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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Al-ḥamdu lillāhi Rabbil-‘Ālamīn, wa-salātu was-salām ‘ala ashrafil-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn Muḥammadir-Rasūlullāh ﷺ, wa ‘ala ālihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathīran kathīra.
My brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah. We are on the fourth of the four truths that we have been talking about for the last few days. The first one is: Time passes. No matter what we do or don’t do, time passes. Second, liking something doesn’t matter. What is beneficial must be done; what is useful must be done; what is important must be done—whether we like it or not. Liking does not matter. Number three is that there are two ways of learning. One is to learn by making mistakes ourselves, which is painful and expensive. And the other way is to learn from others, whether directly or indirectly. Today I want to talk about the fourth one: the steps of learning.
Learning has four steps. The first step is diagnosis: What do you want to learn and why? Number two is intervention design: How do you want to learn? What is the method? Number three is implementation: To actually do it. And the fourth is monitoring results. So, the four steps of learning are Diagnosis, Intervention Design, Implementation, and Monitoring Results.
These steps are possible only in face-to-face dealings—not merely by listening to lectures, watching videos, or taking online courses—but by physically engaging with a teacher. This means going and speaking to a teacher, sitting in the company of a teacher within a majlis, or having one-on-one coaching and mentoring. Whatever the case may be, it requires personal physical presence and contact.
Think of yourself as someone suffering from a very painful ailment—a toothache, for example, which can be excruciatingly painful and absolutely urgent. If you try to cure this by consulting an online doctor or watching a video on toothaches, does it work? No, it doesn’t. Compare that with going to a dentist or an experienced physician who examines you and prescribes a specific cure tailored to your condition. One approach relies on remote methods like telemedicine; the other involves actual physical contact with a physician who examines you personally.
I am not saying you cannot learn anything online. Of course, you can, especially with AI coming into play, making things easier. However, the question remains regarding the quality of that learning compared to real teacher-student interaction. There is a famous story about Imam Shāfi’ī rahimahullāh. One of his students disagreed with something he said during a lesson, got upset, and left the majlis. That evening, Imam Shāfi’ī went to the student’s house, knocked on the door, and when the man opened it, he was shocked because the Imam was there. The student asked, “Ya Imām, what happened?” Imam Shāfi’ī replied, “There are a thousand things in which we agree, but there is one thing in which we differ.” He then advised the student: “Do not allow that one thing to cloud the one thousand.”
Think about this. Whether that student benefited from him or not made no difference to Imam Shāfi’ī. What does it matter to the teacher if someone leaves? Especially for those who teach without charging fees. They never lose out financially. You come, you go. But that is not how true teaching works. For them, every single student is extremely important. As my Sheikh used to say, you do not learn merely from what happens in class; you learn because the teacher makes du’a for you at night during Tahajjud. If the teacher cannot make du’a for you, perhaps you are not worthy of being a teacher. Similarly, if you cannot get your teacher to make du’a for you, you might be wasting your time. How are you with the teacher? Do you serve the teacher? Serving the teacher does not mean sitting and pressing his legs or giving gifts. The only thing that matters to the teacher is the interest and industry—the sincerity of the student. Nothing else matters. If the sincerity is absent, it makes no difference.
I have been a teacher for the last 40 years, Alhamdulillah, with hundreds and thousands of students passing through my hands. I remember only a few of them—not because each gave me a Mercedes car or anything similar (Alhamdulillah, I never needed such things). The reason I remember somebody is because they showed interest and made me feel that their effort was worth it. So, when you come to the class, bring your best. There is a potent proverb in the English language which clearly shows this meaning: “It’s a waste.” You feel you are wasting your time simply because people are not interested.
Unfortunately today, we have taken learning to the depths and pits of irrelevance. What people focus on is merely the appearance of the Sheikh: Is he smart? Does he have an American, British, or some other accent? Does he make jokes? Is he amusing? We apply criteria like these—*laha wala foteh*, *laleh*—to any real Shuyukh, the ulama ul-haq, the classical scholars who literally changed the course of history. Were they smart? Were they cute? Did they have a sexy accent? No, we are talking about learning, or worse, just entertainment. Teaching and learning Islam has been reduced to the level of entertainment because the criteria applied are the same as those for any other form of entertainment. This is why there is a total bankruptcy of knowledge (*Ilmkar*). There is no interest. We need to change that.
