The State of Knowledge Circles in Mosques Before and After Formal Education
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Many questions have been received. We mention among them: Your Eminence the Shaykh (may Allah preserve him). Given your long life, may Allah keep you in His obedience, and your knowledge of the educational conditions in our country, were the knowledge circles in the mosques of our country numerous and strong to the same degree, or did they vary according to the time? And are they in this time as they were before formal education?
Answer:
Yes, they vary. Knowledge circles vary according to the teacher, the breadth of his knowledge, and his care for the students. The broader the teacher’s knowledge and the greater his care for the students, the more students gather around him. Our Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, and before him his uncle Shaykh Abdullah ibn Abdul Latif (may Allah have mercy on him), and likewise the distinguished scholar Shaykh Sa’d ibn Hamd ibn Utaiq (may Allah have mercy on him). In the past decades—the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth—there were extensive knowledge circles in Riyadh for these Shaykhs: Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Latif ibn Abdul Rahman (may Allah have mercy on him), Shaykh Hamd ibn Faris (may Allah have mercy on him), and several other Shaykhs, including Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mahmud. They had great circles and cared for the students. The students multiplied among them because of their care for the lessons, their preparation of the lessons, their guidance of the students, their posing of beneficial questions to them, and their testing them from time to time. Therefore, the students increased. And now, praise be to Allah, there are knowledge circles, praise be to Allah, in Riyadh and outside Riyadh that are beneficial. There are beneficial circles with a group of scholars who possess great good, and praise be to Allah. So every era has its share. But in the early period, there was little formal education. Now, formal education has expanded in the universities—seven universities, praise be to Allah—and many institutes and many schools. Formal education has expanded. Therefore, the circles have decreased because of the expansion of formal education in schools, institutes, and universities. So this exists and this exists, praise be to Allah. But now, with the existence of universities and institutes, the students are more numerous, the means of education are more numerous, and the incentives are more numerous. Yes.
Many questions have been received. We mention among them: Your Eminence the Shaykh (may Allah preserve him). Given your long life, may Allah keep you in His obedience, and your knowledge of the educational conditions in our country, were the knowledge circles in the mosques of our country numerous and strong to the same degree, or did they vary according to the time? And are they in this time as they were before formal education?
Answer:
Yes, they vary. Knowledge circles vary according to the teacher, the breadth of his knowledge, and his care for the students. The broader the teacher’s knowledge and the greater his care for the students, the more students gather around him. Our Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, and before him his uncle Shaykh Abdullah ibn Abdul Latif (may Allah have mercy on him), and likewise the distinguished scholar Shaykh Sa’d ibn Hamd ibn Utaiq (may Allah have mercy on him). In the past decades—the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth—there were extensive knowledge circles in Riyadh for these Shaykhs: Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Latif ibn Abdul Rahman (may Allah have mercy on him), Shaykh Hamd ibn Faris (may Allah have mercy on him), and several other Shaykhs, including Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mahmud. They had great circles and cared for the students. The students multiplied among them because of their care for the lessons, their preparation of the lessons, their guidance of the students, their posing of beneficial questions to them, and their testing them from time to time. Therefore, the students increased. And now, praise be to Allah, there are knowledge circles, praise be to Allah, in Riyadh and outside Riyadh that are beneficial. There are beneficial circles with a group of scholars who possess great good, and praise be to Allah. So every era has its share. But in the early period, there was little formal education. Now, formal education has expanded in the universities—seven universities, praise be to Allah—and many institutes and many schools. Formal education has expanded. Therefore, the circles have decreased because of the expansion of formal education in schools, institutes, and universities. So this exists and this exists, praise be to Allah. But now, with the existence of universities and institutes, the students are more numerous, the means of education are more numerous, and the incentives are more numerous. Yes.
Source
رحلتي مع الكتاب — islamhouse.com (29:11)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.