A statement regarding who are the scholars upon whom the Islamic community relies.

The Shaykh : In summary: Two things are necessary, and carrying them out requires thousands upon thousands of Muslim scholars scattered throughout the Islamic world. These are true scholars, not as one of the witty men in Damascus told me. Once, in a spirit of joking and banter, while I was mentioning with regret the state of some scholars, he said to me: "O Shaykh, these are of two types: a type who are scholars who act upon their knowledge, and a type who are workers who are scholars." That is, he is not a scholar, but he acts as if he is a scholar, and his state is the state of scholars. So scholars are of two types: a type who are truly scholars and act upon their knowledge, and they say in some books:
"And a scholar who has knowledge but does not act upon it — or will not act upon it — *** is tormented before the worshippers of idols"
And they took this from his saying (peace be upon him), which is authentic in Muslim: The hadith is long, and the intention is merely to remind.
The second type, this first type, it is through people like them that the community succeeds, and through people like them that the community rises and understands its religion, and then Allah grants them victory. We do not mean that we should not engage in political work, but we mean that we should not...
Without a doubt, they differ, and this difference is stated in the Noble Qur'an that disagreement and conflict are a cause of defeat, and this is known from the story of the Battle of Hunayn and others.
The point is the second type; the first type is the one upon whom the community rises, a scholar who truly acts upon his knowledge. As for the other type, which is the larger type, they are workers who are scholars, claiming knowledge, and this is the reality of his saying (peace be upon him). This is in fact one of the signs of the prophethood of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and the unseen proofs that Allah revealed to him, and it is his saying (peace be upon him): These are the ones about whom that wise poet said: "Workers who are scholars" Therefore, today you hear strange fatwas that you did not hear before, and this is also from what the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed us of in some hadiths, that people will come who will tell you hadiths that you did not know and did not hear, neither you nor your fathers. For example, who among you has not heard fatwas from those who are presumed to have knowledge permitting a type of riba (usury or interest)? Who among you has not heard of the permission of what they call by a name other than its true name: the "charitable lottery"? If these people knew what they were saying and were advising the community, they would have removed the word "charitable lottery" and placed in its place, as a substitute, the word "charitable gambling," and then they would be exposed. The forbidden charitable gambling, explicitly prohibited by the text of the Qur'an; the lottery is gambling, it is gambling. They misled people with the word "charity," the charitable lottery for the benefit of the poor and the needy. Then what did it become? A general issue, not limited to the poor and the needy, but people began dealing openly in riba (usury or interest) in the sight of everyone because of fatwas stating that if the rate is small, there is no harm in it. They take ignorant heads, and when they are asked, they issue fatwas without knowledge, so they go astray and lead others astray.
We ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to guide us to understand the Book of our Lord in light of the Sunnah of our Prophet and the methodology of our righteous predecessors, and to inspire us to act upon it so that we may deserve the victory of Allah, and to save us from this distress that has befallen the Muslims in all lands of Islam. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the Responsive, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.