All praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds; and peace and blessings be upon Sayyidina Muhammad, most truthful and most trustworthy. O Allah our Lord, lead us out from the depths of darkness and illusion unto the lights of erudition and knowledge, and from the muddy shallows of lusts unto the heavens of Your Vicinity.

The Acquisition Method in Islam:

 Dear brother, let’s start with the 12th lesson of the topic:
 “Children Upbringing in Islam_ The Mental Education_ The Acquisition Method in Islam”

 Brother, the acquisition method or the research method in Islam is really considered a very serious topic. Nowadays, our children live within a community that is predominated by innumerous ideas, philosophies, concepts, predicates, suspicions and falsities. I do not want to evaluate all these things, rather I just want to show you how many they are. Let me tell you what may happen to your son; if he has two friends who raise contradicting ideas about Islam. i.e. one of them is arguing for Islam and the other one is arguing against it, How could your son keep himself balanced amongst these contradictory predicates and contemporary philosophies and suspicions grow over Islam??!!

 Dear brother, I think the Islamic Ummah has never entered a phase of loss like the one it enters at present although we’ve got the Noble Qur’an which

﴾ Falsehood cannot come to it from before it or behind﴿

[ Surah Fussilat: 42 ]

 Also, we’ve got the sayings of the Sinless (the Prophetic Hadith):

﴾ Nor does he speak of (his own) desire.* It is only an Inspiration that is inspired﴿

[Surah An_Najim: 3&4]

 However, Islam does really face a decisive battle against those who want to corrupt our religious principles. They wanted to destroy the branches of Islam 50 years ago, but their target has become destroying the foundations of Islam; the Noble Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad, Master of all Messengers.

The Authorized Criterion for Admitting or Neglecting an Idea:

 Actually, the acquisition method in Islam is our last idea concerning the topic of “The Mental Education”. This method should be deeply understood by fathers in order to teach it to their sons in a simple manner. If you get into a room that contains one hundred thousand yellow ingots, some of them are shiny copper ingots, some are copper ingots wrapped up with gold, some are just pieces of the lesser metals and sh3er are pure golden ingots measuring 16, 21 or 24 gr. How could you figure out the one hundred pure golden ingots?! What is the appropriate criterion for accomplishing this mission?! This is exactly the main objective of our lesson today.

 There are countless concepts, ideas, predicates and philosophies. Thus, we need to adopt an Islamic method for proper acquisition which will help us fortify ourselves and our children. Indeed, the most important task for our fathers, tutors and Sheikhs is to teach us a proper method (balance) for research and acquisition rather than just teaching us scholarly vocabularies and items. Such method will enable us to teach our children how they can differentiate between the acceptable ideas and concepts and the rejected ones. The method will be just like a balance that is used to weigh things. If there is a problem with the weight, it could be fixed easily, so the mistake in weighing will not be repeated. However, if the defect is in the balance itself, then things can never be fixed. Similarly, wrong concepts and ideas can be balanced by accepting what is right and rejecting what is wrong. Nevertheless, if the method of balancing these ideas is worthless then things can never be fixed.

The basic rule to perceive texts in accordance with Faith (Usul Udin):

 Dear brother, we (Muslims) have got the Noble Qur’an which is the Revelation from Allah Who takes guarding it upon Himself. Also, we’ve got the Prophetic Hadith which is the explication of the Qur’anic texts. It is necessary to classify the Prophetic As7adeth and memorize them in order to be able to retain Allah’s Revelation (Al-Qur’an). For instance, if we want to memorize a certain law, we should first understand the legislative decree. Similarly, the deep comprehension of the Noble Qur’an necessitates a deep understanding of the As7adeth.

 Allah the Almighty has qualified great men of knowledge with great capacities to accomplished the task of classifying As7adeth and differentiating between the forged (Maudu’) , the weak (Da’if) and the sound (Sahih) of them. We are Muslims, and we’ve got the Noble Quran which is considered to be our first decisive authentic resource (text) for acquisition or research in Islam. We should first do our best to understand and perceive the Qur’anic text in accordance with the Foundations of Faith rather than interpreting it arbitrarily.

