The Ruling on Specializing in Worldly Sciences Alongside the Pursuit of Religious Knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
We move on to the questions. A questioner says: Do you hold, Honorable Shaykh, that entering scientific specializations instead of religious ones, while continuing to seek knowledge in the mosques, especially, is permissible, given that Muslims need such specializations? Or is it required for the student of knowledge to restrict himself to religious specializations in academic study?
Answer:
Every Muslim, it is obligatory for every Muslim to know the matters of his religion. It is obligatory for every Muslim to learn the matters of his religion without which his religion does not stand. As for specializing in matters other than the pillars of Islam, such as transactions, marriages, divorce, and so on, that is according to a person’s inclinations, once he knows the matters of his religion and masters them. After that, he takes up what he sees himself excelling in, whether in jurisprudence, medicine, engineering, industry, or anything that benefits Muslims. But the common denominator must come first, which is the servant’s knowledge of his religion.
How does he worship his Lord? How does he correct his creed? How does he pray? How does he pay zakah? How does he fast? How does he perform Hajj and 'Umrah?
Once he has mastered these matters, he takes up the specialization he feels inclined toward. Allah has given people different talents; He has given people different talents, and this is for a wisdom from Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, because if their talents were all the same, they would be limited to one profession and the rest of the works and public interests would be neglected. So each person takes up what he feels inclined toward and produces results in it. And without doubt, the best is religious specialization; that is the best. Yes. And if he compensates for this by studying with the shaykhs and in the mosques, that is a good thing. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
We move on to the questions. A questioner says: Do you hold, Honorable Shaykh, that entering scientific specializations instead of religious ones, while continuing to seek knowledge in the mosques, especially, is permissible, given that Muslims need such specializations? Or is it required for the student of knowledge to restrict himself to religious specializations in academic study?
Answer:
Every Muslim, it is obligatory for every Muslim to know the matters of his religion. It is obligatory for every Muslim to learn the matters of his religion without which his religion does not stand. As for specializing in matters other than the pillars of Islam, such as transactions, marriages, divorce, and so on, that is according to a person’s inclinations, once he knows the matters of his religion and masters them. After that, he takes up what he sees himself excelling in, whether in jurisprudence, medicine, engineering, industry, or anything that benefits Muslims. But the common denominator must come first, which is the servant’s knowledge of his religion.
How does he worship his Lord? How does he correct his creed? How does he pray? How does he pay zakah? How does he fast? How does he perform Hajj and 'Umrah?
Once he has mastered these matters, he takes up the specialization he feels inclined toward. Allah has given people different talents; He has given people different talents, and this is for a wisdom from Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, because if their talents were all the same, they would be limited to one profession and the rest of the works and public interests would be neglected. So each person takes up what he feels inclined toward and produces results in it. And without doubt, the best is religious specialization; that is the best. Yes. And if he compensates for this by studying with the shaykhs and in the mosques, that is a good thing. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
تفسير الشيخ محمد بن عبدالوهاب [10] — alfawzan.live (47:47)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.