation in the text. When the text is mentioned, people should have no objection whatsoever.
Nowadays, there are some who talk blatantly and dispute about the text.
Oh ignorant people, you do not have the right to dispute about, or discourse on the text set by the All-Knowing, the Knower of everything. In the Holy Qur'an, the text belongs to Allah, the Knower, the All-Knowing, and the text in the Prophetic Hadith belongs also to Allah, the Knower, the All-Knowing: "Nor does he say {aught} of {his own} Desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him" (An Najm, 3-4).
Consequently, according to Islamic perspective, getting knowledge in our life is a necessity. Islam presents cognition of Allah that results in purity of behavior as well as fearing of Allah. Moreover, it presents knowledge of Allah's Law in the universe. The one who owns this knowledge becomes superior in the universe. It also presents knowledge of Allah's law in man through which man is ordered to plant not cut plantation. Moreover, Islam warns against cutting trees or killing a child even in war… . It is Allah's law in man.
These are the three types of knowledge presented by Islam: Cognition of Allah; cognition of the Exalted Allah's law in the universe; cognition of the Exalted Allah's law in man. Does any other than Islam present or call for these three types in knowledge?
Societies should be established on these three types of knowledge. Once they are verified by them, missing not any one of them, they become superior in the world. But what can we do when we talk, but nobody listens to our speech?
What can we do when we talk, but it is not desired for us to be listened to by anybody?
What can we do when what is appreciated is only that telecasted on the international information media, but Islamic information is called lean not fat, and sermons that do not establish any civilization?
The Qur'an is listened to as recitation, but is it listened to as cognizance?
Consequently, your responsibility is so immense. It is not restricted to the one who wears a turban, for we are an Ummah that contains no specific reformers (religious men). This method is applied by other than the Muslims. We are an Ummah in which every one of us is a religious man, and every one of us is entrusted to convey religion, man or woman, small or big.
We are an Ummah that is taught by the Exalted Allah that pretexts that man can pretend are valueless to Allah.
Nowadays, every one of us assumes a pretext, and justifies himself by excuses, cancelling thereby the best behavior because of these excuses. One day, it is inevitable for him to stand alone before the Exalted Allah, and pay his account alone:
The Exalted Allah said: "Nay, man will be evidence against himself. Even though he were to put up his excuses" (Al Qiyamah, 14-15).
He Also said: "Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself; no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another" (Al An'am, 164).
He also said: "That Day shall a man flee from his own brother, And from his mother and his father, And from his wife and his children" (Abasa, 34-36). Consequently, will excuses be of any value at that time?
Why did not the magicians of Pharaoh pretend excuses when they announced they would obey the Exalted Allah and agree with His law in man? At that time, they said: "Never shall we regard thee as more than the Clear Signs that have Come to us; or than Him Who created us! so decree whatever thou desirest to decree; for thou canst only decree {touching} the life of this world" (Taha, 72).
When are we going to understand that man's behavior must agree with the Heavenly Law in man, even if it were at the expense of his death, though, according to the Islamic perspective, man knows for sure that his death does not mean the end of his real life?
That is how we can get rid of our pretexts and our complexes. We can get rid of our illusions and throw aside our excuses and be committed to the method of knowledge by Allah, and the method of knowledge of Allah's Law in the universe.
One of the brethren who took care of rearing children said to me: What reference book do you recommend our children to refer to?
I knew that he expected me to say to him: the book of jurisprudence by so and so, or the book on Sirah (biography of the Prophet {PBUH}) written by the religious scholar so and so.
But I said to him: encyclopedias of knowledge widen the mind of the child so that he learns the Exalted Allah's Law that exists in trees, in stone, in geography in history…
The mind of the child should be open to recognize the laws of the universe so that when he is asked about chemical, physical, geographical or historical axioms, he will have the answer ready in his mind. After knowing the Exalted Allah's law in the universe, and you teach him the Exalted Allah's laws in man, he will become wider than the universe.
I have not noticed the care of the mosques of that. The utmost care of the Islamic environment is preaching and general direction. But there is no care for definition of knowledge that is the basis of the wide-mindedness of the child who will be the future man, and who will be required to be wider than the universe. How can he be wider than the universe when he does not know it?
How can he be asked to be wider than the universe when he, himself, does not know the Exalted Allah's law of the universe?
When I ask children today about their knowledge of the universe, I feel astonished to find their information so meager in comparison with what we used to know when we were children. We had great knowledge because we used to read a lot, and researched a lot… . What is the matter with the children of today?
If these three sciences are not the wide headlines upon which children are reared, youth are supported, and societies are reformed …, they will be of no use.
Allahum…, guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask Allah's forgiveness