Allah’s Word must be held as it is revealed:

 The acquisition method in Islam should be based essentially on the Noble Qur’an. Thus, when I read that one of the modern studies has indicates that drinking a sum of alcoholic drink freshens the heart; I should prove the opposite by referring to the ayah where Allah says that it is forbidden. Likewise, the subject of backbiting; its prohibition is manifested in of the As7adeth. In brief, the permissible deeds and the impermissible ones are indicated in the Noble Qur'an which is the Creator's Word, so these issues are out of question,

﴾ It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. ﴿

[Surah Al_Ahzab: 36]

 One day, I asked a relative of mine, who is a mechanic, to repair my car. While he was checking it, , he threw away a piece of it saying that it was useless. To tell you the truth I have no idea about cars, so I could not argue with him about the mechanism of that piece. However, I told him, “The company which manufactures this car, has been manufacturing cars for one hundred years, and the 5.000 engineers who work there are very experienced ones. It is illogical that they put a useless piece in the car. Are you more experienced than those engineers? Please, put the piece back in its place.”

The relationship between Commandments & Prohibitions with is a scientific one:

 Primarily, Allah’s Commandments and Prohibitions are the Words of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Allah’s Commandments are for our own safety and happiness; drinking water, breathing air and eating food are examples of Commandments at which your safety stands upon and you risk your life if you stop doing them. Prohibited acts such as drinking, gambling and committing adultery, on the other hand have harmful effects on man if he does not keep away from committing them. I know a story of a man who visited the gambling city in America. He gambled and lost 2 million and a half at one night, so he went back home and shot his wife, children and himself

 It is really a very precise point that there is a scientific relationship (a cause and effect relationship) between Allah’s Commandments & Prohibitions and their consequences. For example, your hand will be burned when you touch a burning heater; this is a cause and effect (scientific) relationship. However, if you notice the “Exit” note on a specific door and then you use another one for exiting, you may have to pay a fine for using the other door. The relationship in this case is not a cause and effect relationship, rather it is a conditional one.
 When you believe in the scientific relationship between the Commandment and its consequence, and between the prohibition and its consequence, you will absolutely realize that the whole affair is in the Hand of Allah.

Islam is a religion of sciences and authentic texts:

 Let me tell you two essential facts:

1- The Noble Qur’an is a decisive authentic text, so your only task is to perceive it in accordance with the Foundations of Faith.

2- The Prophetic As7adeth are not all sound. You should make sure whether they are sound, weak or forged.

 Beware of the jugglers who claim that they can tell you which As7adeth are sound, which are forged and which are weak. One day, a juggler came to the Minister of Religious Affairs and told him that, in his dream at 12: 00 am he saw the Prophet (PBUH) ordering to recruit him in the Ministry. The Minister laughed at him and told him that he saw the Prophet at 4:00 am and he forewarned him of a dishonest man in order not to believe him…

Unlike the Quranic texts, the Prophetic As7adeth need verification:

 I repeat: the first step of the acquisition method in Islam is to contemplate and search in order to perceive the Qur’anic text (ayaat) in accordance with the Foundations of Faith. If you failed to understand an ayah, you can simply ask the knowledgeable men of Qur’an (those who know the Scipture.) This is exactly what Allah orders us to do when He says:

﴾ So ask of those who know the Scripture [learned men of the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)], if you know not. ﴿

[Surah An_Nahl: 43]

 The second step is to verify the noble Hadith. It is said that four hundred thousand forged As7adeth had been fabricated by zanadiqah (enemies-within spreading heretical beliefs.)

﴾ And they will say: "Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not have been among the dwellers of the blazing Fire!" ﴿

[Surah Al_Mulk: 10]

 The following is an example of those forged As7adeth:
 “All the people are perished_ Allah forbid_ except the scholars. All scholars are perished except the active. . All the active are perished except the sincere. All the sincere are in a grave danger.”

