Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Knowledge is light...

شكوت واكعا نقص حفظى
فنصحنى بترك المعاصى
ان العلم نور و نور الله لا يؤتى لعاص


(Shakawtu waaki'an naqsa hifdhi,
Fa nasahani bitrak al-ma'aasi,
Inna~l 'ilma noorun wa nooru~Llaahi laa yu'taa li'aasi)

I complained to Waki' about my deficiency of learning,
So he advised me to give up wrong-doings;
Indeed knowledge is light and the light of Allah will not be given to the wrong-doer.


I love this little snippet of Arabic poetry that my Shari'ah lecturer back in my uni days recited to us one day.

Edited to say: thanks to sister Yasmeen for informing me that these words are attributed to the great Imam Shafi'i.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear sister,
These are said by Imam Al-Safi'i and they are in his Diwan.
Here is the correct version:
شكوت إلى وكيع سوء حفظي
فأرشدني إلى ترك المعاصي
وأخبرني بأن العلم نور
ونو الله لا يهدى لعاص

Anonymous said...

asalaam alaikum warahmat Allah wabarakatu dear sister..
what's up with hamza yusuf? i've read respected sheikhs say that he is into sufism? and do you know more info on sufism? because i have been reading up on it, and it doesn't come up as something all conclusive in my mind of what following Quran & Sunnah teach. do u have any resources on what it is in simple terms for minds like mine that have millions of thoughts running through at any given time?! :-)
may Allah guide us all with His Noor..and increase us in knowledge which benefits..ameen..

Umm Ibrahim said...

Wa alaikumusalaam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh,

Thank you sister Yasmeen. :)

Sister Suhaa... Uh... no idea, Sufism is not really my thing and I know very little about it. I liked the little poetry snippet which as I said was from 'way back when...' ;) I stick to what I know which is Qur'an and Sunnah. :)

Mabe I'll remove the mention of the book if the author is contraversial. :)

Jazakillahu khair.

Anonymous said...

You are welcome dear sister. I have written the correct words in Arabic. You need to make small changes.

Anonymous said...

asalaam alaikum warahmat allah um'ibrahim, i don't know if its controversial or not..i just dont know much about sufis, mysticism in islam?, sufism..it seems that lately these terms i've seen and heard of lately..and i am unsure of what it all means, thats all.. :-)

jazakAllah kheir for the reminders in your latest post sis..