‘Faydasız İlim’ Hadisi Çerçevesinde İlim Tahsiline Yönelik Bir Değerlendirme
Evaluation of Collecting Knowledge within the Frame of ‘Useless Knowledge’ Hadith

Summary/Abstract: The knowledge that many verses and hadiths emphasized on it has been subject that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had resorted to Allah in terms of being useless. According to a hadith the Prohpet Muhammad (pbuh) prayed to Allah saying: “I resort to you from useless knowledge”. As against the hadiths have paid importance to the “knowledge” this narrative is thougt-provoking about what knowledge is. This article will discuss this narrative in the context of the same useless knowledge and deal with commentaries of these hadiths with opinions of some different tendencies of exegesis, as well as the hadith commentaries about how knowledge can be useless and which knowledges will be considered useless. In the conclusion part, in consideration of the commentaries about the mentioned narrative and the commentaries explaining the “hadith of useless knowledge” the advives will be made especially for the students and researchers of today's Islamic theology. Summary:Perhaps one of the most important aspects of Islam is its encouragement of Muslims to the knowledge. In many verses and hadiths, the virtue and importance of accessing the right information is dealt with. However, there are so many hadiths that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) resorts to Allah from useless knowledge on the contrary being well up on the knowledge. According to a hadith narrated by Enes b. Malik and in other hadiths similar to the that, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) resorted to Allah from useless knowledge. (Tirmîzî, Daavât, 68) These narratives which were narrated from the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) point to the necessity of the classification of knowledge in Islam as useful and useless. Along with the many hadiths narrated about the virtue of sciences these “useless knowledge”hadiths reveal the necessity of “middle way” sensitivity in almost all subjects. As a matter of fact, when considering the hadiths commenting on “useless knowledge” hadith it is seen that they have consist of a warning about “useless knowledge”. In fact, almost every behavioral and moral attitude has three levels: exaggeration, understatement and middle way. For example; the person who leaves his responsibilities of the worldly life and ignores the duties of the world paying huge attention to the hereafter is man of level “understatement”. In the other way the person who leaves his religious duties and never cares moral virtues is man of level “exaggeration”. But the person who doesn’t leave his responsibilities towards both of hereafter and worldly life is man of “middle way” level. Similarly; according to the knowledge the usefulness of a knowledge is that would be useful for the appeal of both himself and other Muslims in the world or other world and that knowledge will provide useful sides to the mankind and it will be useful for the all. Otherwise every knowledge which lack of utility for neither world nor other world is as part of before mentioned hadith. The article has reached this conclusion based on the interpretations of the hadiths on the incident and various commentators. According to these interpretations, being of a knowledge uselessis related to the intention of the its owner. No matter what the science is, the important thing is where the person is headed with this knowledge. Uselessness is also related to the excess of information collected in a certain subject. To spend so much time more than need for a detail can be useless. On the other hand, in order for a knowledge to be useful it is not enough that it is the instrument of Islamic sciences such as Arabic. The content of hadith, tafsir, grammar and kalam even can sometimes be useless with too much work. The fact that the content of the knowledge that occupies the person who occupies the second, third degree, or that occupies the people who are busy enough to negate the more important and priority tasks, cannot save it from being useless. According to a commentary (tafsir) of sufi commentators, the purpose of knowledge is recognizing of Allah (ma’rifatullah). This knowledge is certainly useful if it helps to know Allah, regardless of matter and spirituality. According to another interpretation, useless knowledge is that does not create any positive behavior in the process and the wage of the beneficiary. According to this interpretation, the utility of knowledge is a subjective phenomenon. The reason why any information obtained is transformed into an auspicious action is completely left to the will of the individual. Therefore, the usefulness or usefulness of knowledge cannot be evaluated independently from those whom will be collecting knowledge. According to this interpretation the knowledge has to be conducted to recognized Allah regardless of that it is worldly-otherworld. The science, which tries to explain what is happening in the universe within the framework of cause-effect relationship, provides useful knowledge by introducing Allah who sees the wisdom of all things and creates a unique order of the universe. The research has reached seven conclusions based on all these comments. These results are summarized as follows: The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) warns his ummah from useless knowledge just like he warns from every extremism. The criterion on whether a science is useless is not objective but subjective. According to a person’s occupation and where to use it the knowledge can be useful or useless. The same information can be useful for example for a miner while it may be useless for a nurse. However, whether or not the age range or the cognitive level is suitable for removing and absorbing knowledge, the information will be useful or useless to the individual. The decision-maker should be the ones who try to collect the knowledge, or the ones who assume the responsibility of his/her academic development or who cares about it. The usefulness of a knowledge is, in a way, related to the transformation of that knowledge into a beneficial labor. Because the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) have a threatening hadith against non-scholars. Then it is useless science, it is not just the promise of knowledge is also a stack of knowledge. Based on all these results, the research ends with a recommendation for those whom are studying the Islamic sciences: All researches and readings have risk of being usefulness with that feeling: “I have to read everything; I have to know everything” because of those readings and investigations are far from a discipline and hasty and ambitious. In this respect, what the student has to know is to determine before obtaining an information why he is going to read and which purpose is behind of that reading.

• Details
• Contents