هٰذَا الحَدِيثُ مُشْتَمِلٌ عَلَى خَبَرٍ صَادِقٍ، وَإِرْشَادٍ نَافِعٍ. أَمَّا الخَبَرُ، فَإِنَّهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَخْبَرَ أَنَّ النَّصَّ شَامِلٌ لِأَكْثَرِ النَّاسِ، وَأَنَّ الْكَامِلَ — أَوِ الْمُقَارِبَ لِلْكَمَالِ — فِيهِمْ قَلِيلٌ، كَالْإِبِلِ الْمِائَةِ؛ تَسْتَكْثِرُهَا، فَإِذَا أَرَدْتَ مِنْهَا رَاحِلَةً تَصْلُحُ لِلْحَمْلِ وَالرُّكُوبِ، وَالذَّهَابِ وَالإِيَابِ، لَمْ تَكَدْ تَجِدْهَا.

This ḥadīth comprises both a truthful information and a beneficial directive.
As for the information: the Prophet ﷺ informed that this description applies to most people, and that the one who is complete—or close to completion—is rare among them, like a hundred camels: though they are many, when you seek among them a mount suitable for carrying loads, riding, and repeated journeys, you scarcely find one.

وَهٰكَذَا النَّاسُ كَثِيرٌ، فَإِذَا أَرَدْتَ أَنْ تَنْتَخِبَ مِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَصْلُحُ لِلتَّعْلِيمِ أَوِ الْفَتْوَى أَوِ الإِمَامَةِ، أَوِ الْوِلَايَاتِ الْكِبَارِ أَوِ الصِّغَارِ، أَوِ الْوَظَائِفِ الْمُهِمَّةِ، لَمْ تَكَدْ تَجِدْ مَنْ يَقُومُ بِتِلْكَ الْوَظِيفَةِ قِيَامًا صَالِحًا. وَهٰذَا هُوَ الْوَاقِعُ؛ فَإِنَّ الإِنْسَانَ ظَلُومٌ جَهُولٌ، وَالظُّلْمَ وَالْجَهْلَ سَبَبٌ لِلنَّقَائِصِ، وَهِيَ مَانِعَةٌ مِنَ الْكَمَالِ وَالتَّكْمِيلِ.

Such, too, are people: they are numerous, yet when you seek among them those fit for teaching, issuing legal verdicts, leading in prayer, administering major or minor appointments, or fulfilling essential posts, you scarcely find one who discharges that role in a sound and upright manner. This is the reality, for the human being is unjust and ignorant; and injustice and ignorance are causes of deficiency, barring one from both being ideal self and the ability to make others reach their ideal selves.

وَأَمَّا الإِرْشَادُ، فَإِنَّ مَضْمُونَ هٰذَا الْخَبَرِ إِرْشَادٌ مِنْهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ إِلَى أَنَّهُ يَنْبَغِي لِمَجْمُوعِ الأُمَّةِ أَنْ يَسْعَوْا وَيَجْتَهِدُوا فِي تَأْهِيلِ الرِّجَالِ الَّذِينَ يَصْلُحُونَ لِلْقِيَامِ بِالْمُهِمَّاتِ، وَالأُمُورِ الْكُلِّيَّةِ الْعَامَّةِ النَّفْعِ.

As for the directive: the substance of this report is the Prophet’s ﷺ guidance that the Muslim community as a whole ought to strive and exert themselves in preparing men who are fit to undertake critical responsibilities and matters of comprehensive, public service.

وَقَدْ أَرْشَدَ اللَّهُ إِلَى هٰذَا الْمَعْنَى فِي قَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى: {فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ [التَّوْبَةِ: 122]. فَأَمَرَ بِالْجِهَادِ، وَأَنْ يَقُومَ بِهِ طَائِفَةٌ كَافِيَةٌ، وَأَنْ يَتَصَدَّى لِلْعِلْمِ طَائِفَةٌ أُخْرَى، لِيُعِينَ هٰؤُلَاءِ هٰؤُلَاءِ، وَهٰؤُلَاءِ هٰؤُلَاءِ. وَأَمْرُهُ تَعَالَى بِالْوِلَايَاتِ وَالتَّوْلِيَةِ أَمْرٌ بِهَا، وَبِمَا لَا تَتِمُّ إِلَّا بِهِ مِنَ الشُّرُوطِ وَالْمُكَمِّلَاتِ.

