An example from the Shaykh's life regarding the development of a person in knowledge until he reaches maturity in it.

The Shaykh : I will give you an example of how a person's knowledge develops. First, I was like all other authors, both past and present. Whenever I saw a hadith in which a man was graded as trustworthy by Ibn Hibban, I would say, "That is it. Ibn Hibban is a huffaz (preserver of hadith) and he graded him as trustworthy, so the hadith is valid." I proceeded on this basis in *Al-Rawd al-Nadhir*. But I went a long way, and then I discovered something I had been ignorant of. What was the reason? The reason was that I did not have *Lisan al-Mizan* at that time. I did not have it, and by the grace of Allah, I was a poor man at that time. I did not have the wealth that many of our brothers have now, especially in this land, and praise be to Allah. So, and this is one of the things that contains a lesson, I would borrow books from libraries, or sometimes rent them for a few coins, because I could not afford to compile or establish a library. The point is: I did not have *Lisan al-Mizan* when I started tracing the hadiths in this book, *Al-Rawd al-Nadhir*. Then Allah granted me that I came across a copy, so I acquired it. I found that it explicitly states Ibn Hajar's rule on grading narrators as trustworthy, and that he grades unknown narrators as trustworthy. So I became alert. As you may know, I published in many of my books that the grading of Ibn Hibban as trustworthy is not relied upon, based on what Ibn Hajar and Ibn 'Abd al-Hadi said in *Al-Sarim al-Manki* and other works. I was completely convinced that Ibn Hibban was lenient in grading narrators as trustworthy. Do you see if this leniency is a consistent rule? I proceeded on this basis. But it also became clear to me that this was a mistake. I believe that everyone like me among the students of knowledge is in the same situation, but the difference is whether a person becomes alert before others or later. Finally, and perhaps you have seen this, and this was a few years ago, something formed in me that was not in many of my works in which I was more mature than I was in *Al-Rawd al-Nadhir*. I found that the grading of Ibn Hibban as trustworthy, even if he was the only one to grade him as such, and if the one he graded had narrated from a group of trustworthy narrators, I eventually found that al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi and al-Hafiz al-'Asqalani say of such a person, "He is truthful," or they say, "He is trustworthy." And thus a person matures as he continues. Whoever hastens a matter, as it is also said in the wisdom: "Whoever hastens a thing before its time is afflicted with its deprivation". And I apologize, for I may have digressed, and perhaps we have moved away from something more beneficial than what you have heard.