Ignorance

Allah, the Wise, has said: خُذِ الْعَفْوَ وَ امُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ وَ أََعْرِضْ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ “Take to forgiveness and enjoin good and turn aside from the ignorant.” Noble Qur’an, Surah al-A`raf, 7:199.

Imam Ali AS: ‘The moment you start arguing with an ignorant fool, you have already lost.’

"If the ignorant ones had kept silent, men would not have differed."

“Not every man with a heart is understanding, not every man with ears is a listener, and not every man with eyes is able to see.”

Keep Your Promises. The ones who don’t keep their promise do not believe in Allah.

The learned man understands the ignorant for he was once ignorant for he was once ignorant himself.

The ignorant man does not understand the learned for he has never been learned himself.

The greatest ignorance for man is his ignorance of his own self.

The learned men are the living ones in the dead mass of ignorance.

The innumerable fools have made the learned very scarce.

Knowledge kills ignorance.

None of you should ever feel embarrassed when asked about something you do not know; just admit your ignorance.

A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.

A fool's mind is at the mercy of his tongue and a wise man's tongue is under the control of his mind.

There is no greater wealth than wisdom, no greater poverty than ignorance

An ignorant person will always overdo a thing or neglect it totally.

One who imagines himself to be all-knowing will surely suffer on account of his ignorance.

There are many educated people who have ruined their future on account of their ignorance of religion. Their knowledge did not prove of any avail to them.

I wonder at the arrogance of a haughty and vain person. Yesterday he was only a drop of semen and tomorrow he will turn into a corpse. I wonder at the man who observes the Universe created by Allah and doubts His Being and Existence. I wonder at the man who sees people dying around him and yet he has forgotten his end. I wonder at the man who understands the marvel of genesis of creation and refuses to accept that he will be brought back to life again. I wonder at the man who takes great pains to decorate and to make comfortable this mortal habitat and totally forgets his permanent abode.

There are four causes of infidelity and loss of belief in Allah: hankering after whims, a passion to dispute every argument, deviation from truth; and dissension, because whoever hankers after whims does not incline towards truth; whoever keeps on disputing every argument on account of his ignorance, will always remain blind to truth, whoever deviates from truth because of ignorance, will always take good for evil and evil for good and he will always remain intoxicated with misguidance. And whoever makes a breach (with Allah and His Messenger) his path becomes difficult, his affairs will become complicated and his way to salvation will be uncertain.

Similarly, doubt has also four aspects absurd reasoning; fear; vacillation and hesitation; and unreasonable surrender to infidelity, because one who has accustomed himself to unreasonable and absurd discussions will never see the Light of Truth and will always live in the darkness of ignorance. One who is afraid to face facts (of life, death and the life after death) will always turn away from ultimate reality, one who allows doubts and uncertainties to vacillate him will always be under the control of Satan and one who surrenders himself to infidelity accepts damnation in both the worlds.