بَابُ طَلَبِ ٱلْعِلْمِ

When the servant embarks on the path of servanthood (ʿubūdiyya), the first duty incumbent upon him is to seek the amount of knowledge necessary to correct his belief in the Oneness [of Allah].

Hadith 1: Abū Muḥammad Janāḥ ibn Nadhīr ibn Janāḥ informed us in Kūfa: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym al-Shaybānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: [Al-Qushayrī relates a separate chain]. Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Aṣbahānī informed us: Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī informed us: Jaʿfar ibn ʿĀmir al-ʿAskarī narrated to us: Both said: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAṭiyya narrated to us: Abū ʿĀtika narrated to us on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace – said: “Seek knowledge, even as far as China. Indeed, seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim.”

Hadith 2: Sayyid Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥasanī – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ayyūb ibn Salmawayh informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Sulamī narrated to us: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to us on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha that she heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace – say: “Indeed, Allah has revealed to me that whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, a path to Paradise shall be made easy for him. And whoever is deprived of his eyesight, He shall grant him Paradise in their stead. Excellence in knowledge is better than excellence in worship and the cornerstone of religion is scrupulousness.”