What is your guidance for a student of knowledge who memorizes the Qur'an, the two Sahihs, and many texts, but has not been successful in da'wah (calling others to Islam)?
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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: I am a student of knowledge who memorizes many texts in tawhid (the oneness of Allah), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), and hadith. I also memorize the entire Qur'an, and Allah has granted me the success to recently complete the memorization of the two Sahihs, and I have read through many issues with the scholars. He says: I am a student of knowledge who memorizes many texts in tawhid, fiqh, and hadith. Praise be to Allah. I also memorize the entire Qur'an, and Allah has granted me the success to complete the memorization of the two Sahihs, and I have read through many issues with the scholars. However, whenever I want to deliver some lessons, I find a lack of competence in myself and I hesitate a lot, even though I have been seeking knowledge for about twelve years. I ask your honor for guidance, and what should be done in this matter?
Answer:
This is a good thing, and it is a blessing from Allah to memorize the Qur'an and the components of the Sunnah and the authentic hadiths. But my brother, memorization is not enough. One must understand, and one must gain deep knowledge of the religion of Allah from the scholars. If you do not memorize anything until you understand it, that is better. You should proceed with memorization and understanding together, step by step. As some of the Companions said, "We did not move past ten verses until we learned their meanings and acted upon them." He said, "So we memorized both the knowledge and the action." This means that you are working with electricity.
First, and then you want to gain deep knowledge in them after you finish. This is not a successful method. A successful method is that you memorize little by little, and you do not move on to anything until you have understood and memorized it, whether from the Qur'an or the Sunnah. This is the correct method of learning. So what is required of you is that you review your memorized texts and recite them to one of the scholars or to a group of scholars, each scholar or each expert in one of these disciplines, and you proceed with him little by little in memorization and understanding. This is the correct method.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. As for the issue of speaking and delivering lessons, this is not an easy matter. The current issue is about qualification and confirmation. As for the issue of conveying and calling to Allah, this is something you can do later, after you become qualified and the information is established for you. As for now, you have memorized these texts, but your mind is confused because you have not studied them with their meanings, their fiqh, and their schools of thought, so you must be confused.
Because you did not take the knowledge in the correct, methodical way, proceeding little by little. For example, in hadith, you started with the abridgments. If you memorized al-Bulugh first and read it to one of the scholars, then memorized 'Umdat al-Ahkam, which is taken from the two Sahihs, and read it to one of the scholars, and then after that you memorize in the hadith compendiums, and you progress little by little. In fiqh, you start with the etiquette of the mosque and prayer, then the text of al-Dalil, then the text of al-Zad, and so on, you progress from the abridgments to the intermediate texts to the extensive texts. So knowledge is not taken all at once, but it is taken little by little. And you do not take it upon yourself or on your own account, but you take it from the people of knowledge. There is no harm in taking grammar from this scholar, taking usul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence) from this scholar, taking fiqh from the second, and taking tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) from the fourth, and so on.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: I am a student of knowledge who memorizes many texts in tawhid (the oneness of Allah), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), and hadith. I also memorize the entire Qur'an, and Allah has granted me the success to recently complete the memorization of the two Sahihs, and I have read through many issues with the scholars. He says: I am a student of knowledge who memorizes many texts in tawhid, fiqh, and hadith. Praise be to Allah. I also memorize the entire Qur'an, and Allah has granted me the success to complete the memorization of the two Sahihs, and I have read through many issues with the scholars. However, whenever I want to deliver some lessons, I find a lack of competence in myself and I hesitate a lot, even though I have been seeking knowledge for about twelve years. I ask your honor for guidance, and what should be done in this matter?
Answer:
This is a good thing, and it is a blessing from Allah to memorize the Qur'an and the components of the Sunnah and the authentic hadiths. But my brother, memorization is not enough. One must understand, and one must gain deep knowledge of the religion of Allah from the scholars. If you do not memorize anything until you understand it, that is better. You should proceed with memorization and understanding together, step by step. As some of the Companions said, "We did not move past ten verses until we learned their meanings and acted upon them." He said, "So we memorized both the knowledge and the action." This means that you are working with electricity.
First, and then you want to gain deep knowledge in them after you finish. This is not a successful method. A successful method is that you memorize little by little, and you do not move on to anything until you have understood and memorized it, whether from the Qur'an or the Sunnah. This is the correct method of learning. So what is required of you is that you review your memorized texts and recite them to one of the scholars or to a group of scholars, each scholar or each expert in one of these disciplines, and you proceed with him little by little in memorization and understanding. This is the correct method.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. As for the issue of speaking and delivering lessons, this is not an easy matter. The current issue is about qualification and confirmation. As for the issue of conveying and calling to Allah, this is something you can do later, after you become qualified and the information is established for you. As for now, you have memorized these texts, but your mind is confused because you have not studied them with their meanings, their fiqh, and their schools of thought, so you must be confused.
Because you did not take the knowledge in the correct, methodical way, proceeding little by little. For example, in hadith, you started with the abridgments. If you memorized al-Bulugh first and read it to one of the scholars, then memorized 'Umdat al-Ahkam, which is taken from the two Sahihs, and read it to one of the scholars, and then after that you memorize in the hadith compendiums, and you progress little by little. In fiqh, you start with the etiquette of the mosque and prayer, then the text of al-Dalil, then the text of al-Zad, and so on, you progress from the abridgments to the intermediate texts to the extensive texts. So knowledge is not taken all at once, but it is taken little by little. And you do not take it upon yourself or on your own account, but you take it from the people of knowledge. There is no harm in taking grammar from this scholar, taking usul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence) from this scholar, taking fiqh from the second, and taking tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) from the fourth, and so on.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما توجيهكم لطالب العلم الذي يحفظ القرآن والصحيحين والكثير من المتون ولكنه لم يوفق في الدعوة؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
