Questioning the Scholars and the Danger of Issuing Rulings Without Knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
I found this in the wealth of the scholars.
The Shaykh:
The otherworldly one asks, the layperson asks the scholars and takes the answer, the fatwa (scholarly legal ruling) is the remembrance of Allah if you do not know.
The questioner:
Or perhaps something is possible.
The Shaykh:
If you become unable to drive a car, you do not ride with a driver, right? Or you drive the car and say, "No, I am free, and I will..." You destroy yourself and destroy people. This is not acceptable. If this is the case in tangible worldly matters, how much more so in matters of religion, matters of creed, and matters of the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law)? These are more dangerous.
Because you may issue a fatwa (scholarly legal ruling) to a person with a wrong ruling, and he acts upon it for his whole life, and it is wrong, so you become the cause of his misguidance. Yes, or he conveys it to people and spreads it, and he remains the cause of a serious issue for many people. Therefore, they were cautious about issuing fatwas and they shunned them, even though they were qualified for them. They shunned them; each one would go to the other to be saved from its danger. Yes.
I found this in the wealth of the scholars.
The Shaykh:
The otherworldly one asks, the layperson asks the scholars and takes the answer, the fatwa (scholarly legal ruling) is the remembrance of Allah if you do not know.
The questioner:
Or perhaps something is possible.
The Shaykh:
If you become unable to drive a car, you do not ride with a driver, right? Or you drive the car and say, "No, I am free, and I will..." You destroy yourself and destroy people. This is not acceptable. If this is the case in tangible worldly matters, how much more so in matters of religion, matters of creed, and matters of the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law)? These are more dangerous.
Because you may issue a fatwa (scholarly legal ruling) to a person with a wrong ruling, and he acts upon it for his whole life, and it is wrong, so you become the cause of his misguidance. Yes, or he conveys it to people and spreads it, and he remains the cause of a serious issue for many people. Therefore, they were cautious about issuing fatwas and they shunned them, even though they were qualified for them. They shunned them; each one would go to the other to be saved from its danger. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 21 من 175 /شرح بلوغ المرام/الطهارة/نواقض الوضوء/صالح الفوزان/الحديث/كبار العلماء — youtube.com (48:22)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.