The Danger of Pretending to Be a Scholar and Teaching Knowledge Without Authorization
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner, Abbas, says: Honorable Shaykh, a new phenomenon has appeared, which is the phenomenon of pretending to be a scholar among some of the youth, and their teaching without endorsement or authorization from the scholars. What is the guidance for us, may Allah reward you, in this matter?
Answer:
This is a great danger, and it is not permissible for one who does not have knowledge, and who has not been certified as knowledgeable by his sheikhs or by the well-known institutions of learning, to teach. This is because he understands things incorrectly and teaches that incorrect understanding to his students. Therefore, it is not permissible for anyone to teach except one who is proficient, who has authorization from the scholars or from the Islamic colleges. This is the one who teaches.
Based on what he knows and understands. As for a primitive person who has no information except that he reads in books or listens to tapes, he does not teach. This is a great danger, and this is what is meant by pretending to be a scholar. This has produced evil for the Ummah. The emergence of the Khawarij, their separation from the scholars, did not happen except through this method: their isolation from the scholars. Likewise, in our present time, when they isolated themselves from study and were content with reading books and reading to one another, doctrinal deviation occurred, and declaring people disbelievers occurred, and explosions occurred, may Allah protect us from what they call jihad. These are all calamities resulting from pretending to be a scholar. Also, the muftis issue fatwas without knowledge, thereby misleading people. They issue incorrect fatwas, misleading people from their religion. The danger is severe. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
This questioner, Abbas, says: Honorable Shaykh, a new phenomenon has appeared, which is the phenomenon of pretending to be a scholar among some of the youth, and their teaching without endorsement or authorization from the scholars. What is the guidance for us, may Allah reward you, in this matter?
Answer:
This is a great danger, and it is not permissible for one who does not have knowledge, and who has not been certified as knowledgeable by his sheikhs or by the well-known institutions of learning, to teach. This is because he understands things incorrectly and teaches that incorrect understanding to his students. Therefore, it is not permissible for anyone to teach except one who is proficient, who has authorization from the scholars or from the Islamic colleges. This is the one who teaches.
Based on what he knows and understands. As for a primitive person who has no information except that he reads in books or listens to tapes, he does not teach. This is a great danger, and this is what is meant by pretending to be a scholar. This has produced evil for the Ummah. The emergence of the Khawarij, their separation from the scholars, did not happen except through this method: their isolation from the scholars. Likewise, in our present time, when they isolated themselves from study and were content with reading books and reading to one another, doctrinal deviation occurred, and declaring people disbelievers occurred, and explosions occurred, may Allah protect us from what they call jihad. These are all calamities resulting from pretending to be a scholar. Also, the muftis issue fatwas without knowledge, thereby misleading people. They issue incorrect fatwas, misleading people from their religion. The danger is severe. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/182 — archive.org (14:52)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.