A discussion on students of knowledge writing papers and books before they have matured

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. I spoke about this advice... but it is not beneficial...

The Shaykh : No, what?

The questioner : It is not beneficial for students of knowledge. First, you are a capable scholar.

The Shaykh: I did not understand.

Another questioner : He says, "Do not compare a student of knowledge to yourself, O Shaykh."

Another questioner : It is upon you, meaning you.

The Shaykh : I do not compare.

The questioner : I know.

The Shaykh : I do not compare students of knowledge to myself, nor do I compare myself to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.

The questioner : Please allow me to finish my statement.

The Shaykh : Please go ahead. Yes, that is right.

The questioner : Perhaps you, O Shaykh—may Allah reward you with good—are, in terms of knowledge and practical application of this knowledge, in a position where you do not find... someone who can, for example, correct you, or guide you, or offer you some advice such that you can distinguish whether your writing is worthy of publication and presentation, or whether it needs to be reconsidered. Whereas we, especially students of knowledge, have those who surpass us in knowledge, so we give them the writing to... If they advise us to keep these works and reconsider them, we do so. And if they advise us to publish these works and correct any errors that may be in them, then we proceed from... This is a practice followed among the hadith scholars. Imam al-Bukhari presented his book to Imam Ahmad, and Imam al-Tirmidhi presented his book to al-Bukhari and others. So this is a practice followed among hadith scholars: when a student of knowledge, or even a scholar, writes something, he presents it to his peers, his teachers, and those he trusts in their knowledge and integrity. If they find errors in it that can be corrected, and after correction the work becomes suitable for publication, the benefit of publication outweighs any minor slips, omissions, or errors that may be rectified in later editions or corrected later. Or if they advise him to keep the work, or to disregard the topic, then in that case, this student of knowledge has not benefited from his opinion, and his goal is not merely to put the book on the market to become famous or for people to know him. This is the first point.
The second point: your statement—may Allah protect you—that you kept your book, and that if you had published it, it would have benefited many students of knowledge. I have no doubt about this, but the scale returns to you, and you weigh the benefit against the harm. If the benefit outweighs the harm, I ask you to print the book, and you will certainly do this. And if the harm outweighs the benefit due to any misconceptions that may confuse the ideas of students of knowledge and harm them more than they benefit them, or harm the author more than they benefit him, then in this case, you keep the book. Perhaps Allah—Glorified and Exalted is He—will facilitate its refinement and facilitate this, meaning rewriting it again. This is what I aim for in what I did with my book.

The Shaykh : Are you finished?

The questioner : Wait, in what I did regarding my book, I presented it to those I trust in their integrity, knowledge, advice, and love... and I presented it to those who surpass me in knowledge. They pointed out errors to me and corrected some things. When I completed it, they asked me to publish the book. So in this, I did not innovate in knowledge, but I followed the practice of the hadith scholars. If there were errors in this, I certainly love for my errors to be clarified and for me to turn away from them, even if this leads to burning the entire book. But this does not mean that I do not publish anything, even if those I trust in their knowledge and advice advise me to publish the book. A student of knowledge will not learn except through trial. As long as you demand that we write and keep our works in our houses, and you do not look at them, nor does anyone else from the scholars look at them and correct us, we will never learn. And the one who wants to enter research must begin with the shallow and the weak. This is what I understand, and I may be wrong. And I am waiting for clarification?

The Shaykh : Okay; have you finished your statement?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay; what did you understand from me when you started asking me if you had observations or inquiries? What did I say to you? Because this speech you are making now revolves around two issues: one is that a student of knowledge writes and presents it to someone more knowledgeable than him, okay? And the second is that he writes, prints, and publishes. This was in your speech just now; is that not so?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : First, he writes a work.

The questioner : He presents it.