Allah sent Rasūlullāh ﷺ as a teacher. He said so himself: “I have been raised as a teacher.” Allah gave him four things to do. These are not individual tasks but four steps toward Ma’rifatullāh—to know Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta’ālā and get close to Him. Allah also specified what was given to Rasūlullāh (ﷺ): recitation of the Quran (*Tilawah*), informing them (*Yathlu ‘alayhim āyātuhum*), purifying them (*wayuzakkihim*), teaching them the Book (*wa’yallimuhumul-kitāb*), and teaching them wisdom (*wal-ḥikmah*). Before this, people were in complete ignorance regarding these matters. Even their language was at its peak eloquence; unless one is completely ignorant, they would understand. The point to understand is that the standards are different. What Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta’ālā considers worthwhile is vastly different from what we consider worthwhile. We must reorient ourselves to giving importance to what Allah has deemed valuable.
Like I said yesterday, when you speak of “Net Worth,” it is not about what you possess in this world. Net worth is what you will take with you. Our life does not end with death; it continues after death. The real life is infinite in duration, and Insha’Allah, we ask Allah for the best. Therefore, the quality lies in the Hereafter, not here. If I do something in this life at the cost of my life in the Akhira—destroying my future life by engaging in sins or distractions—how can that be beneficial? Only if we restrict our view to worldly wealth, land, property, authority, gadgets, gimmicks, and toys, then such a person has no concept of the Akhira. Anyone who believes in the Afterlife cannot talk like this.
So, Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta’ālā gave us these four things:
1. Inform them (*Al-Majeed* has to come into our hearts and lives). To receive the Quran, Allah says, purify them. Because the Kalam of Allah is pure, and that which is pure will not stay in an impure place. If my heart, life, tongue, intentions, and actions are impure, the Quran Al-Karīm will not stay in my life. I may memorize it, but Allah does not stop anyone from doing so. However, mere memorization without purity means the knowledge is not benefiting them in any way.
2. Purify them.
3. Teach them the Book (*Kitāb*) and Wisdom (*Ḥikmah*).
4. Monitor the results.
There are people who have written excellent books on the Seerah of Rasūlullāh ﷺ with good adab, yet the authors were not Muslims, or even died without Islam. In some cases, they denied themselves the true purpose of the Prophet’s mission (*Be’asat*). What was the benefit of studying the Seerah if you have been deprived (*mahrum*) of its actual spiritual purpose? You must understand this issue of knowledge and learning. We have to diagnose ourselves: “What do I need?” If you cannot diagnose yourself, go to someone who can. Then design an intervention for that need. Therefore, because I have this need, what is the Dawa? What is the solution? What is the medicine for this? Then implement it. Simply going to a doctor and getting a prescription is not sufficient; that prescription has to be converted into action. You buy the medicine and take it. Right? Even if you have the absolute best doctor giving the perfect diagnosis and prescription, holding the medicine bottle does nothing. The pain will not go away unless the medicine goes inside your body—it must be ingested or injected. Only then will it show its power and effect. Finally, monitor the results: Is it working? Not working? What’s up?
So, let us think about how we can take charge of our lives and straighten them out, reminding ourselves constantly that time is passing and will never return. We are ever drawing closer to our end, and we do not know when that end will come. We ask Allah to make our endings the best—*khatima bil-khair*. To make our last days the best days of our lives, with the last actions being the best. And on the day we meet Him, may it be the best day of our lives. Insha’Allah, we ask Allah for His forgiveness and mercy. Wa-sallallahu ‘ala nabiyyil-Karīm wa ‘ala ālihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi-rahmatika ya Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm, wal-ḥamdu lillāhi Rabbil-‘Ālamīn.