Attaining Ikhlas in Seeking Knowledge: 4 Essential Intentions

Pursuing Knowledge with Sincerity: The Path to True Understanding

How to attain ikhlās [having purity of intention and sincerity] in seeking knowledge:

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Uthaymīn rahimahuallāh states:

So if someone says to you: 

How does ikhlās in seeking knowledge come about? It comes about through [a number of] matters:

1) It is that in doing that [seeking of knowledge], you have as your intention that you are complying with Allāh’s command because Allāh, the Most High, commanded with that. 

As He سبحانه وتعالى said:

فَاعۡلَمۡ اَنَّهٗ لَاۤ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ وَاسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لِذَنۡۢبِكَ

Have knowledge that none has the right to be worshipped except Allāh. And seek forgiveness for your sin.

[Sūrat Muhammad 47 āyah 19]

And he ‏صلى الله عليه وسلم encouraged upon knowledge; and encouraging upon a matter necessitates loving it and being pleased with it and commanding with it.

2) It is that in doing that, you intend to preserve the Sharī’ah of Allāh, because preserving the Sharī’ah of Allāh occurs through learning, and it comes about through preserving it in the chests [of people] and it comes about through writing down, writing down the books.

3) It is that in doing that, you intend to protect the Sharī’ah and defend it, because were it not for the people of knowledge, then the Sharī’ah would not have been protected and no one would have defended it.

And therefore you find, for example, Shaykh ul-Islām ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله and other than him from the people of knowledge who resisted and blocked the people of innovation and clarified the false and futile nature of their innovations, we see that they [these people of knowledge] attained a great deal of good.

4) It is that in doing that, your intention is to be following the Sharī’ah of Muhammadصلى الله عليه وسلم because you are not able to follow his Sharī’ah until you have knowledge of it.

[Sharḥ hilyah tālib il-‘ilm p.14 of ash-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Uthaymīn]