Reading from books of unknown creed by a student of knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
If a student of knowledge finds Islamic books but does not know the creed of their authors, is it permissible for him to read from them, and then go to the scholars and ask them about whatever is unclear to him, or should he leave them out entirely?
Answer:
The discussion concerns what the books contain. If the books contain correct knowledge, do not look at who authored them. But if they contain falsehood, stay away from them, even if the author is a righteous man; do not accept them. The discussion is about the content of the books.
If a student of knowledge finds Islamic books but does not know the creed of their authors, is it permissible for him to read from them, and then go to the scholars and ask them about whatever is unclear to him, or should he leave them out entirely?
Answer:
The discussion concerns what the books contain. If the books contain correct knowledge, do not look at who authored them. But if they contain falsehood, stay away from them, even if the author is a righteous man; do not accept them. The discussion is about the content of the books.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، الفصل الأول في النية في الطهارة والصلاة — islamhouse.com (1:07:42)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.