 That’s why the great scholars of the Prophetic Hadith worked hard and selected the Sahih of the As7adeth and gathered them in well-known books. One of the best books of Imam An-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy upon him, is Riyadh Al-Saliheen. This book has many chapters that each one of it tackles a certain religious issue in a very simple manner. Moreover, all of the As7adeth mentioned in this book are sound, so it is a good book for you to know some of the sound As7adeth.

Any man’s text must be verified:

 We have mentioned above that the two basic sources of our acquisition method are the Noble Qur’an (it should be understood deeply) and the Prophetic Hadith (it should always be verified). Let us move now to the third one; it is mankind’s text.
 Any text that’s said by any living human being in the earth from Adam till Doomsday is considered to be a third resource for acquisition. This source is not the Divine Revelation or the Prophetic Hadith, so it should always be verified. Some unbelievers fabricated a saying and they claimed that Imam Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said it. Listen what they said, "Woman is evil, and what makes her most evil is that men are in need of her." Such a saying is unacceptable in Islam. Therefore,
the speaker’s relation to any text must be verified by looking for it in the book of “Nahj Al-Balaghah” . After that, it must be understood very well. Then, its correspondency with Al-Qur’an and Sunnah must be verified. If it corresponds to these two sources then we accept, but if it does not then we should forget all about it.
 We say:“Teach me how to fish instead of giving me a fish” It means : don’t just tell me that this is sound (Sahih) Hadith, weak (Da’if) Hadith or forged (Maudu’) Hadith. Instead tell me why they are classifying like this and on what basis. Teach me how I can differentiate between them in order to be able to accept the verified and reject the fabricated.

 Dear brother, the precious advice that I would like to give you in our meeting today is that you shouldn’t accept or neglect anything (words, Hadith, ideas...etc) without rigorous evidence. Habituate yourself to ask always about the evidence when the religious issues are discussed.

 It was reported by Fudail, through Hisham, said, 'Mukhled Ibn Husain reported, by Muhammad Ibn Serin who said that the Prophet PBUH said,

((This knowledge (i.e. Hadith) is the Religion, so be careful from whom you take your religion'))

 Narrated Ibn Abu Hatim in “Al-Olal” that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

((O Ibn Umar, take care of your religion! It is only your flesh and blood. Take from those who are upright, and do not take from those who have swerved.))

The steps of the research method in Islam:

 Dear brother, there are some people who plot against the knowledgeable Muslims. Those unbelievers conspired against Abu Hunaifah An-No’man and Ahmad Bin Hanbal and so many other scholars in the past.

 Once upon a time an educated man read something unacceptable in a book of a well known scholar. He went to Makkah to perform Hajj, and there he met one of the famous scholars. He complained to him that he read things that contradicted Qur’an in that book, so the man took him to his library and showed him the same book written by the same scholar. The man was astonished, for he could not find the articles he read in that book. Thus, the writer of the book was innocent, because those articles were fabricated and inserted in his book. I once read articles published in an educational magazine. Those articles were fabricated and the writers claimed that well known scholars wrote them. I advise you to verify any text that tackles religious matters, because it could be fabricated.

 When you read suspicious articles in a book written by a scholar whom you do not trust his knowledge, the first thing you should do is to keep your good opinion about that man , and you should give him an excuse that maybe someone conspired against him and added these suspicious articles into his book. Sometimes you read articles which are not fabricated, but you cannot get the intention of the writer. Therefore, it is preferable for a scholar to make things clear in his book in order not to have ideas that can have two different interpretations. In some cases the articles could be written by someone before he repented to Allah because of this sin. If it is verified that he fabricated these articles and did not repent, then he committed a grave sin. We believe that there is only one Sinless person who is the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and all the other human beings are sinners.

 Let me sum up these steps in few sentences; whenever you read suspicious articles and books that discuss religious issues, you should have a good opinion about the author. You should make sure whether these articles are fabricated or not. As for the second step, if it is verified that the articles are not fabricated, you have also to keep a good opinion about the writer who could repent to Allah for the sin he committed. The third step of your research method is that you have to make sure that you understand the intention of the scholar to have a clear idea about what is mentioned in the book or the article. Here comes our advice to knowledgeable writer; it is necessary to clarify their ideas by using the simplest and the univocal words in order to be easily perceived without suspicions.

