The pursuit of knowledge is encouraged for both men and women, as it enhances understanding of life’s purpose, the world, and contributes positively to society. The Quran and Hadith emphasize that seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim. The Quran invites believers to reflect upon its verses and promotes critical thinking to deepen faith and understanding. This encompasses religious, scientific, and practical knowledge, recognizing that both men and women have the capacity and responsibility to learn, teach, and apply wisdom in all aspects of life.
Throughout early Islamic history, particularly during the “Islamic Golden Age” (from the 8th to the 15th century) when science, mathematics, philosophy, physics, chemistry, and medicine flourished mainly in the Islamic world, Europeans would come to study and learn from Muslims and during those centuries Muslims women played active roles in all aspects of the society. Female religious scholars, for instance, were not uncommon. Scholars such as Mohammad Akram Nadwi have documented the lives of over 8,000 female jurists during the 8th to 15th century, who were legal scholars deeply knowledgeable in the field of Sharia law, while Ignaz Goldziher estimated that around 15% of medieval Hadith scholars were women.
Muhammad sayings about knowledge (hadiths):
- “The first thing created by God was the intellect”.
- “The acquisition of knowledge is a duty incumbent on every Muslim, male and female.”
- “To spend more time in learning is better than spending more time praying; the support of religion is abstinence. It is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night than to pray all night”.
- “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave”.
- “With knowledge man rises to the heights of goodness and to a noble position, associated with sovereigns in this world, and attains to the perfection of happiness in the next.”
- “He dies not who gives life to learning”.
- “One learned man is harder on the devil than a thousand ignorant worshippers.”
- “The calamity of knowledge is forgetfulness; and to waste knowledge is to speak of it to the unworthy.”
- “To listen to the words of the learned, and to instill into others the lessons of science, is better than religious exercises”.
- “That person who shall die while he is studying, in order to revive the knowledge of religion, will be only one degree inferior to the prophets”.
- “The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.”
- “Acquire knowledge. It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong; it lighten the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament among friends, and an armor against enemies”.
- “Who’s honored the learned honored me.”
- “Verily God does not takes away knowledge from the hands of His servants; but takes it by taking away the learned; so that when no learned men remain, the ignorant will be placed at the head of affairs. Causes will be submitted to their decision, they will pass sentence without knowledge, will err themselves, and lead others into error.”
- “The knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which no charity is bestowed in the way of the Lord”.
- “That person who shall pursue the path of knowledge, God will direct him to the path of Paradise; and verily the superiority of a learned man over an ignorant worshipper is like that of the full moon over all the stars.”
- “He, who knows his own self, knows God. Who are the learned? They who practice what they know.”
- “Verily the best of God’s servants are just and learned kings; and verily the worst are bad and ignorant kings”
- “One hour’s meditation on the work of the Creator is better than seventy years of prayer.”
- “He, who leaves home in search of knowledge, walks in the path of God.”
- “Go in quest of knowledge even unto China.”