Should a student of hadith in our time devote himself to collecting ijazahs and traveling to obtain them, or not?
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The questioner : Shaykh, some students of hadith are keen on collecting as many ijazahs as possible. You see some of them traveling to India or Pakistan, or to a shaykh among the shaykhs, knowing that he has chains of narration from authors who wrote hadiths. Do you think that devoting oneself to collecting ijazahs is something that a student of hadith should engage in, or should he engage in other matters and leave this?
The Shaykh : Rather, I see that he should not engage in this, for two reasons:
First: There is no benefit in this era to collecting ijazahs, because the time of narration through chains of narration ended long ago.
Second: There is in that what exposes this seeker of ijazahs to something that contradicts sincerity, which is the appearance that he took an ijazah from so-and-so and an ijazah from so-and-so, while he knows that these ijazahs do not raise his status in hadith if he is lowly, nor do they increase his elevation if he is elevated. And I know that if ijazahs had some value in the old days, they were given without right, like many of the certificates given today on the basis of bribery or pleading or the like. So nothing is built upon ijazahs in this time at all, except the wasting of time and the love of showing off. And it was said long ago: "The love of showing off cuts off showing off". This is my opinion regarding ijazahs.
The Shaykh : Rather, I see that he should not engage in this, for two reasons:
First: There is no benefit in this era to collecting ijazahs, because the time of narration through chains of narration ended long ago.
Second: There is in that what exposes this seeker of ijazahs to something that contradicts sincerity, which is the appearance that he took an ijazah from so-and-so and an ijazah from so-and-so, while he knows that these ijazahs do not raise his status in hadith if he is lowly, nor do they increase his elevation if he is elevated. And I know that if ijazahs had some value in the old days, they were given without right, like many of the certificates given today on the basis of bribery or pleading or the like. So nothing is built upon ijazahs in this time at all, except the wasting of time and the love of showing off. And it was said long ago: "The love of showing off cuts off showing off". This is my opinion regarding ijazahs.