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Make Use of Knowledge by Ibn Arabi
Make use of knowledge in all your movements and
stillnesses. The perfect generous one is the one who is generous
with himself with knowledge. So it is by the judgment of what
God has prescribed for him. So he learns and acts and teaches
the one who does not know. The Messenger of God (blessings and
peace be upon him) praised the one who accepted knowledge, acted
by it and taught it. He censured the opposite of that. So it is
confirmed that the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him)
said, “The metaphor of the guidance and know-ledge with which
God has sent me is the abundant rain which strikes the earth.
Some of it is fertile and accepts water and bring forth plants
and grass in abundance. Some of it is hard and holds the water
enabling God to let people make use of it. They drink from it,
water their animals and irrigate their land. Some of the land it
strikes is level and barren and does not retain water nor
produce plants. The first is a metaphor for someone who
understands the religion of God and benefits from that with
which God has sent me, learns and teaches.” Someone who pays no
attention to it is like level barren land which does not retain
water nor produce plants. My brother, be one of those who
learns, acts and teaches, and do not be one of those who learns
and then abandons action. Then you would be like a lamp or a
candle which gives light to people while you burn yourself.
If you act by what you know, God will appoint for you a discrimination and light, and that action will bring about another knowledge which you did not know from the knowledge of God which will benefit you with God in the Next World. So strive to be among with knowledge and action who are rightly guided.
Muhyi din Ibn al-‘Arabi, The Mysteries of Bearing Witness