Hazrat Abu Darda'a said: He who thinks that to go at dawn in search of knowledge is not jihad is deficient in intellect. - Al-Ghazali

(من مسوغات العزل) الخوف من كثرة الحرج بسبب كثرة الأولاد، و الاحتراز من الحاجة إلى التعب في الكسب و دخول مداخل السوء. و هذا أيضاً غير منهيّ عنه، فإن قلة الحرج معين على الدين، نعم الكمال و الفضل في التوكل، و الثقة بضمان الله حيث قال: (و ما من دابة في الأرض إلا على الله رزقها)، و لا جرم فيه سقوط عن ذروة الكمال، و ترك للأفضل، و لكن النظر إلى العواقب و حفظ المال و ادخاره – مع كونه مناقضاً للتوكل – لا نقول: إنه منهي عنه.

Firsyt of all, it must be realized that only God
truly knows about Himself ( ya-
rif aqq ma-
rifatih) and fully comprehends
the essence of His majesty. This need not be considered strange. For I
say, only an angel truly knows about angels. Only a prophet truly knows
about prophets. Indeed, only a scholar truly knows about scholars. I
would even say that as long as a student has not attained his professor’s
rank in scholarship, he does not truly know his professor. When he has
attained his professor’s rank, he knows him almost in the way the pro-
fessor knows himself . . . I would even say that it cannot be conceived
that an impotent man could truly know about the condition attained
by a person during cohabitation . . .” Al-Ghazzâlî goes on to say that
even for low animal life such as ants and gnats, it must be assumed that
any true knowledge of their being is possible only for ants and gnats,
that man has no true knowledge of himself and as a rule knows about
himself only through the actions and characteristics of his self (soul),
while ignoring its quiddity, “and once man knows that he is of necessity
unable to perceive the essence of God’s majesty, he has attained what
is the end of his perfection, as this is the goal of human perfection.

…فإن المنفرد بنفسه، أو المشارك لمن حسن

خلقه، لا تترشح منه خبائث النفس الباطنة،

ولا تنكشف بواطن عيوبه. فحق على سالك طريق

الآخرة أن يجرب نفسه بالتعرض لأمثال هذه

المحركات، واعتياد الصبر عليها، لتعتدل

أخلاقه ، وترتاض نفسه، ويصفو عن الصفات

الذميمة باطنه “.