Anecdotes from the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
by Mumtaz Ahmad Faruqui
Knowledge and Learning
The unlettered Prophet said the following regarding knowledge and learning:
Acquire knowledge. It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong. It lights the way to the heaven. It is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, and our companion when friendless. It guides us to happiness, it sustains us in misery. It is an ornament among friends, and an armour against enemies.
Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.
Go in search of knowledge even if you have to go to China (a very distant place).
Whoever honours the learned, honours me.
The knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which no charity is bestowed in the way of the Lord.
Excessive knowledge is better than excessive praying; it is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night than to pray the whole night.
Who are the learned? Those who practise what they know.