What are you studying for?
Alhamdulillah, over the past few years specifically, it seems like there is a steep rise in people with careers and degrees outside the Islamic Sciences who are studying traditionally using all mediums available to them: local teachers, online studies, and even traveling to sit at the feet of the masters of the sciences. After a few years, someone who was an average Muslim with a career all of a sudden finds that they may have studied Ibn Malik's Alfiyya, various sciences to an intermediate/advanced level, memorized a sizable amount of the Qur'an, and more all out of the passion to seek knowledge and nothing more.
For this group, it usually starts with a few classes in the masjid, then Arabic studies, and one thing leads to another. Eventually they are met with the question, "What is the end goal with all these studies?"
This usually causes this group to start reflecting. Yes, they sought knowledge for the sake of Allah and out of their passion for knowledge, but is there more they should think of?
Usually, those who have shown dedication to the uloom find that they process and speak about Islam much differently than before, and if they studied correctly, those around them see a positive change in them. Due to that and their unassuming position in the community, they have combined being a person of knowledge and being someone accessible to people who might not otherwise ask about matters of the religion. Therefore, they have become a valuable resource for those around them. The more accessible people with knowledge and connections to scholars that the wider community has access to, the more the community as a whole improves.
Those with doubts they are afraid to approach the masjid imam with; those with questions they are too embarrassed to ask; those who might be heedless but now have someone in their friend group who might inspire them to recommit to the religion. All of these people now have someone around them who they trust with these matters they did not have before.
So to all of those students of knowledge who are not serving the community in any official capacity, just keep being you. Be the same approachable friend and family member to people you always were—a day will come when you are in a position no one else can be in to help someone. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "People are upon the religion of their friends" (Sunnan Abi Dawud).
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Imam al Haddad's dua for studying:
All praise to God, Lord of the Worlds. And salutations and greetings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions. I intend to study and teach, take and give a reminder, take and give benefit, take and give advantage, to encourage the holding fast to the book of God and the way of His Messenger, and calling to guidance and directing towards good, hoping for the countenance of God and His pleasure, proximity and reward, transcendent is He.
https://seekersguidance.org/articles/general-artices/the-intentions-for-seeking-knowledge-imam-abdullah-al-haddad/
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