What is your opinion on abridging lengthy books, and what is the criterion for doing so?
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Question:
The questioner: What is your opinion on abridging lengthy books of tafsir, fiqh, and 'aqidah, and what is the criterion for one who wants to do that?
Answer:
One who has the scholarly capability to abridge, and whose abridgment is beneficial and makes the matter closer to understanding, may abridge, but it must be done with knowledge and understanding. This is because some abridgers delete important matters because they do not know them. Therefore, the abridger must have insight and a comprehensive grasp of the book from beginning to end. He takes from it what is good to take. As for the ignorant person, he may delete important matters from the book and bring in unimportant ones, as happens with some pretenders to knowledge. Only scholars are capable of this.
The questioner: What is your opinion on abridging lengthy books of tafsir, fiqh, and 'aqidah, and what is the criterion for one who wants to do that?
Answer:
One who has the scholarly capability to abridge, and whose abridgment is beneficial and makes the matter closer to understanding, may abridge, but it must be done with knowledge and understanding. This is because some abridgers delete important matters because they do not know them. Therefore, the abridger must have insight and a comprehensive grasp of the book from beginning to end. He takes from it what is good to take. As for the ignorant person, he may delete important matters from the book and bring in unimportant ones, as happens with some pretenders to knowledge. Only scholars are capable of this.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [1434- 4717] ما رأيكم في اختصار الكتب المطولة، وما ضابط ذلك؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.