From the writings of Ibn ‘Ataa’ Illaah, rahimahullaah:
“Someone who acquires knowledge in order to gain this world and to achieve status therein may be likened to someone who picks up excrement with a sapphire spoon. How noble the means, and how ignoble the end sought! Similarly, someone who spends forty or fifty years in the pursuit of knowledge, yet without acting on what he has learned, may be likened to someone who spends the same period of time performing ritual ablutions over and over again in the pursuit of ritual ablution, yet without performing a single prayer. After all, the purpose of knowledge is action, just as the purpose of ritual prayer is the performance of prayer.”
(From Lata’if al-Minan)
