Similarly, if someone knocks at your door asking permission to enter, you open for him and say, “Please go back; this is not a time for sitting,” you incur no blame. Allah, exalted is He, has said: “If you are told, ‘Go back,’ then go back; that is purer for you.” Yet some people flare up in anger when you turn them away at the doorstep, even though Allah says, “That is purer for you.” It is better for you to return; Allah will grant you purification and refine you.

He, Most High, also says, “Allah will raise in rank those of you who believe and those who have been granted knowledge—by degrees.” He did not specify the number of degrees, because they vary in proportion to the believer’s faith and knowledge. The stronger one’s faith, the greater one’s knowledge, and the more a person benefits from that knowledge and benefits others with it, the higher his rank will be. So come, strive, strengthen your faith, increase your pursuit of knowledge, and disseminate it as much as you can, for Allah says, “Allah will raise in rank those of you who believe and those who have been granted knowledge—by degrees.”

May Allah raise us and you through His remembrance, and aid us in remembering Him, thanking Him, and worshipping Him in the best manner.

He, exalted is He, also says: “It is only those who have knowledge among His servants who truly fear Allah.”

1376 – Muʿāwiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “When Allah intends good for someone, He grants him understanding of the religion.” Agreed upon.

[Explanation] Imam al-Nawawī, may Allah have mercy on him, cited in his Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn verses from the Book of Allah concerning the merit of knowledge. We have already discussed three of the verses he mentioned in this chapter.