Advice for the Beginner Student of Knowledge in Choosing Books
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The questioner : Your Eminence the Shaykh! I love you for the sake of Allah. I am a beginner student of knowledge, so what beneficial books and scientific texts do you advise me to study?
The Shaykh : And he says beginner, not an innovator?
The questioner : Not an innovator.
The Shaykh : Who is the innovator from Hind? Okay. I advise you, if you have a specific Shaykh, to follow his guidance and direction, because the Shaykh knows how the student can bear the reception of knowledge. But if you do not have a Shaykh, I suggest that you begin the sciences with their summaries. In grammar, start with al-Ajrumiyyah; in tawhid (the oneness of Allah), start with the book of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab; in 'aqidah, start with al-Wasitiyyah; in hadith, start with al-Umdah, Umdah al-Ahkam; in fiqh, start with Zad al-Mustaqim. And so on, you begin with the summaries first, because we know: if a person wants to climb to the roof, does he jump to the last step, or does he start from the first?
He starts from the first, step by step, until he matures. And I say, warning the beginner student of knowledge, that he should not review the lengthy books, especially those that mention scholarly disagreement and discussion therein. For example, a student goes and reviews al-Mughni or Sharh al-Muhadhdhab; that is a mistake, because if he does this, matters will become confused for him and his mind will be scattered. So let him focus on a specific thing, and then when his knowledge expands, he returns to the long books.
The Shaykh : And he says beginner, not an innovator?
The questioner : Not an innovator.
The Shaykh : Who is the innovator from Hind? Okay. I advise you, if you have a specific Shaykh, to follow his guidance and direction, because the Shaykh knows how the student can bear the reception of knowledge. But if you do not have a Shaykh, I suggest that you begin the sciences with their summaries. In grammar, start with al-Ajrumiyyah; in tawhid (the oneness of Allah), start with the book of Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab; in 'aqidah, start with al-Wasitiyyah; in hadith, start with al-Umdah, Umdah al-Ahkam; in fiqh, start with Zad al-Mustaqim. And so on, you begin with the summaries first, because we know: if a person wants to climb to the roof, does he jump to the last step, or does he start from the first?
He starts from the first, step by step, until he matures. And I say, warning the beginner student of knowledge, that he should not review the lengthy books, especially those that mention scholarly disagreement and discussion therein. For example, a student goes and reviews al-Mughni or Sharh al-Muhadhdhab; that is a mistake, because if he does this, matters will become confused for him and his mind will be scattered. So let him focus on a specific thing, and then when his knowledge expands, he returns to the long books.
Source
لقاء بمسجد إسكان الطلاب بجامعة الإمام - 28-11-1418 هـ - 2 — archive.org (9:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.