Many students of knowledge spend years studying Arabic grammar, hadith, fiqh, Qur'an and much more. For those of us who go through the journey we soon come to realise how vast the ocean is. But, here is some useful advice for anyone at any part of this journey...
Ultimately, what we do is to please Allah and to serve the people. We cannot lose vision of that fact that our time is our people's time. Be truthful to yourself at all times. To do this, from time to time we must be with those people who will help usto see things - the good and the bad in us. We also need to to be conscious of two environments. The inner (our heart) and the outer (the external environment). In fact, the 'ulama would clearly say that in order for a mufti to issue a fatwa he has to be from those who know the people. Likewise, when we serve our communities, we must know our people. And finally, whatever one spent years studying, the issues that need to be communicated to our community, translate it in a language that they understand. This is where we can synthesis what we know and relay the information in simple language for others to benefit from.
This advice was given my an imam who visited us. I thought it was a short yet comprehensive reminder. Let this reminder benefit us all - ameen ya rabb.
