Every Group Has Its Flaw
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Welcome. There is an old Arabic word, zaghal. It was used for a coin that looked like silver, but had cheap metal mixed into it. It shone, it passed from hand to hand, but it was not what it seemed.
Around seven hundred years ago, the great historian and scholar of Damascus, al-Dhahabi, wrote a short, sharp treatise with that word in its title. The Counterfeit in Knowledge.
He begins with one sentence. Know that in every group of the scholars of this community, there is something blameworthy. So avoid it.
Then he walks through the fields of learning, one by one. Reciters of the Qur'an. Scholars of hadith. Jurists. Grammarians, writers, poets, accountants, preachers. And in each one, he points to the cheap metal that can get mixed into the silver.
He writes with a sharp pen. At times, he is harsh with the people of his own day. We will leave aside his criticism of particular groups and individuals, and keep what lies beneath it. Because his real subject is not other people. It is the heart of anyone who learns.
Whatever you study, he is asking, is it real silver? Or only something that shines?
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