The Shaykh : Please allow me, I am saying the opposite now: he writes a work and then publishes it to the people. This is what your speech is now. Your speech indicates that this beginner, and in my expression, the one who is shallow, writes and then presents his work to the scholars. If they agree, or if they find some observations or corrections, they present it to him, or they present it to him, and then he publishes. So now, your speech is not contrary to my statement, which is...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, we need to know what my statement is and what your statement is. We do not rush to pick the fruit before it ripens. So I say: I told you, and I tell others, and I still say, if you do not have a prior record of writing in scientific and hadith topics that people benefit from when they look at them, I do not advise you to engage in criticism; because the critic must be discerning, and it is supposed that this is a beginner in seeking knowledge, so his criticism will be crude and immature. For this reason, I say: write for yourself and leave it to your Lord. One day you will be struck by what I was struck by: that this book has many benefits for me, but it is not suitable for publication due to the many errors that I myself rectify in myself. You are now addressing this deficiency in a way that is at the expense of others. You say, "We present this book to the scholars, and if they find errors in it—may Allah reward them—they correct them, and then the book remains as if it is free from any error." And it will not be so; it is necessary, because correction and weakening, as we have said often, is a relative matter. So this book is published. Okay; what will this book do in the Muslim community first? And is it possible for the scholars to devote themselves to everyone who writes a paper, and to respond to the advice of the advisor that you should not rush to publish what you have written, because you are still like the shallow, and you only wrote for yourselves? No, he... to publish; in order to publish, he presents his work to the scholars. Okay; you may think, for example, that I am among the scholars, but I am not, as I told you in a previous conversation, I do not have the free time to scratch my head, and I do not have the scientific matters that open up for me the opportunity to come and take your book and the book of Zayd, 'Amr, and Bakr, and so on, and present to them what? Observations? So that the book matures and is published. If this were possible, this would be the exact right thing, but this is not possible—may Allah bless you. Then I will tell you something regarding what you know that you presented this book =
-- And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings, and upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings, please go ahead --
= I said you published, you presented this book, they corrected some corrections for you; do you see that those you presented it to are, at least within your circle, more mature in knowledge than you, or could they be at your level? If they are...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, I am just asking. If they are above your academic level, my third question returns: Do they have books they wrote and presented to the people, and did they find acceptance among the scholars or not? It is not enough for us to say, "By Allah, we presented the book to Zayd, Bakr, and 'Amr, and they sent some observations." Because no book is published without some other person finding observations on it. So I am the one... the speech is that if you write a book and present it to the specialized scholars in this field, and they correct it for you, and they permit—using the hadith terminology—they permit you to publish it, then this is not... But I say now, is this a reality? Not just for you, but the reality now in the Muslim world.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No... you must know the reality, you must know the reality in order to address it.

The questioner : I did.

The Shaykh : Allow me to tell you the bottom line: I now find myself compelled, not as a permanent habit, but whenever a note comes to me, I place it in the section related to the book. If it is requested that this book be republished and printed again, I study these notes, take what I find to be coherent, benefit from it, and add it to the book. I may sometimes point to the person who was the cause of this correction. The matter may be broader than that, in which case I am content with a brief reference to the end. Now, I am submerged in these messages that come to me from every direction and every side. Do you see that I am not proceeding on my path?
We receive some writings, some of which have been composed and published, and some of which are still typed on a typewriter. I have no doubt that any writing that is written, I will benefit from it, without a doubt. It is enough that some people remind me that you say such and such in this book, and such and such in that book. This is a good thing. So either my answer, in what is available for me to republish, is that this is correct, but the later statement abrogates the earlier one, or the later statement is a mistake. This benefits me, but publishing all these notes does not benefit the community. Let us assume, for example, that a person criticized me in fifty places in a large or small book.

The questioner : Five of them were correct.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : Five of them were correct.

The Shaykh : Five of them were correct. So what did the Islamic scholar gain? He was confused by the forty-five, his opinion was confused regarding the forty-five, and he relied on the five. And when does he rely on them? When I agree. But until I agree, the status of this author in the Islamic world may be that he is more knowledgeable than me, but he is not famous in the Islamic world. So this criticism, and this, and this, will create confusion whose outcome only Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) knows. This is if it is published in a manner contrary to what you agreed with me on earlier. But when it is subjected to the pen of verification and refinement by a group of scholars, then... no one can deny any of this. But the reality today is not this, and this is what I want to circle around.

The questioner : Allow me, also, after this author has presented this work to a group of scholars and it has been refined and then published, something of what I mentioned may happen, but what I fear is...

The Shaykh : What do you fear? If it is...

The questioner : Wait, these writings should not be based on emotions; they are for students of hadith knowledge.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, it cannot be contained; we must speak.

The questioner : Let me finish.

The Shaykh : No problem, but we must speak about topics that are realistic, not theoretical. Because the book is now being published, can you contain its publication to a specific class? You cannot.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... If we want to speak about matters that are as clear as the sun at midday, and say: No, it is possible to contain the publication of the book, and it is printed, and the merchants trade in this book, and yet we say it is possible to contain a book to a specific class; this is impossible. Nevertheless, please, you remain, explain how it is possible?

Another questioner : ... .

