A good Alim

A good Alim is a person whose company inspires in you politeness, gentleness and the willpower to practice Deen. If you see that you are developing vulgar and harsh characters and behaviours, and you are gradually having a kind of bitterness in your heart for the Ulama, then you must move away from the milieu that you are in as quickly as possible. This is because gradually, without knowing, you are consuming poison which will eventually destroy you. It is a type of spiritual deviation. When the intestine is affected and does not function anymore, there is very little hope of staying alive. Similarly, to have enmity for the Ulama is spiritual death because enmity for the Ulama attacks one’s faculty to accept the truth.

One of the ways that Shaitan uses to deviate a person is by creating confusion in the mind of the person regarding the source from where he is getting Deen. Enmity for the Ulama also is a similar means to keep a person away from the truth. This is because it is the Ulama who teach Deen to the people.

[English version of "Ene bon 'Aalim" – Al Jamiat – Vol.1 No.11]