Restricting the pursuit of knowledge to reading books without the scholars

Question:
This questioner says: Is it sufficient in the pursuit of knowledge to read the books and the explained texts of the scholars without attending the gatherings of the scholars? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.

Answer:
This is misguidance. The one who restricts himself to books is following a misguided path. It is necessary to have the scholars. It is necessary to receive knowledge from the scholars. As for the books, they are merely means.
Like a weapon. If you have it, can you use it without learning how to use it? You must learn how to use the weapon from those who know how to use it; they train you in it.
The scholars are the ones who train you in the use of books and who distinguish the beneficial from the non-beneficial in books, and the correct from the incorrect. Because many books are books of misguidance, books of misguidance and books of evil, so no one examines and explains them except the people of knowledge. You may understand with a wrong understanding. You read and understand with a wrong understanding. Like one who says he read in Sahih al-Bukhari the hadith that the black seed is a cure for every disease, or a cure. He read it because we misspelled the word "black seed" as "black snake," so he went and ate a black snake and died.
Because he did not ask the people of knowledge. This is a scholar, they say. The scholars are the ones who know the correct from the incorrect. They are the ones who know the correct meaning from the bad meaning. They are the experts in this matter. Yes, take a book from the books of medicine and read it, and cut people open and split their bellies, and say I am a doctor. This is not acceptable. If this is the case in medicine, how is it in knowledge? How is it with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger? The scholars are necessary. Yes.