The Greatest Jihad:Combat with the Self

(part 13)

Those who have constructed [their own] religions, causing the straying and deviation of masses of peoples, have for the most part been scholars. Some of them even studied and disciplined themselves in the centers of learning.9 The head of one of the heretical sects studied in these very seminaries of ours. However, since his learning was not accompanied by refinement and puriication, since he did not advance on the path toward God, and since he did not remove the pollution from himself, he bore the fruit of ignominy. If man does not cast pollution from the core of his soul, not only will whatever studying and learning he does be of no beneit by itself, rather it will actually be harmful. When evil enters knowledge in this center, the product will be evil, root and branch, an evil tree. However much these concepts are accumulated in a black impure heart, that which covers them will be greater. In a soul which is unrefined, knowledge is a dark cover: Al-'ilm huwa al-hijdb al-akbar (Knowledge is the greatest

cover). Therefore, the vice of a corrupt 'dlim is greater and more dangerous for Islam than all vices. Knowledge is light, but in a black corrupt heart it spreads wide the skirts of darkness and blackness. A knowledge which would draw man closer to God, in a worldly soul brings him far distant from the place of the Almighty. Even the knowledge of divine unity (tawhTd), if it is for anything other than God, it becomes a cover of darkness, for it is a preoccupation with that which is other than God. If one memorizes and recites the Noble Qur'an in all fourteen different canonical methods of recital, if it is for anything other than God, it will not bring him anything but covering and distance from Haqq Ta 'dla (God). If you study, and go to some trouble, you may become an 'dlim, but you had better know that there is a big difference between being an 'dlim and being reined. The late Shaykh,10 our teacher, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "That which is said, 'How easy it is to become a mullah; how dificult it is to become a man,' is not correct. It should be said, 'How dificult it is to become a mullah, and it is impossible to become a man!"

      The acquisition of the virtues and human nobilities and standards is a dificult and great duty which rests upon your shoulders. Do not supposed now that you are engaged in studying the religious sciences, and learning iqh (jurisprudence) which is the most honorable of these sciences, that you can take it easy otherwise, and that your responsibilities and duties will take care of themselves. If you do not have a pure intention of approaching God, these sciences will be of no beneit at all. If your studies, may Allah protect us, are not for the sake of God, and are for the sake of personal desires, the acquisition of position and the seats of authority, title and prestige, then you will accumulate nothing for yourself but harm and disaster. This terminology you are learning, if it is for anything but God, it is harm and disaster. This terminology, as much as it increases, if it is not accompanied by reinement and fear of God [taqwd], then it will end in harm in this world and the next for the Muslim community. Merely knowing terminology is not effective. Even the knowledge of the divine unity [ 'Un al-tawhid] if it is not accompanied with purity of the soul, it will bring disaster. How many individuals have been 'ulamd with knowledge of monotheism, and have perverted whole groups of people? How many individuals have had the very same knowledge that you have, or even more knowledge, but were deviant and did not reform themselves, so that when they entered the community, they perverted many and led them astray? This dry terminology, if it is not accompanied by piety [taqwd] and reinement of the soul, as much as it accumulates in one's mind it will only lead to the expansion of pride and conceit in the realm of the soul. The unfortunate 'dlim who is defeated by his own conceit cannot reform himself or his community, and it will result in nothing but harm to Islam and the Muslims. And ater years of studying and wasting religious funding, enjoying his Islamic salary and fringe benefits, he will become an obstacle in the way of Islam and the Muslims. Nations will be perverted by him. The result of these lessons and discussion and the time spent in the seminary will be the prevention of the introduction to the world of Islam and the truths of the Qur'an; rather, it is possible that his existence will be barrier preventing the society from coming to know Islam and spirituality.

Source:”‌‌ The Greatest Jihad”‌‌ by imam khomeini