Some Quotes from Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The following are some sayings of Ibn Hazm Al-Andalûsî, rahimahullâh.  They are all from Al-Akhlâq was-Siyâr except for the last one, which is from At-Ta`âlam wa-Atharuhu `alâ Al-Fikr wal-Kitâb.  I found these a while  back on http://www.fatwa-online.com.

The most noble branches of knowledge are those which bring you close to the Creator and help you to be pleasing to Him.

Anyone who spends his time studying something inferior, abandoning higher studies of which he is capable, is like someone who sows corn in a field capable of growing wheat, or who plants bushes in a soil which could support palm trees and olives.

When you compare yourself with others in matters of wealth, position, and health, you should look at people less favoured than yourself. When you compare yourself with others in matters of religion, knowledge and virtue, look at people who are better than yourself.

A man who is a miser with his knowledge is worse than a man who is a miser with his money, for the money-miser is afraid of using up what he possesses but the knowledge-miser is being mean with something which does not get used up and is not lost when it is given away.

There is nothing more harmful to the branches of knowledge and its people than those who enter themselves into it and they are not from its people. They are ignorant and yet they think they have knowledge, they cause corruption whilst thinking they are correcting the affairs.