📖 Hāfidh Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali rahimahullah (d. 795 AH) stated:

📚 The knowledge is of three types:

1. A beneficial knowledge that benefits,
2. A beneficial knowledge that doesn’t benefit,
3. A loathsome knowledge that doesn’t benefit.

1️⃣ As for the beneficial knowledge that benefits, Allah states:
▪︎ Say, “Can those who know and those who do not know become equal?” [Q. 39:9]
▪︎ “Allah bears witness that there is no god but He – and (so do) the angels and the people of knowledge – being the One who maintains equity.” [Q. 3:18]
▪︎ “And say: ‘My Lord, improve me in knowledge.'” [Q. 20:114]
▪︎ “Only those of His slaves fear Allah who are knowledgeable.” [Q. 35:28]

2️⃣ As for the beneficial knowledge that doesn’t benefit, it is a knowledge that is inherently beneficial, however, it doesn’t benefit its companion.

Allah states:
▪︎ “The example of those who were ordered to bear (the responsibility of acting upon) the Torah, then they did not bear it, is like a donkey that carries a load of books.” [Q. 62:5]
▪︎ “Recite to them the story of the one whom We gave Our verses, then he wriggled out from them, so Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverted. If We so willed, We would have elevated him thereby; but he clung to the earth and followed his desires…” [Q. 175-176]
▪︎ “Then, after them came a generation that inherited the Book, opting for the mundane stuff of this world and saying, “We shall be forgiven.” But if there comes to them similar stuff, they would opt for it (again).” [Q. 7:169]
▪︎ “…and Allah has let him go astray, despite having knowledge…” [Q. 45:23]

3️⃣ As for the knowledge that Allah has mentioned as despicable is what Allah states regarding magic:
▪︎ “They used to learn what harmed them and did no good to them; and they certainly knew that he who buys it has no share in the Hereafter.” [Q. 2:102]
▪︎ “When their messengers came to them with manifest signs, they exulted because of whatever knowledge they had, and they were encircled by what they used to ridicule.” [Q. 40:83]
▪︎ “They know something superficial of the worldly life, but of the Hereafter they are negligent.” [Q. 30:7]

Hence, the Sunnah has divided the knowledge into benefiting and non-benefiting (knowledge), and it seeks protection from that which is non-beneficial and it seeks the knowledge that is beneficial.

[Hāfidh Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Bayān Faḍl ‘ilm al-Salaf ‘ala ‘ilm al-Khalaf. Translated: Umer Ansari. Pg. 33-35. Dār al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyyah, Beirut 2021 CE / 1443 AH]

---

✒️ I say: A modern example of these three types of knowledge is:

1. A dietitian who actually benefits from his knowledge by following and implementing his diet plan in his life.
2. A doctor that knows smoking 🚬 causes lung disease, advises others to not smoke, yet chooses to smoke himself on his break.
3. Someone studies Chemistry to improve the propensity of cocaine, or a person studies philosophy and begins to question whether they exist or don’t.

Allah knows best,

Umer Ansari