Muru'at al-Ilm - Dar Ibn al-Jawzi - Dar Ibn al-Jawzi

Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and companions, and those who follow him. As for what follows: Manners are among what nations agree upon, and the laws of the prophets have humbled themselves to; people may differ in their legislations, policies, and in their various states. But they agree on manners; as they are a point of consensus, and preferred among all people; because they are among the shared, agreed-upon matters. Every nation has a stockpile of that; so each nation boasts of its manners, even if they differ in the extent to which they adopt those manners. And if we examine—for example—inscriptions and clay tablets among the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Greeks, ancient Egyptians, and others, we would see the truth of that, praising them for justice, kindness, and similar manners. And there is no doubt that the Arab nation has the highest and most abundant share of this matter; for it is a nation chosen by Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, and favored; so that the Prophet—peace be upon him—comes from among them. Among the Arabs, there are admirable virtues, morals, and manners that evoke admiration and respect, until Islam came to perfect good morals and noble manners, and to refine their edges so that they stand upright in the best way. And Allah does not tell me that this nation is a blessed nation, and that it is the best nation brought forth for mankind; and this blessing and goodness are general in knowledge, in action, in character, and in everything they bring and leave in accordance with Islamic law. And if anyone reviews the history of the Islamic nation and its great figures, he will find the mark of manners clearly evident. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Whoever studies the conditions of the world will find that Muslims are the sharpest and most intelligent, and that they attain in a short period of time from the truths of sciences and deeds what others attain over centuries and generations. And he said in another place: Allah guided people by the blessing of Muhammad’s prophecy, and by what came with him of clear signs and guidance, guidance beyond description by describers, surpassing the knowledge of the knowledgeable, until the believers among his nation, and especially the people of knowledge, gained from beneficial knowledge, righteous deeds, great morals, and straight Sunnahs, what if all the wisdom of all nations in knowledge and action—pure from any impurity—were gathered, it would not reach the wisdom with which he was sent, to the extent that the difference between them would prevent knowing the measure of their relation; so all praise is due to Allah, as our Lord loves and is pleased. The signs and evidence of this are not the place for here. End of his words. And there is no doubt that the manners of ancestors are a guiding lantern, a way for emulation, and a link between the present and the past. But relying solely on their past glories does not suffice, neither a thread nor a piece of straw: if the living live by the bones of the dead, then that dead is alive, and he is dead. It is necessary that everyone has his share of that glory, as the wise man said: We are not, even if our ancestors were honored one day, to rely on lineage, but to build as our ancestors built, and to do what they did. And there is no doubt that talking about manners in general is lengthy, and hardly ends. And what is in these pages is most closely related to the manners of knowledge, and perhaps it is like an introduction and preamble to an extensive book that will be published soon—in shaa Allah—entitled “Jurisprudence of Manners,” in which the concept of manners, its components, its types, and related matters will be detailed. And the discussion here will be through eleven issues, some of which will be lengthy, and others brief, depending on the context; and they are as follows: The first issue: The concept of the word “manners” and its definition. The second issue: Manners as a shared value. The third issue: The sweetness of talking about manners, and its difficulty. The fourth issue: The beauty of knowledge in manners. The fifth issue: The variation in manners. The sixth issue: The importance of manners. The seventh issue: An analysis and explanation of definitions of manners and their types. The eighth issue: The components of manners. The ninth issue: The virtues of manners. The tenth issue: Manners between character and moral conduct. The eleventh issue: Education on manners. So, to elaborate on that, and Allah is the source of success, and upon Him we rely. Knowledge Manners Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al-Hamad 10/1/1445 AH Qassim University - College of Sharia and Islamic Studies - Department of Creed and Contemporary Sects