Qur'an

The more you read it, the more you fall in love with it. - SH.

Greed.

If we knew what knowledge was, we would slow down the rate of its acquisition. - Shaykh I.

Imagine a superstore with a huge end-of-time sale on; everything is excellent quality but it's going quick. There's not exactly a price reduction, but there are special products in stock that aren't going to be in store for a long time again (and you wonder, perhaps ever?) and so you're there. And you want to get hold of as much as possible. You can't get a trolley, because in this store they are too expensive, and would take years of investment (and you could never be bothered with those long-term payments) - so you're pretty much trying to grab everything with your hands.

The store is the city of our teachers that I'm in, and the products are the classes and the books. A trolley is basically an expanded heart that can receive knowledge easily and implement it without difficulty, but I don't have one because that takes time and training (and I've put in neither). I'm basically on a shopping spree, trying to get my hands on everything. I don't care that the instruction manual is in a different language, or that I won't even know what to do with the product once I get home; I just want it. And I keep ringing up the manufacturers with a dozen questions, per product, because I'm a confused individual. Bizarrely, my arms are longer than they should be (i.e. not in proportion with my height! - this is a fact) but they're not long enough and I can't carry everything. So I seem to be leaving a trail of goods behind me, as I try to reach for the shinier stuff on the higher shelves.

It's not working.

Last year, sat in a class with Shaykh Atabek (may Allah preserve him and his loveliness), I asked him a (fairly random) question, and he asked me: "why do you want to know?" Surprised, I gave a slow shrug of the shoulders. He looked at me taken aback himself, and said: "you don't have to know everything, you know." And the whole class burst out laughing. But somewhere within me, I knew that the firasa of the teacher had hit a mark. And I recognise that now, more than ever.

It's just greed. Give me everything, and give it to me quick.

But indeed, "innama al-ilm bi- ta`allum" - verily, knowledge is only by active learning.

No doubt, knowledge is beautiful, and should be sought, but it needs to be with tranquility and patience.

Allah forgive.

Abu Bakr mentioned in previous scriptures

Your companion, i.e. the Messenger of Allah, peace & blessings of Allah be upon him, and the caliph, i.e. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him.

Alhamdulillah, it's well known that the beloved Messenger of Allah, peace & blessings be upon him, was mentioned in previous scriptures (quite centrally, in fact), but the fact that our master Abu Bakr al-Siddiq was mentioned also is absolutely new to me, and quite simply exquisite. Ma sha Allah.

relative fact 2.

You may have been born Muslim, but you can rememeber the dark days of kufr. (SI.)