Is the purification of the soul and the cleansing of the heart from heedlessness and sin through seeking forgiveness (istighfar) and remembrance (dhikr) a fundamental prerequisite for seeking religious knowledge, such that the attainment of beneficial knowledge is impossible without it, or is the seeking of knowledge itself what purifies and cleanses the heart, and does this create the problem of circular reasoning (idhkāl ad-daww al-bāṭil)?

Indeed, sins and heedlessness cause one to be deprived of beneficial knowledge, whereas piety is among the means of acquiring it, in confirmation of His, the Exalted, saying: "And fear Allah; and Allah teaches you."

Abandoning sins and warning against heedlessness open the door to knowledge and facilitate it, for knowledge is light, and the light of Allah is not granted to a disobedient person. It has been narrated from the Salaf that a man forgets knowledge due to sin, and they emphasized the importance of learning etiquette before knowledge.