Relying on handouts and neglecting authentic scholarly books

Question:
Dr. Shaykh Salih al-Suhaimi. Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings. Peace. Praise be to Allah, and may blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. First of all, I thank Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, by whose grace good deeds are completed. Then, I thank Your Excellency, the University President (may Allah guide him), for providing the opportunity for graduates to meet our shaykhs; this is a blessed step. We ask Allah to reward him and all those who contributed to these efforts. I do not have an interjection; I have a question. I ask our Shaykh (may Allah preserve him) to kindly point out this problem to us, the students of knowledge. The problem is that in recent years we have been afflicted by relying on the handouts that some professors write to make things easier for the students, which has diverted the students from the authentic scholarly books. I am speaking from experience, given my work on the High Advisory Committee at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, and Da'wah in the Prophet’s City. We sometimes meet university students, and perhaps they hold master’s or doctoral degrees, who do not know the names of some books that people who held even small degrees in the past knew. So, what is our Shaykh’s (may Allah preserve him) comment and guidance to us, the educators and teaching staff, on this matter of connecting students to the authentic and beneficial scholarly books? May Allah guide everyone to what He loves and is pleased with.

Answer:
May Allah bless you. This is a very important matter, and I have pointed it out when I was asked about the duty of teachers toward their students. I said that one of their most important duties is to convey correct information to them and to focus, above all else, on explaining the curriculum from the books prescribed for them, and not to divert them from those books with handouts or with words that are not based on references but are merely the teacher’s own thoughts or the teacher’s own inclination. This is a trust.
The book is prescribed for the students, so you must take care to teach it by its text and its meaning, and not leave any part of it without explanation. You should go through the curriculum, as much as you are able, from its beginning to its end, so that the students have a scientific accumulation and so that they value what is in their hands. How can a student graduate without knowing what is in his curriculum, without knowing the book he carries and that is before him? This is not considered a fulfillment of the trust at all. The teacher carries a great trust, and without doubt he is accountable for it before Allah, the Exalted and Majestic. So why were these books prescribed? It used to be said to teachers: You lecture to the students and write for them what you see fit, and there is no need for specific books. Yes.