Where To Start The Journey To Allah By Harith al-Muhasibi

The first step of a responsible person is to know that they have a Lord who has commanded and forbidden them, to reward them for their obedience and punish them for their disobedience. It is essential for them to flee from His punishment by obeying Him and avoiding His disobedience. This is referred to in the saying of the Almighty, “So flee to Allah” [Adh-Dhariyat: 50]. Fleeing to Him is only through obedience to Him and avoiding His disobedience. Obedience and disobedience are contingent on learning the Sharia.

Therefore, one must learn from the Sharia what Allah, the Exalted, has forbidden for them, both outwardly and inwardly, to avoid it, and what He has obligated upon them, both outwardly and inwardly, to do it according to the demands of their situations and circumstances.

It is incumbent upon them to learn prayer and fasting: their obligatory components and conditions. They are not required to learn about zakat unless it becomes obligatory or is about to become obligatory. Similarly, they are not required to learn about Hajj and Jihad unless they are among those eligible for them. If there is ample time for these, learning becomes a chosen obligation. If the time is limited, the window of learning is smaller.

Likewise, for all other matters that arise from various situations that  obligate obedience to Allah, both outwardly and inwardly, it is obligatory to learn about these matters, their causes, times, conditions, pillars, and what invalidates them.