“Knowledge is, "Allaah said…His Messenger said…The Companions said…"

Shaikh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani said:

So we hope that Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, makes us students of knowledge who truly adopt the same course as the scholars and who truthfully follow their path. This is what we hope for from Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, that He makes us from those students who follow that way about which the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge thereby, Allaah will make easy for him the path to Paradise.” Reported by Muslim [no. 7028].

And this opens the door for me to speak about this knowledge which is mentioned many times, very many times, in the Quraan, as in His Saying, the Most High,
 “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?”[Zumar 39:9], and His Saying, the Mighty and Majestic, “Allaah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees,” [Mujaadilah 58:11] What is this knowledge whose people Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, praised along with those who follow it and those who follow their path?

The answer is as Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him, the student of the Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said:

“Knowledge is, “Allaah said … His Messenger said …
The Companions said …” and it is not hidden

Knowledge is not your raising up a dispute foolishly
Between the Messenger and the opinion of a faqeeh,

Never! And nor is it the denial of the Attributes or the negation of them
Whilst trying to be cautious in avoiding tamtheel [holding that Allaah has equals from His creation in all aspects] and tashbeeh [holding that Allaah has equals in some aspects].”

So we take from these words, from this poetry which we rarely hear from the speech of the poets, since the poetry of the scholars differs from that of the poets, and this is a man of knowledge who is also good at poetry, and he is saying that knowledge is, “Allaah said,” at the first level, and the second is, “The Prophet of Allaah said,” and the third level is, “The Companions said.”

Taken from: Shaikh Albaani Blog