A disciple sent a question to sheik al-Ghazali; the author saying" I have devoted my self to learn all kinds of knowledge. I need now to know what kind of which may avail me tomorrow and be my good companion in the hereafter and what kind may not avail me to avoid. The answer came in form of a book.
O` boy! To advise is easy, but to accept the advice is not as it has a sour taste with those who follow their own lusts, so accept the advice of mine.
The searcher of knowledge thinks, like philosophers, that knowledge without work will rescue him!, But don’t know that the knowledge without work would be an evidence against him in the judgment day. Know that the one that Allah will make him suffering the fiercest torment in the judgment day is the scholar his knowledge doesn’t avail him. O` boy the knowledge alone doesn’t help, so don’t be empty-handed of work. Suppose that a man with ten swords walking down in a desert and was attacked by a fierce lion, would the weapons defend the man without using them? So is the man of knowledge but doesn’t make use of it .O` boy if you read hundred years and compiled thousand books, you would not be qualified to receive the mercy of Allah except by work for Allah says " and that man can have nothing but what he does (good or bad)" " so whoever hopes for the meeting of his lord let him work righteous" . al-Hassan al-Basri said that Allah will say to his slaves at the day of judgment " enter my paradise by my mercy and then share it by the amount of your good deeds". O` boy you stayed up tremendous number of night and deprived your self from sleep, for what motivation you did this?. If your intention was to possess this worldly life and to attain its high positions, then woe to you and woe to you. And if your intention was to behave yourself and to train the bad self of yours, then good to you and good to you. O` boy knowledge without work is madness and work without knowledge is null and void. Know that knowledge that doesn''t keep you away from sins today, will not keep you away from the fire of hell tomorrow. O` boy keep adherent to my advice otherwise you knowledge will be your rival at the Day of Judgment.
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