In the Holy Qur’an, sir, Allah Ta’ala has said, seeru fil arzi wa abtaghu min fazlillahi. Then we find a hadith, al-safru kitatam min al-nari, al-safru kitatam min al-azabi. Could you kindly explain? The first reference was? Seeru fil arzi wa abtaghu min fazlillahi. And you see an apparent contradiction in this. Yes, sir. Is that so? I don’t know. To my way of thinking, you see, with the modern science and technology, suffer is still part of azab, the way we find it. You know, the hadith still holds good. That’s right, yes. The fact is, there are two things now which have answered this question. Number one, an apparent contradiction, as you see it, between the verse of the Holy Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet.
The second, with the passage of time, does that tradition, that observation of the Prophet still hold good or not? Holds good or not? Have I understood you correctly? These are the two aspects of the question which you want to understand. In the first instance, you have misunderstood the tradition in the sense that the Prophet, when he says, qitatu min al-nar, or qitatu min al-azab, is not speaking literally. He is only expressing things in, as you call it, a figure of speech. When you say something is azab, something is nar, it only denotes difficulty. Some disturbance in your habits of life, some problems are created which are not expected to come your way during the travels. So this is a common experience of that time, it was more pronounced, that when you went for a journey or when you went on travelling, you would find difficulty after difficulty coming your way which are normally not expected. And nothing like home, of course.
The peace that you get at home is not to be compared with unrest and problems which are created during a journey. So that is what he refers to by qitatu min al-azab or qitatu min al-nar. It is disquieting, somehow it causes you unrest and trouble. Now that part of Hazrat Rasool-e-Karim sallallahu alaihi wa sallam does not contradict the verse of the Holy Qur’an, siru fil ard. Because when you go through difficulty, it doesn’t mean that you emerge as a loser. By going through difficulties you generally emerge as a gainer, as a profiteer. You profit by your difficult experiences, by putting in labour. So if labour is difficult, how can you infer from that that people should be stopped from putting in labour regarding everything? Because labour is difficult, it causes problems.
So you should cease putting in labour at all and live a life of death, a sort of death. That is the wrong conclusion you have made. Hazrat Rasool-e-Karim sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tells us by putting these two traditions together, that these traditions, in the juxtaposition of the verse you have referred to, the meaning would be that despite the fact that travelling is a difficult task, however developed your means be, yet it is so important for you to learn things and to benefit, that you must go on travelling.
Now this is further supported, this interpretation is further supported by another tradition of Hazrat Rasool-e-Karim sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who says that go to Sin, that is China, or I mean he says acquire knowledge. Even if you have to travel to the extent of Sin, that is China, China was supposed to be the farthest end of the known world of that time. So by that he merely means that even if you travel as far as China, you should not hesitate because the object of your travel, if the object of your travel is to gain knowledge, so to gain knowledge is that important. So when the Holy Quran says it means that by travelling you will gain things. And when Hazrat Rasool-e-Karim sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tells us that travelling is difficult, he does not discourage us, he only just forewarns us that be ready for facing difficulties.
So this situation which is apparent contradiction to you has been described in one verse of the Holy Quran altogether by pointing out that there is no contradiction. Inna maal usre yusran, inna maal usre yusra. In fact what you gain, you always gain through difficulties. With difficulties is your ease, and with ease, ease must follow difficulties. So it’s not a contradiction, it’s just a natural phenomenon.
