The Etiquette of Seeking Knowledge

To adorn oneself with beautiful etiquette, noble manners, good behaviour, and pious conduct are distinguishing characteristics of the people of Islaam, and knowledge the most precious pearl in the crown of the purified shareeah cannot be attained except by those who adorn themselves with its etiquette and those who leave evil qualities associated to it. For this reason the scholars devoted their attention to this etiquette, outlined its importance and wrote books solely on this topic; either pretaining to [general conduct] with all type of knowledge such as the etiquette of the carriers of the Noble Quraan, the etiquette of the muhaddith, the etiquette of the muftee, the etiquette of the qaadee (judge), the etiquette of the muhtasib (the one who enjoins good and forbids evil for the sake of ALLAH (s.w.t)) and so on. The issue of this book is the general conduct of those who take the path of seeking the knowledge of the shareeah.