The ruling on the phrase: "Whoever takes the book as his shaykh"
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
What is the opinion of Shaykh Salih? The questioner, Abu 'Abdullah, asks about this phrase that is on the tongues of many students of knowledge: "Whoever takes the book as his shaykh has strayed from the truth."
Answer:
Yes, the phrase is correct. A person does not learn knowledge from books and reading alone; if he does, that is misguidance. The books may be incorrect or contain errors, or he may not understand them. They may be correct, but he does not understand them. It is necessary to receive knowledge from the scholars and to read the books under the guidance of the scholars. This is the correct way to seek knowledge. Yes.
What is the opinion of Shaykh Salih? The questioner, Abu 'Abdullah, asks about this phrase that is on the tongues of many students of knowledge: "Whoever takes the book as his shaykh has strayed from the truth."
Answer:
Yes, the phrase is correct. A person does not learn knowledge from books and reading alone; if he does, that is misguidance. The books may be incorrect or contain errors, or he may not understand them. They may be correct, but he does not understand them. It is necessary to receive knowledge from the scholars and to read the books under the guidance of the scholars. This is the correct way to seek knowledge. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/089 — archive.org (12:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.