Allah has directed to this meaning in His saying: {So why did not a group from every faction among them go forth, so that they might gain understanding of the religion and warn their people when they return to them?} (al-Tawbah 9:122). Thus, He commanded jihād, to be undertaken by a sufficient group, and likewise that another group devote themselves to knowledge—so that each supports the other. His command regarding governance and appointment is a command for their establishment, and for all the conditions and complementary requirements without which they cannot be fulfilled.

وَقَدْ أَرْشَدَ اللَّهُ إِلَى هٰذَا الْمَعْنَى فِي قَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى: {فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ [التَّوْبَةِ: 122]. فَأَمَرَ بِالْجِهَادِ، وَأَنْ يَقُومَ بِهِ طَائِفَةٌ كَافِيَةٌ، وَأَنْ يَتَصَدَّى لِلْعِلْمِ طَائِفَةٌ أُخْرَى، لِيُعِينَ هٰؤُلَاءِ هٰؤُلَاءِ، وَهٰؤُلَاءِ هٰؤُلَاءِ. وَأَمْرُهُ تَعَالَى بِالْوِلَايَاتِ وَالتَّوْلِيَةِ أَمْرٌ بِهَا، وَبِمَا لَا تَتِمُّ إِلَّا بِهِ مِنَ الشُّرُوطِ وَالْمُكَمِّلَاتِ.

Allah has directed to this meaning in His saying: {So why did not a group from every faction among them go forth, so that they might gain understanding of the religion and warn their people when they return to them?} (al-Tawbah 9:122). Thus, He commanded jihād, to be undertaken by a sufficient group, and likewise that another group devote themselves to knowledge—so that each supports the other. His command regarding governance and appointment is a command for their establishment, and for all the conditions and complementary requirements without which they cannot be fulfilled.

فَالْوَظَائِفُ الدِّينِيَّةُ وَالدُّنْيَوِيَّةُ، وَالأَعْمَالُ الْكُلِّيَّةُ، لَا بُدَّ لِلنَّاسِ مِنْهَا، وَلَا تَتِمُّ مَصْلَحَتُهُمْ إِلَّا بِهَا، وَهِيَ لَا تَتِمُّ إِلَّا بِأَنْ يَتَوَلَّاهَا الأَكْفَاءُ الأُمَنَاءُ. وَذٰلِكَ يَسْتَدْعِي السَّعْيَ فِي تَحْصِيلِ هٰذِهِ الأَوْصَافِ بِحَسَبِ الاِسْتِطَاعَةِ. قَالَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى: {فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ} [التَّغَابُنِ: 16] وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ.

Religious and worldly offices, and overarching communal functions, are indispensable for people, and their welfare is not realized without them. They, in turn, are only realized when entrusted to those who are competent and trustworthy. This necessitates striving to acquire these qualities to the extent of one’s ability. Allah Most High says: “So fear Allah as much as you are able.” (al-Taghābun 64:16). And Allah knows best.

📚ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Saʿdī. Bahjat Qulūb al-Abrār wa-Qurrat ʿUyūn al-Akh’yār fī Sharḥ Jawāmiʿ al-Akhbār. Riyadh: Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Daʿwah and Guidance, 4th ed., 1423 AH, 199.

A far-reaching hope that urges one to acquire what a single lifetime is too short to encompass, and that motivates the pursuit of what cannot be hoped to be attained within the lives of its initiators. Were it not that the later generation benefits from what the earlier one established—until it becomes self-sufficient through it—the people of every age would be forced to create anew what they need of dwellings for habitation and lands for cultivation. In that would lie hardship and the impossibility of realization, in a manner too evident to require explanation.

For this reason, Allah—exalted is He—showed kindness to His creation by granting them expansive hopes, through which He caused the world to be built up, its soundness to become widespread, and its civilization to pass from one generation to another. Thus the second generation completes what the first left unfinished in its construction, and the third repairs what disorder the second introduced, so that its conditions remain cohesive across the ages and its affairs remain orderly over the passage of time.

Had hopes been short—so that each person exceeded no more than the need of his day and did not go beyond the necessity of his moment—the world would pass to those who follow as a ruin, in which they would find neither sufficiency nor the means to meet their needs. It would then pass to those after them in a state worse than that, until no growth could be sustained within it and no continued habitation would be possible.”

