NEW SERIES! Falling in Love With Reading: The Forgotten Habit of Scholars | Sheikh Muhammad Huzaifah

And sadly, many students of knowledge today no longer give the books of knowledge the position they deserve. Some become satisfied with qualifications. Others with online content, others with following accounts, watching clips, a person may then imagine that he has reached his goal where in reality he has barely begun the journey. And for that reason, I want to invite you on a journey. Throughout this series, you will meet people whose lives revolved around knowledge and books. People who traveled with books, purchased books, copied books by hands, read books to others and had books read to them, taught the same books repeatedly, returned to study the same books again and again and again. Books did not merely occupy their shelves, but they occupied their hearts and became amongst their closest companions. Alhamdulillah. Let me begin by asking you a simple question. When was the last time you sat down, opened a beneficial book and then found it difficult to put it back down again? Not because somebody had forced you to read it, not because you had an exam, not because you wanted a qualification or a certificate, but simply because you loved reading. For many of us, this is something which has become increasingly rare. We live in a time where information has never been more accessible. If you have a question, we can quickly search for it. If you want to learn something, we can watch a short video on it. We can scroll through endless clips. We listen to podcasts. We save posts. We bookmark articles. Yet, despite having access to more information than any generation before us, many of us have gradually lost something that the great scholars of this um considered indispensable. A genuine love for reading. Not reading merely for entertainment or reading simply to pass the time, but reading that changes who you are. Reading that nurtures your iman. Reading that deepens your understanding. Reading that brings you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Reading that produces serious students of knowledge. This series is an invitation an invitation to rediscover what has become one of the forgotten habits of the great. Throughout this series we are going to travel through the lives of some of the greatest scholars. this um has ever known. You will meet people whose lives revolved around knowledge and books. People who traveled with books, purchased books, copied books by hands, read books to others and had books read to them, taught the same books repeatedly, returned to study the same books again and again and again, carried books with them both whilst resident and whilst traveling. Books did not merely occupy their shelves but they occupied their hearts and became amongst their closest companions. You will meet scholars such as Josie and so many others who when hearing their stories it will completely change the way you think about reading and seeking knowledge. Now some people perhaps may say that these stories are extraordinary and are not possible for many of us. They will actually cause discourage to many of the students. And this objection has been raised before. But the correct response is that firstly perhaps a very very small number of people may react in that way but they are the exception and they are not made the standard. And more importantly, if inspiring examples were meant to discourage us, then why did Allah subhana wa ta'ala make the prophets as our examples? Why were the lives of the companions preserved for us? Why were the lives of the Salaf and the righteous scholars recorded? If we remove these examples, then who are the people supposed to follow? But rather, these stories were not preserved to make us despair. They were preserved to raise our aspirations to awaken our determination to energize a student of knowledge and to remind us of what becomes possible when a servant is sincere with Allah and possesses lofty ambitions. They also contain a very important benefit as well that sometimes a student of knowledge acquires a little amount of knowledge. He reads a couple of books, attends a few lessons, but then he begins to imagine that he has already reached a considerable high level. But when he reads the biographies of the great, every page reminds him of his true position. Every page humbles him. Every page breaks that dangerous impulse of pretending to possess knowledge before one truly has acquired it. And every page shows him how much further he still has to travel. He said, "A for those who truly love knowledge, their passion and love for it are greater than the love of any lover for the one who he aduls." Many of them will not even become distracted from their knowledge by the most beautiful human being. And even if somebody so beautiful was in front of them or it's something that they that people consider really beautiful in this duny was in front of them they would not become distracted for it due to the intense love for knowledge and for read also said if knowledge was to be given a visible form it would be more beautiful than the sun and the moon. So how can a person be blamed for falling in love with knowledge? And sadly many students of knowledge today no longer give the books of knowledge the position they deserve. Some become satisfied with qualifications, others with online content, others with following accounts, watching clips and collecting scattered pieces of information. A person may then imagine that he has reached his goal where in reality he has barely begun the journey. It has been said the stories are amongst the armies from the armies of Allah and through them a person through them Allahh uses them to strengthen whomever he wills from amongst his servants and that is exactly why these stories deserve to be preserved and shared. Preserving scholarly inheritance does not simply mean printing old books and placing them on shelves. The most effective way of preserving it is to revive the movement of knowledge itself to awaken aspirations to raise ambitions and every day to add new people to the ranks of genuine readers. Readers in the fullest sense of the word. One of the principal reasons that a significant portion of our scholarly inheritance has been lost is due to weak determination and low ambitions. Other causes include ignorance of the value and a lack of awareness regarding the treasure that we possess and their awards and other factors. But one of the main factors that many of our tradition has even been lost and books have been lost is because we have not given that importance to it in our time. We must also add the overwhelming stream of distractions that pull people away from serious reading and sometimes away from seeking knowledge altogether. More than 800 years ago he placed the blame for the disappearance of many scholarly works upon declining ambition. He said the ambitions of the earlier scholars were lofty as demonstrated by their writings which represented the finest fruits of their lives the books. However, most of their works disappeared because the ambitions of the students weakened. They began requesting a bridge summarized works and lacked their energy for lengthy ones. They then restricted themselves to only portions of what they studied. So the books disappeared and were no longer copied. Now imagine, subhan Allah, Josie is saying this and observing this in his time. And who was there in his time? the likes of Alhamb the one who wrote the book Alun which is said to be 800 volumes and you have alashab and the grimarian who has numerous writings and enormous library and alhamdani and alazb these were the scholars who are around in his time and if Josie expressed this concern In an age that contains scholars of that caliber, then what should we say about our time? A time in which weak determination and declining ambition have been joined by an overwhelming flood of distractions, constant entertainment, notification, social media, and an endless stream of short form content that pulls away us not only from reading but sometimes from knowledge altogether. If we surrender ourselves to these distractions, we risk losing even more of this priceless inheritance. Can a student of knowledge accept being a cause even if in the smallest way of the disappearance of this legacy? Certainly not. And for that reason, I want to invite you on a journey. A journey not to simply read more books, but to become a different person. A person who loves reading, who treasures the books of knowledge, who values the inheritance of the scholars and who benefits from their lives and who by the permission of Allahawel builds a relationship with reading that remains with him until he meets his lord subhanahu wa ta'ala. Welcome to fall in love with reading the forgotten habit of the great scholars. Bishmah.