The Description of the Scholars from Whom Knowledge Is Taken and the Conditions of Issuing Fatwas

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: Who are the scholars from whom religious knowledge is taken? And does one who has sought knowledge for only a few days become qualified to issue fatwas and teach?

Answer:
One may seek knowledge for a hundred years and still not be qualified to issue fatwas. It is not a matter of the length of one’s sitting; it is a matter of jurisprudence. Did he acquire jurisprudence? Did he acquire knowledge? Even if his sitting was brief, a brief sitting may yield much knowledge, and a long sitting may yield nothing. It is not about the length or brevity of the sitting; it is about jurisprudence. One does not issue a fatwa unless he has jurisprudence in his religion. He issues a fatwa only out of dire necessity, when no one better or more knowledgeable than him is available. The matter of the fatwa is serious, for it is informing about Allah that He has made such a thing lawful or forbidden.
For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim, in his book *Al-‘Ulam al-Muqayyid ‘an Rabb al-‘Alamin* (The Signs of the Qualified Ones from the Lord of the Worlds), called the muftis “the qualified ones from the Lord of the Worlds.” So the fatwa is not easy. One does not issue a fatwa unless he has knowledge of which he is certain. If he has only a guess, a conjecture, or says “so-and-so said this” or “so-and-so said that,” he does not issue a fatwa.