The Shaykh’s Activities After Graduation and the Qualities of the Imam and the Khatib
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The questioner:
After we learned these rules from our honorable guest, Dr. Salih ibn Fawzan, I ask: If you could speak about the activities you have undertaken since graduating from the college, which you are still practicing to this day?
The Shaykh:
The activities are teaching at all stages of my work. I was a teacher of elementary science, then I joined the scientific institutes. It was after getting close to the university.
I studied at the Scientific Institute in Riyadh for two years, then I was appointed to teach at the College of Sharia for a long period. I do not know the number of years now, but it was long. After that, I was appointed to teach at the College of Usul al-Din for a very long period. Then I was appointed director of the Scientific Institute for Judiciary. When the official opening occurred, I returned to teaching at the same Institute for Judiciary, yes. And I am still in this field, if Allah wills.
Other Western activities include participation in the construction of the homes of the great scholars, as you mentioned, and participation in the construction of the Fiqh Academy in Makkah al-Mukarramah, and participation in various conferences inside and outside the country. Yes. Teaching in the mosque, as we mentioned later. Yes. Delivering lectures in various places, in schools and in mosques and in appropriate examples, yes. Also, membership in the committee supervising the da'wah in the Islamic University during the Hajj season. May Allah welcome you. You mentioned our dear home that some of your activities are limited to being the imam and the khatib in one of the mosques in Riyadh. Is there an impression in your honor regarding the imamah and regarding the khutbah? How do you see the imam being? How do you see the khatib being? Al-Bouti (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned that the imam and the khatib should be qualified with a presumptive qualification, and among the most important of that is that he be proficient in reading the Book of Allah the Exalted, knowing its meanings, and that he be slow, at least in the rulings of prayer and what is required of us and what the imam needs in his prayer. Yes. This is the minimum solution, otherwise he should be more diligent than that. Yes, yes.
He must be devoted to the taqwa of Allah the Exalted, a good role model, because he is a role model, and people look at him with a look of imitation, and he is a trustee of a great frontier of the frontiers of Islam. He should be one who acts with what is right, forbids what is wrong, advises the Muslims, and be one who maintains the performance of his work, not missing it except for a Shari'ah excuse. This is among the matters of imamah: to spread awareness in his mosque and among those around him through the khutbahs, through the lessons, and through the sermons. He should be one who spreads fiqh and spreads the da'wah to Allah the Exalted. Or at least, and it is required of him to direct his activity to more than that. Yes, yes. Some of the ma'mum turn to faith and negligence. What is your opinion on what the faith should be? What is this state?
This is according to the imam’s scientific capability. And if the imam has scientific capability, and the general rule, and praise be to Allah, is that the khutbah in the congregational mosques, especially the congregational mosques in the cities, is that they listen to the graduates of the College of Sharia or the College of [Fiqh], so the general rule is that they have the capability. And in any case, even if he is a scholar, it is not permissible for him to issue a fatwa except with knowledge.
So if he is asked a question about which he has correct knowledge of the answer, he answers. If he does not have knowledge of the answer and does not have the capability, it is forbidden for him to issue a fatwa without knowledge. Because the fatwa is very serious. So Dr. Salim says it is obligatory for the imam to be prepared to receive the fatwas of the ma'mum. If he has the capability. If he has the capability.
But if he does not have the capability, it is not permissible for him to receive them. That is, he must stop from them and refer them to one who is more knowledgeable than him, because it is not required of the imam, for example, to be a mufti or to be in a position to be an imam and perform the imamah. So what is required of him is that he have some of the fiqh and knowledge, and that is a good thing.
The presenter:
May Allah bless you.
After we learned these rules from our honorable guest, Dr. Salih ibn Fawzan, I ask: If you could speak about the activities you have undertaken since graduating from the college, which you are still practicing to this day?
The Shaykh:
The activities are teaching at all stages of my work. I was a teacher of elementary science, then I joined the scientific institutes. It was after getting close to the university.
I studied at the Scientific Institute in Riyadh for two years, then I was appointed to teach at the College of Sharia for a long period. I do not know the number of years now, but it was long. After that, I was appointed to teach at the College of Usul al-Din for a very long period. Then I was appointed director of the Scientific Institute for Judiciary. When the official opening occurred, I returned to teaching at the same Institute for Judiciary, yes. And I am still in this field, if Allah wills.
Other Western activities include participation in the construction of the homes of the great scholars, as you mentioned, and participation in the construction of the Fiqh Academy in Makkah al-Mukarramah, and participation in various conferences inside and outside the country. Yes. Teaching in the mosque, as we mentioned later. Yes. Delivering lectures in various places, in schools and in mosques and in appropriate examples, yes. Also, membership in the committee supervising the da'wah in the Islamic University during the Hajj season. May Allah welcome you. You mentioned our dear home that some of your activities are limited to being the imam and the khatib in one of the mosques in Riyadh. Is there an impression in your honor regarding the imamah and regarding the khutbah? How do you see the imam being? How do you see the khatib being? Al-Bouti (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned that the imam and the khatib should be qualified with a presumptive qualification, and among the most important of that is that he be proficient in reading the Book of Allah the Exalted, knowing its meanings, and that he be slow, at least in the rulings of prayer and what is required of us and what the imam needs in his prayer. Yes. This is the minimum solution, otherwise he should be more diligent than that. Yes, yes.
He must be devoted to the taqwa of Allah the Exalted, a good role model, because he is a role model, and people look at him with a look of imitation, and he is a trustee of a great frontier of the frontiers of Islam. He should be one who acts with what is right, forbids what is wrong, advises the Muslims, and be one who maintains the performance of his work, not missing it except for a Shari'ah excuse. This is among the matters of imamah: to spread awareness in his mosque and among those around him through the khutbahs, through the lessons, and through the sermons. He should be one who spreads fiqh and spreads the da'wah to Allah the Exalted. Or at least, and it is required of him to direct his activity to more than that. Yes, yes. Some of the ma'mum turn to faith and negligence. What is your opinion on what the faith should be? What is this state?
This is according to the imam’s scientific capability. And if the imam has scientific capability, and the general rule, and praise be to Allah, is that the khutbah in the congregational mosques, especially the congregational mosques in the cities, is that they listen to the graduates of the College of Sharia or the College of [Fiqh], so the general rule is that they have the capability. And in any case, even if he is a scholar, it is not permissible for him to issue a fatwa except with knowledge.
So if he is asked a question about which he has correct knowledge of the answer, he answers. If he does not have knowledge of the answer and does not have the capability, it is forbidden for him to issue a fatwa without knowledge. Because the fatwa is very serious. So Dr. Salim says it is obligatory for the imam to be prepared to receive the fatwas of the ma'mum. If he has the capability. If he has the capability.
But if he does not have the capability, it is not permissible for him to receive them. That is, he must stop from them and refer them to one who is more knowledgeable than him, because it is not required of the imam, for example, to be a mufti or to be in a position to be an imam and perform the imamah. So what is required of him is that he have some of the fiqh and knowledge, and that is a good thing.
The presenter:
May Allah bless you.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، صفحات من رحلتي العلمية \ صالح الفوزان \ كبار العلماء — youtube.com (9:43)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.