“Monuments of immense magnitude cannot be undertaken by a single state alone. The reason for this lies in what we have already explained: construction requires cooperation and the multiplication of human capacity. At times, the sheer scale of a building exceeds what human power—whether singly or even multiplied through organization—can accomplish, as we have stated. It therefore requires the renewal of an equivalent capacity over successive generations until it is completed.

Thus the first of them begins the construction, followed by the second and the third, each having fully marshaled laborers and gathered hands until the intended purpose is fulfilled and the structure completed. It then stands visible to the eye, so that those who come later imagine it to be the work of a single state.

Consider what historians have related regarding the construction of the Dam of Maʾrib: it was begun by Sabaʾ ibn Yashjub, who directed seventy valleys toward it, but death prevented him from completing it, and so it was finished by the kings of Ḥimyar after him. The same has been reported regarding the construction of Carthage and its aqueduct borne upon ancient arches. Indeed, most great structures are of this nature.

This is further confirmed by what we observe in our own time: a single ruler may begin laying out and founding a great structure, but if those who follow him among later rulers do not carry on his work to completion, it remains unfinished and its intended purpose unrealized. It is also evidenced by the fact that we find many great structures whose demolition and destruction exceed the capacity of states, even though demolition is far easier than construction—for demolition is a return to the original state of nonexistence, whereas construction runs contrary to that original state.

Thus, when we encounter a structure that our human strength is too weak to demolish despite the ease of demolition, we know that the power which established it was exceedingly great, and that it was not the product of a single state.”

📚 See: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Māwardī, Adab al-Dunyā wa-l-Dīn (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh, 1986), 144.; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn, al-ʿIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʾ wa-l-Khabar fī Tārīkh al-ʿArab wa-l-Barbar wa-man ʿĀṣarahum min Dhawī al-Shaʾn al-Akbar (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1st ed., 1401/1981), 1:431.

«وَأَمَّا مَنْ كَانَ فَاقِدًا لِلْجَرَاءَةِ وَالْإِقْدَامِ مِنْ نَفْسِهِ، فَاقِدَ الْجَاهِ مِنَ الْحُكَّامِ، فَيَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَنْ يَجْتَنِبَ الِاحْتِرَافَ بِالتِّجَارَةِ؛ لِأَنَّهُ يُعَرِّضُ مَالَهُ لِلضَّيَاعِ وَالذَّهَابِ، وَيَصِيرُ مَأْكَلَةً لِلْبَاعَةِ، وَلَا يَكَادُ يَنْتَصِفُ مِنْهُمْ. لِأَنَّ الْغَالِبَ فِي النَّاسِ، وَخُصُوصًا الرِّعَاعَ وَالْبَاعَةَ، شَرِهُونَ إِلَىٰ مَا فِي أَيْدِي النَّاسِ سِوَاهُمْ، مُتَوَثِّبُونَ عَلَيْهِ. وَلَوْلَا وَازِعُ الْأَحْكَامِ لَأَصْبَحَتْ أَمْوَالُ النَّاسِ نَهْبًا.»

“As for someone who

lacks courage and initiative

within himself, and who has no standing or influence with those in authority,

he should avoid taking up trade as a profession.

Doing so exposes his wealth to loss and ruin, makes him easy prey for merchants, and leaves him scarcely able to secure justice against them. This is because

what predominates among people—especially the common rabble and traders—is a greedy desire for what lies in the hands of others, along with a readiness to seize it

. Were it not for the restraining power of law, people’s wealth would become outright plunder.“

📚 Ibn Khaldun. al-ʿIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʾ wa-l-Khabar fī Tārīkh al-ʿArab wa-l-Barbar wa-man ʿĀṣarahum min Dhawī al-Shaʾn al-Akbar (Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn), vol. 1, ed. Khālīl Shiḥādah, rev. Suhayl Zakkār (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1st ed., 1401 AH / 1981 CE), 495.

«مَا هَؤُلَاءِ بِكَذَبَةٍ، بَلْ أَئِمَّةٌ أَثْبَاتٌ، وَإِنَّمَا الشَّيْخُ تَكَلَّمَ عَلَىٰ حَسَبِ مَا نُقِلَ لَهُ عَنْهُمْ. فَقَبَّحَ اللَّهُ مَنْ يَنْقُلُ الْبُهْتَانَ، وَمَنْ يَمْشِي بِالنَّمِيمَةِ.»

