The Ruling on Hastening in Issuing Fatwas and the Merit of Returning to the Books of the Salaf

The questioner : Another phrase, and I leave the field to the brothers. It is a simple phrase here, O Shaykh. It is a truly great phrase by al-Shatibi, the author of *Al-Muwafaqat*. He says: "The error of the non-mujtahid is deviation. Its cause is ruling by desire, following the ambiguous, and separating from the community." He explains that one believes in his companion, or believes in himself, that he is among the people of ijtihad and that his opinion is to be relied upon. His contradiction is sometimes in a particular issue, which is the lesser, and sometimes in a general principle from the general principles of the Shari'ah and its fundamentals, whether they are from the fundamentals of beliefs or actions. You see him taking some of its particulars to demolish its generals, until he moves from them to what appears to him at first glance of his opinion, without comprehending their meanings. He does not return with the return of need to him, meaning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), nor does he return to what was narrated from him, meaning the Companions, regarding their understanding. Nor does he return to Allah and His Messenger in the matter, as Allah the Exalted said: And what drives one to this are matters: First, some desires latent in souls that lead to abandoning guidance by clear evidence. Second, lack of fairness and lack of admitting incapacity in what his knowledge has not reached. Third, ignorance of the objectives of the Shari'ah. Fourth, hastening the result of seeking knowledge, so he imagines he has reached the level of ijtihad.

The Shaykh : This is correct and is a reality in the present time. We find some of the brothers at the beginning of their seeking, and up to now they have not reached the level of correct taqlid, let alone ijtihad. We find them...
...wanting to reach the level of the mujtahid, and knowing only one hadith out of ten, then going to speak or publish bulletins or issue fatwas on matters that are wrong, and no one agrees with him. This is dangerous. Do not hasten the rank of issuing fatwas. Wait. The mufti is a reporter about Allah; he speaks about Allah.
And Allah the Exalted and Majestic has forbidden saying about Him what we do not know. So He said: Do not hasten the rank of issuing fatwas. Wait. The mufti is a reporter about Allah; he speaks about Allah. And Allah the Exalted and Majestic has forbidden saying about Him what we do not know, so He said: So speaking about Allah is either with knowledge, or with conjecture, or without knowledge and without conjecture. What is permissible of that is what is with knowledge, or with a conjecture that is permitted, such that it is predominant in the opinion of the mujtahid. The mujtahid who has reached the peak of ijtihad, it is predominant in his opinion that this hadith is authentic, or that its indication is to this meaning, for example, with a weaker possibility. So he has the right to speak about it, because this is the limit of his capacity. As for speaking and stumbling in the religion of Allah, Allah the Exalted said: "And who is more unjust than one who invents a lie about Allah to mislead people without knowledge..." As for transmitting from a scholar, that is permissible, because he did not attribute it to himself, but on the condition that he is certain.
...that the scholar said so and so, and that what the scholar said is an answer or similar to the issue he is discussing. Because sometimes he errs in the scholar's words, and sometimes the scholar may have answered about something other than what he understood, and other than what he placed the scholar's words upon. So by this, he is in error. But if he is certain that the scholar said so and so in this issue, let him say: "I heard so-and-so, or I read for so-and-so, that the ruling is so and so." Not "Shaykh Abdullah says," if someone has a question. Even though we are convinced by two words, we just beg Ibn Taymiyyah.

The questioner : Go and look for the good. It reached us and the Messenger of Allah. May Allah reward our Shaykh with all good.

The Shaykh : ...for his coming and enduring the journey. We ask Allah the Exalted and Majestic to record it in... I give you good news that the path is easy.

The questioner : Praise be to Allah. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. We record it in the scales of good deeds on the day it is presented to him. And there is a point, which the Shaykh indicated in his speech, which is the issue of the books of contemporaries. And I would like to draw attention to the issue, which is the evidence. For if the words of contemporaries are supported by evidence...

The Shaykh : ...it should be accepted, whether it is from a contemporary or from a predecessor. For the speech is only carried by what the evidence indicates. As for if the evidence does not indicate it, we have another opinion in it, O Shaykh. And Ibn Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) says: "And if the sciences are divine grants and exclusive endowments, it is not unlikely that Allah reserved for the last of this Ummah what He gave to its first." We seek refuge in Allah from envy that blocks the door of fairness and blinds to all descriptions. The intended meaning is that the issue is the issue of evidence: if it agrees, we accept it; if it disagrees, we reject it. As for it being said that the words of contemporaries are all wrong, I think that those who are writing now are all in error on this basis, and Allah knows best.
Shaykh Fahd understood my words in a way other than their intent. We did not say that the words of contemporaries are wrong; that is an error. Rather, we said that some of the ideological books were written for specific societal realities, like Sayyid Qutb when he writes, for example, on the reality in Egypt. So it is an error to apply what Sayyid...

The questioner : ...Qutb wrote to our reality in these lands. And this is a lack of wisdom. This is what I intended. Otherwise, there may be truth in the words of some. Please, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes. And if the speaker speaks about the books of the later generations, it does not mean that there is no benefit in them. But he says the benefit found in them is in the books of the predecessors. And the books of the predecessors are more blessed, more life-giving to the heart, more beneficial, and safer from error and desire. Sometimes you read a full page from the books of contemporaries and you do not benefit from it except one single benefit. While the words of the predecessors, you find them to be precise, accurate speech from the summaries of words. And there is no doubt that among the later generations there are those in whom is much good in what they wrote and in what Allah benefited the Muslims with. But that does not mean that we direct the youth to read the books of contemporaries without connecting them to what came before. Rather, we say, as Shaykh Abdullah said, we say that the first thing is to return to the original, the authentic original: the Book and the Sunnah, then the words of the Salaf. In them is goodness, blessing, and illumination of the heart that is not in the books of the later generations. Yes, yes. It is not the meaning of the absolute that we say there is no good in the books of the later generations. No, there is good in them. But returning to the books of those who came before is much better. In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.