Seeking knowledge before memorizing the Qur'an
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Some people ask, Honorable Shaykh: Is it permissible to seek knowledge from the shaykhs before memorizing the Qur'an? What is your opinion on this practice?
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with it. It is not a condition that one must memorize the Qur'an before seeking knowledge. Memorizing the Qur'an is part of seeking knowledge. If he has not memorized the Qur'an, he should still seek knowledge and strive in seeking it, even if he has not memorized the Qur'an. Memorizing the Qur'an is part of seeking knowledge. If it is easy for him to memorize the Qur'an, that is good; otherwise, it is not a condition for seeking knowledge. Seeking knowledge means understanding the Qur'an, even if one only looks at it, and understanding the Sunnah, memorizing whatever hadiths are easy to memorize, and asking about what is difficult. This is the path of knowledge. Yes.
Some people ask, Honorable Shaykh: Is it permissible to seek knowledge from the shaykhs before memorizing the Qur'an? What is your opinion on this practice?
Answer:
There is nothing wrong with it. It is not a condition that one must memorize the Qur'an before seeking knowledge. Memorizing the Qur'an is part of seeking knowledge. If he has not memorized the Qur'an, he should still seek knowledge and strive in seeking it, even if he has not memorized the Qur'an. Memorizing the Qur'an is part of seeking knowledge. If it is easy for him to memorize the Qur'an, that is good; otherwise, it is not a condition for seeking knowledge. Seeking knowledge means understanding the Qur'an, even if one only looks at it, and understanding the Sunnah, memorizing whatever hadiths are easy to memorize, and asking about what is difficult. This is the path of knowledge. Yes.
Source
واجب أهل العلم — islamhouse.com (1:20:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.