Who are the scholars you advise the youth to benefit from?

Question:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, those who claim to be part of the da'wah (calling to Islam) have multiplied in these days, which requires knowing and identifying the true scholars of knowledge to guide the ummah (Muslim community) and its youth to the methodology of truth and correctness. So who are the scholars you advise the youth to benefit from, follow their recorded lessons and activities, take knowledge from, and turn to in difficult matters, new occurrences, and times when trials are at their peak?

Answer:
Calling to Allah is a necessity, and religion was established upon calling and jihad, upon calling and jihad after beneficial knowledge. Knowledge is the foundation; beneficial knowledge is the foundation, then calling, then jihad, except for . Faith means knowledge of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), His names and attributes, and worshipping Him. Righteous deeds are a branch of beneficial knowledge, because deeds must be founded on knowledge. So calling to Allah, enjoining good and forbidding evil, and mutual advice among Muslims is a required matter, but not everyone is fit to perform these functions. These matters are not performed by anyone and everyone; they are not performed by any one of the people, because they are heavy and important matters that only one qualified to perform them can enter and carry out. And the calamity today is that the door of da'wah has become a wide door through which everyone enters and claims to be in da'wah. One may be ignorant and not know how to call, so he corrupts more than he fixes. One may be zealous and take matters with haste and recklessness, so that more evils arise from his action than what he treated, and he did not intend to fix.
In fact, some of those who claim to be in da'wah may have desires and objectives to which they call and wish to achieve at the expense of the da'wah. Perhaps some of them want to mislead people and confuse the ideas of the youth in the name of da'wah and in the name of zeal for the religion, while they intend the opposite: they intend to deviate the youth and deviate the ideas of the young. They frighten the youth from their society, from their rulers, and from their scholars. They come to them by the way of advice and by the way of da'wah in appearance, and this is their intention in reality, like the condition of the hypocrites in this ummah who want evil for people in the form of good. I give an example of this in the people of the Mosque of Harm. The people of the Mosque of Harm built a mosque in appearance and in the outward view for people that it was a mosque and a righteous deed, so they asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to pray in it so that people would be attracted to it and he would approve of it. But Allah knew the intentions of its people that they wanted thereby to harm the Muslims and wanted thereby to harm the Mosque of Quba, the first mosque founded on piety, the group of Muslims who used to gather in the Mosque of Quba. So Allah made clear to His Messenger the plot of these people, and He revealed His saying, the Exalted: . So He made clear to us from this great story that not everyone who appears with good and righteous deeds is sincere in what he does, but rather he intends behind that other matters opposite to what appears. So those who claim to be in da'wah today include misleaders; they include misleaders who want to deviate the youth, who want to turn people away from the true religion, who want to divide the group of Muslims, who want to fall into fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). So Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) warned us of these people: . So the criterion is not the claim or what appears, but the criterion is the realities and the consequences of matters. The people who claim to be in da'wah must be looked into: where did they study, where did they take their knowledge from, where did they grow up, and what is their 'aqidah (creed)? And their deeds and their effects on people are looked into: what good did they produce, and what reform resulted from their deeds?
You must study their conditions before being deceived by their words and appearances. This is a necessity, especially in this time in which the callers of fitnah have multiplied. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described these callers of fitnah as a people who speak with our tongues, a people of our skin who speak with our tongues. And when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the fitnah, he said: "Callers at the gates of Hell; whoever obeys them, they will throw them into it." He named them callers, callers at the gates of Hell; whoever obeys them, they will throw them into it. So we must be alert to this and not gather in the da'wah everyone and everything, and everyone who says "I am" and this is a group calling to Allah. It is necessary to look at the reality of the matter.
It is necessary to look at the reality of individuals and groups, for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has qualified the call—calling to Allah, calling to the path of Allah. He the Exalted said: "Call to Allah," which indicates that there are people who call to other than Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) informed us that the disbelievers call to the Fire (Glorified and Exalted is He) and not . The callers must be looked into regarding their affairs. Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) said regarding this verse : "In it is sincerity, for many people only call to themselves and do not call to Allah (Mighty and Majestic)." Yes. I am tasked with the noble one.