especially the essential knowledge, for he will be asked on the Day of Resurrection, “Why did you not learn? Why did you not inquire?”

Whoever, when laid in his grave, can answer, “My Lord is Allah, my religion is Islam, and my prophet is Muhammad ﷺ,” will be saved. He will then be asked, “How did you come to know this?” and he will reply, “I read the Book of Allah and learned it.”

But the one who turned away from that knowledge—when he is questioned in his grave he will stammer, “Uh, uh, I don’t know. I heard people saying something and I repeated it.” His grave will be ignited with fire—may Allah protect us—and it will close in on him until his ribs interlock. He will find himself in a pit from among the pits of Hell, for he neither understood nor recited. It will be said to him, “You neither knew nor recited.” He never learned, nor did he follow the scholars; he drifted aimlessly through life, and his end is misery—Allah’s refuge is sought.

Thus the phrase “the knowledge” here means the sacred knowledge required of us both collectively and individually: to know Allah by His names and attributes, to know the right He has over us—namely, that we worship Him alone with no partner. The very first obligation upon a servant is therefore to know his Lord, exalted is He, and to know how to worship Him.