 Narrated Ali Bin Abi Talib that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

(( Would you be pleased if Allah and His Messenger are being accused of lying? The people answered: “No.” The Prophet said: “Then you should address people with a clear perceivable language”.))

[Al-Bukhari]

Don’t ever print popular delusive books:

 Let me tell you something: Don’t ever print any popular delusive book if you plan to open a publishing house, because whoever reads it will be committing a sin. The sins of the readers will be added to yours and will be written in your Shifah.

 Narrated Anas bin Malik that the Prophet may Allah bless and grant him peace, said:

(( Gabriel inspired me that a spirit won’t die before it fulfills its living. So, Servants of Allah, fear God and relieve sh3er’ requests and embellish your occupation..))

[ Ziyadat Razein]

 Don’t ever choose an occupation by which you frighten people, blackmail sh3er or misguide them. There is a third world war launched against Islam, so keep away from being a partner in one of the contemporary conspiracies that aim at impoverishing, misguiding, corrupting, humiliating and annihilating Muslims. If you do not participate in one of these dirty conspiracies, you will be relieved.

We’ve got three texts: Qur’anic, Prophetic and mankind’s texts

 Dear brother, the research or the acquisition method in Islam has to do first with the Quranic text, which you should understand deeply in accordance with the Foundations of Faith. Second with the Prophetic text (Hadith), which needs verification before comprehension. Third, with any mankind’s text, which needs giving proofs. Misunderstanding and the misconception of this kind of texts are possible, since mankind’s words bear many interpretations. For example, someone may say: “I pray without ablution” to mean that he prays to Allah to bless the Prophet and grant him peace. Another one may say: “I always run away from Allah’s Mercy” to refer to the rain. He means that he always runs and looks for a shelter while it’s raining in order not to get wet. A third one may say: “I love the trial” to refer to wealth and children…

﴾Your wealth and your children are only a trial, ﴿

[ Surah At-Taghabun: 15 ]

You need verification if you quote, and you need evidence if you prescribe:

 If you want to quote a Hadith, you should make sure of its authenticity, and if you discuss religious matters, you should back up your argument by evidence. I advise you to have a book about the Shar’i rulings. These rulings will be supported by the authentic Prophetic As7adeth and the verified sayings of the Prophet's companions or followers. When you keep reading such kind of books, your thought will be based on Shar'e.
 I will repeat again: when you apply the research method, you should verify the quotes, and you should have the proofs for your arguments. Your proof could be natural, mental, quoted and realistic. I will explain the meaning of the natural proof by the following example; if I see a smoker and argue with him about the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes, I’ll ask him : “Would you ever hear a person saying:
 “In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate” and “All praise belong to Allah, the Lord of the worlds” before and after smoking a cigarette??!! No way, but all of us say: “In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate”and “All praise belong to Allah, the Lord of the worlds” before and after eating or drinking. Moreover, a smoker never dares to throw away a piece of bread, while he always does that with the cigarette.” The proof that I give is a natural one. We naturally verify that smoking cigarette is dangerous for our health.

Your instructions should always be supported by evidence:

 Dear brother, now we come to the conclusion of the research method or the acquisition method in Islam. I would like to ask you dear father and tutor to train yourselves to always tell your sons and pupils (your followers) that this thing is prohibited, because it is prohibited in this specific ayah or in that specific Hadith. For example, when you hear your son backbite his friend, tell him that this is a prohibited act because Allah the Most Great says:

﴾And spy not, neither backbite one another. ﴿

[ Surah Al-Hujurat: 12 ]

 Thus, if you want to have a successful teaching methodology, try to give your children the instructions supported by evidence.

 Narrated Abu Hurrairah that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

((Instruct and don’t rebuke, because the instructor is better than the rebuker))

[ Al-Harith ]