WHO ARE THE INHERITORS OF THE PROPHET? by Ali Abubakar Sadiq

“Scholars are the inheritors of the prophets” is a Hadith reported by majority of compilers including Bukhari, Ibn Maja, Tirmidhi, Nisa’a, Ahmad, Ibn Hibban and others. The Hadith is most likely informed by the Quranic Verse 

35:32 “Then we have given the book as inheritance to such of our servants as we have chosen”. 

Islam is a religion that set out to make a scholar of all believers, though to a degree, as God commanded us in 

Q17:37 “And pursue not that of which you have no knowledge; for every act of hearing or seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the day of reckoning)” 

Thus a Muslim is required to have basic knowledge that would guide his life to a point, so that he could responsibly defend his actions, not only here in the world but in the hereafter. Therefore basic knowledge is a religious necessity. Scholars earned the position of inheritors of prophvet simply because they are a special class of Muslims distinguished by the favor bestowed on them as God indicated in 

Q2:269 “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given much good”. 

The class of people that received this grace, are whom God himself calls “ULUL AL BAB” (the polymaths) severally in the Quran.

Islamic history is rich with those angelic minds that contributed to, not only the development of Islamic communities, but the world at large. It easily comes to mind great names like Ibn Rushud, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, Al-Biruni, Al-Kwarizmi, Al-Kindi, Al Farabi, Ibn Khaldun, Hasan Al Basri, Omar Khayyam, Usman bn Fodio etc. Those luminaries attained their heights through the inspiration they got in the commandments of God as lived by the prophet and the success of the early Sahaba’s that laid the foundation of a civilization.

We have been fascinated by the golden age of Islam in Bagdad and Andalus only to be saddened by the arrested development that overtook it when the Ulul Al Bab lost the prophetic inheritance, thanks to materialism and closing the doors of ijtihad (research). The foundations of scholarship and its etiquette as introduced and developed by the earlier inheritors of the prophet has almost completely fades away today. The "Ulul Albab” are the people who not only have the brain to mine out of the Quran its rich treasures, but gifted in knowing how to put it to practical use.Those qualities, of mining and living their knowledge is what scholars of today have completely lost.

Scholarship is nowadays an enterprise for mundane purposes only: in the acquisition of wealth, power and massage of bloated egos. Another factor that diminishes scholarship is failure to understand that to be an inheritor of the prophet you need to have basic knowledge in all fields. I am not saying specialization is irrelevant, far from it, but a scholar must have basic knowledge not only in religious subjects but scientific and technological too, what we call the polymaths. Those who befitted the name of Ulul Al Bab in the past, people like Al Farabi, was an expert in Physics, Philosophy, Alchemy, Logic and Music: Ibn Rushud wrote extensively on philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, Islamic jurisprudence, law and linguistics: Ibn Khaldun not only wrote, but was a forerunner in subjects like historiography, sociology, economics, and demography, his book Muqaddimah was the first geo-historical encyclopedia. Al-Kindi wrote hundreds of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects ranging from metaphysics, ethics, logic, psychology, medicine, pharmacology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and optics, and further afield to more practical topics like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and even on earthquakes. Ghazali, Ibn Haytham, Al Biruni, Al Sufi, Ibn Arabi, Al Razi pp0and many more are all true polymaths.

Our scholars today in Northern Nigeria specializes in two major fields: Tafsir (applied mostly during the month long Ramadan) and Hadith-Cum-Fiqh. Except for a very few, a traditional way of exegesis since Tabari is repeated to the point of monotony. Not even the formal Fatwa council (on Fiqh) as seen in Arab countries exists here, let alone the freedom of ijtihad (research) by individual scholars. The monthly tafsir during the Ramadan, mostly dwells on the Sunni-Shi’a divide as leading scholars went out of their way castigating opponent (to a point of calling them apostates).

The greatest deficit our scholars have is their failure to live up to the title of ULU AL BAB (the polymath) who are versed in several branches of knowledge. Too comfortable in the narrow enclosure they restrict themselves, as they usually consider modern knowledge to be against Islam, but unknown to them it was Islam that was the benefactor of modern scientific knowledge.

As long as our clerics continue to bury themselves in separatism and sectarianism, relegating research and refusing to widen their horizon, they will continue to further subjugate ordinary Muslim minds into a frozen ignorance, which would never be an excuse in the eyes of God. The salaf our scholars must imitate, as long as we want to escape from our being an uninformed community and backwater of civilizations, are those that dived into the vast knowledge in the Quran to derive a torch that would illuminates our path in this and the next world through all branches of science and technology. 

Lest we forget God reminded us in  

Quran 6:38 “…Nothing have we omitted from the book…” 

God declares he hasn’t omitted anything from the Quran (science inclusive) for our guidance and if you happen not to see a particular guidance in the Quran do not hesitate to ask the class of people called The “Ahlul Zikr” (the experts in their fields) as God commanded the prophet himself in surah Al Anbiya verse 7. This is a cardinal command our clerics refused to heed as they chose to remain in ignorance and contentment in a limited horizon despite the diverse field of knowledge that abound our modern age. Without scientific knowledge, a huge chunk of knowledge relevant for our times that is buried in the verses of the Quran would be unknown to us to our detriment. 

As long as our clerics want to be true scholars and be ranked among the Ulul Al Bab that we should be proud of, they must widen their horizon to include science among the very key subjects they studied. Without it, many parts of the Quran will continue to elude them and that is why God commands

Q45:3-5 “Verily in the heavens and the earth, are signs for those who believe. And in the creation of yourselves and the fact that animals are scattered through the earth are signs for those of assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day and in the fact that Allah sends down sustenance from the sky and revives therewith the earth after its death, and in the change of the winds are signs for those that are wise”

A command we can never know a fraction of, without being wise enough to employ the scientific method of observation, testing and experimenting. This verse in a nutshell covered all the major areas of studies that includes Astronomy, Meteorology, Climatology etc (Heavens): Geography, Geology, Ecology, Oceanography, Physics, soil science (Earth); Biology, Paleontology, Evolution, Physiology, Genetics, Histology, Botany etc (life sciences); Zoology, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary etc (Animal science ): Astronomy, Astrophysics: And Agriculture, Climate and weather. That is why the prophet himself, despite drinking directly from the divine fountain of knowledge at regular intervals, was still commanded by God to pray thus

Q20:114 “Say “O my lord! Advance me in knowledge”

Then who are we not to follow suit?