The Pursuit of Knowledge

"My people perish for lack of knowledge..."
How can we know Allah? Through knowledge of his word.
In the bible, Hosea chapter 4:
4 “Don’t point your finger at someone else
and try to pass the blame!
My complaint, you priests,
is with you.Hosea Chapter 4
So you will stumble in broad daylight,
and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.
And I will destroy Israel, your mother.
My people are being destroyed
because they don’t know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me,
I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,
I will forget to bless your children.
7 The more priests there are,
the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
for the shame of idols.^[b]

Knowledge is so crutial in our walks as believers. I typed "without knowledge" into a biblical search, and look all of the biblical references it pulled up: "without Knowledge" biblical passage search

I have always understood how important it is to test what is said to be true. Even when it comes directly from scripture. Sometimes we are quick to just accept what someone might spout off from scripture when they also mention the chapter and verse it comes from. But please remember that Issa (Jesus) pbuh, was brought into the wilderness led by his spirit and tempted by Shaytan (the devil) and Jesus overcame each temptation by using his knowledge of Scripture even when Shaytan knkew and used some scripture against him. You can read this story in the bible in Luke chapter 4.
Here it is for your convenience (Just click on this link):
Luke Chapter 4

I also remind you to not just accept what I say, just use what I say as inspiration to look further into the truth and study for yourself. At any rate, as I was saying, some people take one verse or aya from the Qur'an and use that to make Islam seem like it is about violence and killing Christians and Jews. So that Christians will be scared of it. There is one Christian sermon from a pastor that always gives very good and well-backed up sermons that often go against the main stream did a sermon series addressing Islam. Although it was very dismaying for me to hear because it was without base, full of value judgments and overgeneralizing.

People often just take what they hear as true just because of who it comes from. Look, even those with good intentions may not always give correct information, I know I try my best to give with what little knowledge I know but i may also give incorrect information and not even be aware of it, so that is why I say seek knowledge for yourself. He did not try at all to take an objective approach at presenting what Islam was.

However it was not surprising because he often takes the controversial stuff and uses that to make his sermons more powerful. I respect him for that in that he addresses somethings that other pastors might be scared to address. But sometimes I wonder if he does it just for entertainment purposes.

At any rate, it is from a well-respected and well-known pastor, someone many people might not think to question although they forget that we are all human and one must search for the truth using his own mind, not just someone else's. After all, their are so many places in scripture that emphasize the importance of the pursuit of knowledge. Even the very first Proverb (by King Solomon pbuh) addresses knowledge. Since it is short, I will paste it here:

Proverbs 1
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;
for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair;
for giving prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young-
let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance-
for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools ^[a] despise wisdom and discipline.

I noticed that what this says was not in line with what and how this particular pastor was preaching about Islam. It is dismaying that many people, even those supposedly knowledgeable can take one phrase from the Qur'an and twist it to instill fear and ignorance in the hearts of people. But the thing is, that this can be true for anything we are taught, even if the teacher himself is not self-aware that he is doing this. So that is why we need to do our own reflecting on what is taught to us as well as what we learn through our own study. That is one reason Allah gave us our minds.

So anyway, what inspired me to write this post is that I came accross this particular sermon and I have often heard people use this verse in the Qur'an to make Islam seem like something evil. So I decided to test what this person was saying to be true, since i knew it must be a challenge to since this person who did this sermon is educated and seems to have knowledge.

The thing that caught my eye was that the verse he used from the Qur'an, he did not say the title of the Surah, he only gave the number of the Sura and the Aya. Well, let me just paste here what he said exactly so u can see:
He wrote this:
Listen to the Koran at sura 9:5: "Fight and slay the pagans [Christians and Jews] where you find them, and seize them; beleaguer them in every strategy of war."
Not surprisingly, his sermon went on to be very one-sided and making Islam look all bad using over-generalizations and focusing on things that would make it seem so evil. And he went on to say how this shows that if people are sincere practicing Muslims who do what the Qur'an says then it will drive them to kill Christians and Jews.

He could have given an objective view of Islam and encourage people to seek knowledge through scripture for themselves, but he didn't of course, that would not serve his purposes now would it?

At any rate, if you notice, he put in parenthesis Christians and Jews after pagans, making it seem that pagans are Christians and Jews. But when I opened the Qur'an and went to this particular aya, there is no mention of the word Christian or Jew and instead of pagans, it uses the Arabic word "Mushrikun" which can be translated to mean pagan and those who believe in many gods such as those in the time of Mohammad pbuh who worshipped many idols. I say in the time of Mohammad, pbuh, because one must consider the context of the time the aya comes from. This chapter is addressing a time when Mohammad was alive (pbuh).

Also, if you continue into this Surah, it is titled surah al-Taubah, which means Repentance in English. Makes you think that might be why it was to this pastor's advantage not to state the title. He made it seem like Islam had no such thing as repentance. Anyway, as the title indicates, this chapter in the Qur'an is about repentance. He gives multiple and multiple opportunities for the people that Mohammad (pbuh) is instructed by Allah to beseige and capture (not just kill mind you) to repent and he specifically instructs Mohammad (pbuh) to give them these opportunities, even those people Christians and Jews themselves would be considered as Mushrikun or pagans and idolators.

Also, if you look back at Surat al Baqarah, the Qur'an refers to Jews and Christians as "People of the Scripture "

Surah Al Baqarah (2:105) -

"Neither those who disbelieve among the people of the scripture (Jews and Christians) NOR al-Mushrikun (pagans) like that there should be sent down to you any good from your Lord. But Allah chooses for His Mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty."

At any rate, if this pastor would have read more of the chapter he would have shown the Mercy of Allah as viewed by Muslims and by the Qur'an for all people, even Mushrikun.

So, it was actually easier than I thought to discredit his presentation against Islam. I just had to look at the scripture for myself and read it from its context and in its whole. And that was even without the help of additional commentary which might have even made it even more clear. Don't let anyone intimidate you into thinking that just because they seem to know a lot that you cannot come to know what they know and even more. Do not let them make you think that they are the only way you can obtain true knowledge. If they give you information that is great, but do your own searching based on it even if it is.

So in conclusion, I just want to demonstrate that we should all, even those of us with more knowledge than others, study and learn the word of Allah, even as it was stated in the Proverb (1) above;

let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance- for understanding proverbs and parables,

the sayings and riddles of the wise.

Let us not be like blind leading the blind. May Allah increase us all in knowledge so that we may not be deceived.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, I have something else to add... As i mentioned before, Jesus was tempted by Shaytan while he was alone in the wilderness for a period of days. Jesus used his knowledge of scripture to trump Shaytan. But what some may not know is that Shaytan also knows the scripture. and he used that to tempt Jesus to do things to.
For example; in Luke 4:9-11

Then the devil brought him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.For it is written, "He will command his angels to protect you. They will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

Luke 4:12

Jesus answered, "The word says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'^[d]"

So you see, just because someone might quote a scripture either from Qur'an or the Jewish or christian bible, does not mean he is not deceiving you or twisting something to his advantage.
So how do we respond to this? Through more knowledge. We must be able to defend our faith and we do that through our knowledge of Allah's word. See how Jesus responded to Shaytan and his recitation of that verse, by using another verse.

So I will leave you with that. I hope that this will inspire to continue learning and growing.

Even the bible itself says in 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 -

Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good., and in the Spanish bible it translates to Examine it all, and retain the good.
and in more amplified translation of the bible it says; But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast.

May Allah bless you.
:)