Calling to Allah Without Knowledge

The questioner:
And the head of the Shaykh raises [the issue] regarding what people migrate for in calling to Allah in their lands, and he informs the Muslims who are confined to his call.

The Shaykh:
What is the saying? What is it? Do not come near me. What is the saying?

The questioner:
Rather, his saying is that you are the people.

The Shaykh:
Incite, yes.

The questioner:
In your lands without knowledge, poets among the Muslims who are falling short in calling the people of their lands.

The Shaykh:
The call is not permissible without knowledge, because he does not know the obligatory from the non-obligatory, nor does he know the lawful from the forbidden, nor does he know how to answer if he is asked. This is not suitable for the call. However, if he gives general guidance, there is no harm. But if he calls people, declares things lawful and forbidden, and declares people disbelievers, this is not permissible except for the people of knowledge. However, if he gives general guidance and encourages good according to his knowledge, without intervening in matters of the forbidden and the lawful, the valid and the invalid, shirk (associating partners with Allah) and tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and he does not intervene in matters he does not know, but gives general guidance encouraging Islam and that Islam is a good thing, general guidance without intervening in rulings, this may be permissible, if Allah wills. Yes.