What is your opinion of some of the young men who leave their studies and work on the pretext that there are some wrongdoings, and who claim to be people of hadith? Is their action the action of the people of hadith from the righteous predecessors?

The questioner : He says, "What is your opinion of some of the young men who leave their studies and work on the pretext that there are some wrongdoings, and who claim to be people of hadith? Is their action the action of the people of hadith from the righteous predecessors?"

The Shaykh : In the question, there is something that did not appear to me, unless the questioner intends that all the studies held today in all the schools and all the universities contain a violation of the Shari'ah. This is a statement that is refuted against its owner, because the reality, and praise be to Allah, still contains much good, as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated: . As for if the questioner intends by his words or by his question to point to what exists in some universities of the mixing of the two sexes, women with men and men with women, then this is the truth, and there is no way to deny that it is a wrongdoing, because separating men and women is a Sunnah that the Muslims received from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), generation after generation. So you know his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) separated and distinguished between men and women in the best of places, which are the mosques, as came in the authentic hadith: that he was asked (peace and blessings be upon him) about the best of places and the worst of places, so he waited until Jibril (peace be upon him) came down to him and said: . If the best of places are the mosques, as he said (peace and blessings be upon him), and yet he distinguished between men and women in them, then there is no doubt that such a separation should be in those universities, even more so and more so, because those universities, the least that can be said about them, no matter how upright they are in their programs and curricula, are not the best of places, because the Prophet said: "Indeed, the best of places are the mosques." So they are more deserving that it be part of their program to separate men and women, if the questioner is pointing to this.
"So this is the truth, there is no obscurity in it *** So leave me alone regarding the intentions of the people of the path".
Yes.

The questioner : A note: In our study here in the Kingdom, there is not this mixing that you mentioned.

The Shaykh : This is what they deny, and this is what I pointed to, that the Ummah is still in goodness. Therefore, the question, if it is taken at its surface, is an error, or else there is something in the questioner's mind that he did not express well. Therefore, the answer, within the limits of what we heard, is what you heard.

The questioner : It seems to me that I understood it to be an exaggeration from some of the young men of this awakening. They left work and turned to the Sacred House of Allah, and I met some of them in some of the previous Ramadans.

The Shaykh : Do they not study in the mosques?

The questioner : They do not study and they do not work.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is a deviation from the correct Sunnah, of which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) — I remember now two hadiths on this occasion —: the first is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): : in a house of the houses of Allah, in a mosque of the mosques that were built for Allah, .
And the other hadith: :
And what do you know, O worker who earns by the toil of your right hand and the sweat of your brow, where you blame your Muslim brother for not working as you do, because he is occupied with seeking knowledge? He said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): . So seeking knowledge, as we hinted in a hadith mentioned previously: . And now, answer the mu'adhdhin.