“These men are not liars; rather, they are steadfast imams. The shaykh spoke only in accordance with what had been conveyed to him about them. So may Allah disfigure the one who transmits slander, and the one who walks about spreading malicious gossip.”

📚 See: Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 14, ed. collective under the supervision of Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 3rd ed., 1405 AH / 1985 CE), 380.

Excerpted from the lecture: “Reflections on the Treatise of Imām al-Ājurrī on the Character of the Scholars (Part One).

1. وَاسَوْأَتَاهُ لِطَالِبِ العِلْمِ الَّذِي
ثَقُلَتْ عَلَيْهِ مَجَالِسُ التَّدْرِيسِ

1. Alas for the student of knowledge upon whom the gatherings of instruction have grown burdensome.

2. وَإِذَا قِرَاءَتُهُ تَقَضَّتْ قَامَ لَا
يَلْوِي عَلَى مَا بَعْدُ مِنْ تَأْسِيسِ

2. When the reading concludes, he rises at once, giving no regard to what follows of solidifying a foundation.

3. هَذَا وَفِي حَالِ القِرَاءَةِ قَلْبُهُ
بِالفَهْمِ وَالإِصْغَاءِ غَيْرُ أَنِيسِ

3. Even during the reading, his heart finds no comfort in understanding or attentive listening.

4. وَيَوَدُّ لَوْ أَنَّ القِرَاءَةَ تَنْقَضِي
فِي لَحْظَةٍ مَاذَا يَقُولُ جَلِيسِي

4. He longs for the reading to end in an instant, wondering what his companion sitting with him might talk about.

5. إِنْ قُلْتُ إِنَّهُمْ لَعَمْرِي مَا لَهُمْ
مِنْ رَغْبَةٍ فِي نَيْلِ أَيٍّ نَفِيسِ

5. If I say—assuredly—they possess no desire to attain anything precious,

6. أَوْ قُلْتُ مَا لَهُمُ مِنَ الإِقْبَالِ مِنْ
إِدْلَاجَةٍ حَظٌّ وَلَا التَّغْلِيسِ

6. Or if I say they show no earnest advance, neither in early striving at night or in the morning,

7. يَا رَبِّ أَشْكُو زُهْدَهُمْ فِي العِلْمِ إِذْ
رَفَضُوهُ إِيثَارًا لِنَيْلِ خَسِيسِ

7. O my Lord, I complain of their indifference to knowledge,
for they rejected it in preference of gaining what is worthless.

8. وَرَضُوا التَّرَسُّمَ وَهْوَ غَيْرُ مُفِيدِهِمْ
يَا رَبِّ فَاهْدِهِمُ وَأَحْسِنْ قَصْدَهُمْ

8. They were content with the mere outward appearance (of studiousness), though it brings them no benefit. O my Lord, guide them and set their intentions aright.

9. إِنَّ الأَمَانِيَ حَظُّ ذِي التَّفْلِيسِ
وَأَعِذْ جَمِيعَهُمُ مِنَ التَّدْلِيسِ

9. Indeed, empty wishes are the portion of the bankrupt, so protect them all from deception.

10. يَا رَبِّ وَاغْرِسْ خَيْرَ غَرْسٍ يُرْتَجَى
مِنْهُمْ إِغَاظَةُ ذِي الخَنَا إِبْلِيسِ

10. O my Lord, plant among them the finest planting that can be hoped for—by which the vile one, Iblīs, is enraged.

11. يَا رَبِّ وَاجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الغَرْسِ الَّذِي
تَخْتَارُ لِلتَّنْزِيهِ وَالتَّقْدِيسِ

11. O my Lord, make us among that planting—chosen to declare your perfection and sanctification,

12. وَإِبَانَةِ التَّوْحِيدِ مَحْضًا صَافِيًا
وَإِزَاحَةِ التَّشْبِيهِ وَالتَّلْبِيسِ

12. To clearly explain pure, unadulterated tawḥīd, and for removing all likening of You (to creation [al-tashbīh]) and distortion.”

📚Ṣāliḥ ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭassān. Majmūʿ al-Shaykh al-ʿAllāmah Ṣāliḥ ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭassān, pp. 227–228.

📚 al-Badr al-Ṭāliʿ bi-Maḥāsin man Baʿda al-Qarn al-Sābiʿ, vol. 1 (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah), 472.