They left neither dirham nor dinar; what they bequeathed was this knowledge—may Allah’s blessings be upon him. This is the greatest legacy. Whoever attains it has taken an ample, abundant share—how many people have already been granted this inheritance! I ask Allah to make me and you among those who receive it, for this is the true and beneficial inheritance. The scholars are the heirs of the prophets, and the prophets did not pass on a single dirham or dinar; rather, they passed on knowledge.

Does not a person cross the whole earth from east to west to claim some money his father left him—money that is nothing but the stuff of this world? Why, then, do we not traverse every land, east and west, to acquire the knowledge that is the prophets’ own inheritance, peace be upon them? We are duty-bound to pursue, with all the means at our disposal, the knowledge handed down from the prophets, peace be upon them.

Even if knowledge conferred no virtue except this: that every time a learned person acts, he feels—out of pure devotion to Allah—that his guide is Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and that he is worshipping Allah with clear insight. When he performs wuḍūʾ (ablution), he senses as though the Messenger were before him performing it at that very moment, and he imitates him exactly—likewise in prayer and every other act of worship. If this were the only merit of knowledge, it would suffice; how great, then, is its merit when one adds to it the tremendous virtue mentioned in the ḥadīth of Abū al-Dardāʾ!

In short, when Allah grants a person knowledge, He has favored him with something greater than wealth, sons, wives, palaces, conveyances—greater, indeed, than everything else.