The True Seeker of Knowledge
Seek knowledge through scholars and intellectuals, through books and from the universe spread out in front of you. Each is a hidden source of God-consciousness.
According to a tradition, the Prophet of Islam once observed: “Good questioning is the half of knowledge.” (Kanzul Ummal 29262)
Who is the person who asks good or deep questions? He is one who has reflected upon the issue about which he has questions. Without a good acquaintance of the problem, no one can pose good questions. A good question in itself is a proof that the questioner is already in possession of some knowledge, and now the task of the person who answers the questions is already half done. Just by giving a part of his knowledge he can complete the questioner’s knowledge.
If you want to acquire the treasure of knowledge which others have, you must first of all prepare yourself for this. Only by increasing your own academic capability will you be able to really benefit from others’ knowledge, or benefit from books written by others and digest the knowledge enshrined therein.
Getting answers to questions, learning and imbibing knowledge are not unilateral actions but rather bilateral actions. That is, the more the questioner or the learner is prepared, the more will he be able to understand the answers given by others or the knowledge imparted by others. The truth is that it is a fifty-fifty matter. That is, it is only if you have half of the knowledge that it will be possible for others to give you the other half. It is a bilateral process, not a unilateral process.
The world is full of knowledge. One source of knowledge comprises the scholars and intellectuals. Another source comprises of those books which have been written by the best minds and which are available in libraries. Then the third source is in the form of the universe which is spread out in front of us. Each part of it has a hidden source of God-consciousness in it. This means that one who is a seeker of knowledge will be able to find it at any point in the vast treasure of knowledge scattered all around him. The condition is that a person should be a seeker of knowledge in the real sense. He should have developed the ability to acquire it.
