Knowledge

The lecture focuses on the issue of knowledge: what is beneficial and what is harmful, and how a person can keep his mind pure and avoid bringing into it anything that harms him spiritually or mentally. His Holiness explains that knowledge is a divine gift, but it must be used with wisdom and discernment, because false knowledge can corrupt the heart and mind and lead to a person’s fall.

First: The problem of humanity from the beginning

• Man wanted to know evil, so he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and lost his simplicity and innocence.

• Not all knowledge is beneficial; some brings sorrow, as Scripture says: “He who increases knowledge increases sorrow” when the knowledge is harmful.

Second: The effect of knowledge on the human being

• What enters the mind forms feelings and affects the senses and relationships.

• Knowledge is stored in the subconscious mind and appears in dreams, thoughts, and desires without a person’s will.

• Therefore one must examine carefully everything he reads, hears, and sees, and the friends who fill his mind with certain kinds of knowledge.

Third: Examples of harmful knowledge

• Knowledge of sin and sinful pleasure, which is difficult to remove.

• Addiction (such as cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs) begins with the curiosity of knowledge and ends with control over the person.

• Doubts, judgment, and following the faults of others, which produce thoughts, accusations, and confusion of heart.

• Spreading rumors, where a person bears the sin of his own false knowledge and the sin of corrupting others’ minds.

Fourth: Wrong sources of knowledge that must be rejected

• Knowledge that comes from the devil, as happened with our mother Eve.

• Fortune-telling, magic, consulting the dead, reading the cup, the palm, and similar things—all are abominations forbidden clearly in Scripture.

• False knowledge that does not benefit and leads a person away from the salvation of his soul.

Fifth: The types of correct knowledge

• Knowledge through the senses, knowledge through the mind, and knowledge through the spirit.

• Knowledge from the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of knowledge and understanding.

• Knowledge from God: “Teach me, O Lord, Your ways; make me understand Your paths.”

• Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures necessary for salvation.

• Knowledge of oneself: its nature, weaknesses, struggles, and how to escape from sin.

• Knowledge of others: the psychology of the husband, wife, or child to know how to deal with them with love and wisdom.

Sixth: The fruits of beneficial knowledge

• The knowledge of God is eternal life.

• Knowledge of the commandment and its depth, knowledge of the ways of salvation, and knowledge of what helps others.

• Knowing the needs of others to help them materially, psychologically, or spiritually.

• Knowledge that leads to righteousness and salvation, and builds the person and those around him.

Spiritual conclusion

Not all knowledge is beneficial. Knowledge that brings doubt, sin, judgment, or falsehood harms the soul and mind.
But divine knowledge—knowing God and His commandments and knowing oneself and salvation—is what purifies the mind, builds the person, and keeps him walking in the way of truth.
Therefore let our minds store only what benefits us and leads us to eternity, not what corrupts our hearts or misleads us.

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