Advice to Youth on Seeking Religious Knowledge Before Engaging in Political Affairs

Question:
The third question says: Honorable Shaykh, many young people today have lost interest in following recorded academic lessons and attending the lessons of trusted scholars, considering them unimportant or of little benefit. Instead, they have turned to what are called modern lectures that discuss politics and the state of the world, believing them to be more important because they address reality. What is your advice to these young people?

Answer:
As mentioned before, engaging in general lectures, journalism, and what is happening in the world, without knowledge of the creed and without knowledge of the matters of the Shari'ah, is misguidance and loss. Whoever engages in this while ignorant of his creed and ignorant of religious knowledge will stray from the path of Allah and become confused in his thinking, because he has substituted . Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, commanded us to learn beneficial knowledge first , , and other verses , and other verses that encourage seeking the knowledge revealed in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), because this is the beneficial and useful knowledge in this world and the Hereafter. This is the light by which a person sees the path to Paradise and to happiness, and the path in his worldly life to a good and pure living .
We recite Surat al-Fatihah, and in it is the great supplication . Those upon whom Allah has bestowed His favor are those who combined beneficial knowledge with righteous deeds . And those who are not the ones upon whom is the anger are those who took knowledge but left off deeds, and not the ones who are astray, who are those who took deeds but left off knowledge. So the first group is upon whom is the anger because they disobeyed Allah with clear knowledge, and the second group is astray because they acted without knowledge. And none were saved except those upon whom Allah has bestowed His favor, who are the people of beneficial knowledge and righteous deeds. It is obligatory that this be kept in mind. As for engaging in the reality of the age, as they say, or the jurisprudence of reality, this only comes after the Shari'ah jurisprudence. If a person understands the Shari'ah jurisprudence, he looks at the reality of people, what is happening in the world, and the ideas and opinions that come, and he presents them to the correct religious knowledge to distinguish their good from their evil. And without religious knowledge, he cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, guidance and misguidance. So the one who engages first and foremost in cultural, journalistic, and political matters, and has no insight from his religion, will be misguided in these matters, because most of what circulates in them is misguidance, propaganda for falsehood, ornamentation of speech, and delusion. The one who does not know the truth falls into falsehood. We ask Allah for safety and well-being.