Prophet Mūsā: Part 5 — The Calf, the Seventy and the Cow
Section 23 of 23 · Lives of the Prophets
The Fruit of Knowledge
And we should look at the fruits of knowledge. They came to Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal — I think they were talking about Bishr al-Ḥāfī, or one of the ʿulamāʾ. They came to Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and said: he is not a scholar. He is not a scholar. Why? Because he does not know a lot of fiqh, and he does not know a lot of hadith. They said: he is not a scholar. Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: he already has the fruit of knowledge, and that is khashyat Allāh ʿazza wa jall, the fear of Allah. You are saying he does not have knowledge? He already has the fruit of knowledge. And what is the fruit of knowledge? The fear of Allah. Innamā yakhshā Allāha min ʿibādihi al-ʿulamāʾ — the ones who fear Allah are the scholars. Now, this man fears Allah (swt), so he has the fruit of knowledge.
So we should seek the fruit of knowledge, and we should study the knowledge that benefits — the knowledge of hudā, of guidance — and get away from the details, and the minor issues, and the disputable issues that add nothing or subtract nothing. Sometimes we have big disputes about things that are not going to put you in Jannah or put you in the Hellfire, whether you do them or not — some very, very minor issues — when Allah (swt) has told us that our unity is a priority.
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* Kept as said. The same passage describes this gold as belonging to the people of Firʿawn and the women of Egypt.
** Kept as said. The throwing of the tablets is in 7:150; “in their inscription was guidance” is from 7:154, when Mūsā's anger had calmed and he took the tablets up again.
*** Kept as said. 4:35 names an arbiter from his family and an arbiter from hers; a further judge from the community is not mentioned in the ayah.
**** Kept as said. Sārah is the old woman given the glad tidings of Isḥāq (11:71–72); Ismāʿīl's mother was Hājar, and the glad tidings in 37:101 are generally understood to be of Ismāʿīl.