How do I arrange between the college lectures and the external lectures?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : May Allah reward Your Eminence the Shaykh with the best reward, and benefit us with what we have heard. The truth is, as Your Eminence mentioned, there are a great many questions, but some may suffice for others, so we will settle for a few of them. Your Eminence the Shaykh, my question is: How do I arrange between the college lectures and the external lectures, meaning the lectures in the mosques with the scholars?
The Shaykh : I cannot answer this, because every person knows himself best. But I can say: if these lectures conflict, which do you prioritize, the regular university lectures or the lectures with the scholars?
I see that a person should strive to prioritize the university lectures, because the duration of study at the university is short if a person is successful every year, as you know now. The leadership positions in the judiciary, education, administration, and presidency are based on what? It is amazing, on the degree. And a person, no matter how much knowledge he attains, if he does not have a degree, he will not be given any weight. And if you seek knowledge at the university for this purpose, that is, in order to obtain a degree that enables you to reach leadership positions, then this is a good intention, and there is nothing in it of shirk (associating partners with Allah) in the intention. If two people were to meet, one with a university degree and the other without a degree, and the second is higher in knowledge than the first, which one is given priority in leadership positions? I answer you: the one with the degree. And in that case, I see that if they conflict, a person should prioritize university study. But if they do not conflict, meaning the study in the mosques is compatible with the study at the university, then it is clear that one can combine this and that. Moreover, study in the mosques has now become facilitated, since most of those who study in the mosques have a recorder that records their words and the students' questions and answers. So if a person takes these tapes and listens to them in his free time, it is as if he has missed nothing.
The questioner : His other question: Why do you not have a weekly lecture in the city of Riyadh?
The Shaykh : Because a river does not quench a sea. You, my man.
The Shaykh : I cannot answer this, because every person knows himself best. But I can say: if these lectures conflict, which do you prioritize, the regular university lectures or the lectures with the scholars?
I see that a person should strive to prioritize the university lectures, because the duration of study at the university is short if a person is successful every year, as you know now. The leadership positions in the judiciary, education, administration, and presidency are based on what? It is amazing, on the degree. And a person, no matter how much knowledge he attains, if he does not have a degree, he will not be given any weight. And if you seek knowledge at the university for this purpose, that is, in order to obtain a degree that enables you to reach leadership positions, then this is a good intention, and there is nothing in it of shirk (associating partners with Allah) in the intention. If two people were to meet, one with a university degree and the other without a degree, and the second is higher in knowledge than the first, which one is given priority in leadership positions? I answer you: the one with the degree. And in that case, I see that if they conflict, a person should prioritize university study. But if they do not conflict, meaning the study in the mosques is compatible with the study at the university, then it is clear that one can combine this and that. Moreover, study in the mosques has now become facilitated, since most of those who study in the mosques have a recorder that records their words and the students' questions and answers. So if a person takes these tapes and listens to them in his free time, it is as if he has missed nothing.
The questioner : His other question: Why do you not have a weekly lecture in the city of Riyadh?
The Shaykh : Because a river does not quench a sea. You, my man.
Source
لقاء بمسجد الطلاب بالمدينة الجامعية - 1 — archive.org (29:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.