The Ruling on Seeking Knowledge from Books Rather Than from Scholars
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah keep you safe. What is the ruling on one who seeks knowledge from books, meaning he derives most of his knowledge from them?
The Shaykh:
This is a great error. Books are not teachers; books are merely tools, not the means of learning. Knowledge is taken from scholars, and books are only documents to which one refers. So, one should not rely on books. Yes. Ma sha Allah. That is enough, in the name of Allah. Correct, correct. Peace be upon you, welcome. All of you. Yes. A gift of tea. Please. May Allah keep you safe.
The questioner:
Does he rebel? Does he rebel against a creation and not against [the Creator]?
The Shaykh:
There is no difference.
May Allah keep you safe. What is the ruling on one who seeks knowledge from books, meaning he derives most of his knowledge from them?
The Shaykh:
This is a great error. Books are not teachers; books are merely tools, not the means of learning. Knowledge is taken from scholars, and books are only documents to which one refers. So, one should not rely on books. Yes. Ma sha Allah. That is enough, in the name of Allah. Correct, correct. Peace be upon you, welcome. All of you. Yes. A gift of tea. Please. May Allah keep you safe.
The questioner:
Does he rebel? Does he rebel against a creation and not against [the Creator]?
The Shaykh:
There is no difference.
Source
نصيحة الشيخ لطلاب العلم — alfawzan.live (31:33)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.