The questioner : Well done. And therefore, every level of students of knowledge will select what suits them from the books. Now, the books that focus on these detailed, deep discussions—whether this hadith is good, weak, or authentic—do not attract all students of knowledge, nor do they attract all readers, but rather they attract those for whom this matter is relevant and who have the capacity to understand. If one of the students of knowledge who cannot understand these matters takes it up... then, as you mentioned the example you just gave; if a student of knowledge criticized you in fifty hadiths, and then this work was presented to a group of scholars, and they worked... on correcting the errors in it...

The Shaykh : I did not say that—May Allah reward you.

The questioner : No, let me give another example.

The Shaykh : No, but you are saying as I said, and I did not say that.

The questioner : In... fifty.

The Shaykh : Yes, I did not say that this book was looked at by scholars and refined. I gave, for example, that now I have dozens of responses, let us say, but these responses were not presented to anyone. Rather, one person had some thoughts and ideas, went and recorded them, submitted them to the printer, and published them in the world. So now the world has the idea that here, so-and-so criticized Al-Albani in fifty hadiths, and there are twenty-five hadiths repeated, and so on. And in the end, because this man is a beginner and did not present his book to the scholars as you mentioned earlier, and we said this is a good plan, but rather it was what came to his mind while he was still a novice—I repeat this phrase—and then he publishes it, and the book spreads, and it falls into the hands of those who know and those who do not. But when the matter is that the book is published and presented to a group of scholars before it is printed, that is a very good thing.

The questioner : Let us assume a matter further than this; that it was presented to a group of scholars who did their utmost, and they may not be experts in hadith knowledge, but they exerted their utmost in refining the book and extracting the errors in it, and then it was published. After publication, you looked at it and found in it fifty hadiths, as you mentioned, that were criticized. After your thorough examination, only five hadiths spoke to you, and you remained of your opinion regarding the forty-five hadiths, without a doubt, as the conclusion of your examination. In this case, students of knowledge, or what I expect from students of knowledge in this case, should not be confused, but rather they should say: We have only gained insight into the forty-five hadiths.

The Shaykh : Why—May Allah reward you—why do you repeat what I am calling for, and not circle around what I am presenting to you, and say: No, I am not obligated? I told you now what the reality is. The reality in these publications, in these criticisms, is this example that you...

The questioner : The evidence is the greatest proof, O Shaykh, the... story of the finger.

The Shaykh : No problem, no problem, you are saying now that the matter is of this nature. We accept this and even call for it, but why do you turn a blind eye to the reality?

The questioner : I did not turn a blind eye.

The Shaykh : Allow me, no, yes, because when I asked you, is the reality like this? You said, I do not know. Why do you not know?

The questioner : I did not say I do not know, I was speaking about what concerns me.

The Shaykh : No, but I did not ask you about what concerns you personally; I asked you about the reality. So why, may Allah reward you, do you keep going around a point as if it were a point of disagreement, when it is not? This point is not the reality. The reality is what I am saying, and I know it better than anyone else, because the responses are not sent to you; they are sent to me. I find all kinds of strange matters where they do not distinguish between the strengthening of a hadith by additional chains and an anomalous narration. They do not know how a hadith is strengthened by the multiplicity of its routes. They do not know practically how a hasan li-ghayrihi hadith is improved: "This route contains so-and-so, and this route contains so-and-so?" As if I were ignorant of all these things, while they keep going around ideas that are already settled among the people of hadith and those who reflect upon them. So when I ask you, "What is your opinion about this reality?" you say, "I am responsible for myself." My dear friend, you are responsible for yourself, and we are not saying anything to you when you do this. But these people, whenever an idea of criticism occurs to one of them, he goes and publishes a letter and misleads the people's thoughts. Then what am I to do? I am between two things: either I cut off all my connection with the writings, some of which have been around for decades and others for less, and so on. Why? Because I am now facing many attacks from people whose scholarly levels are entirely different. What do I do? Either I engage in responding to them and writing responses to so-and-so and so-and-so, which I used to do in the past, responding to al-Habashi and so-and-so and so-and-so, and so on. But now, as age advances, these responsibilities increase, so I do not find I have the time such that whenever a letter of fifty pages comes to me, I can respond to it and show him where he was wrong here and here, and where he was right here and here. And what do I do with my scholarly projects?
But when the matter is as I mentioned, it is true that the benefit is not only for me, but for all students of knowledge. However, do not imagine that these books can be confined to one group of people to the exclusion of others. As soon as a person hears about it, especially if he has something of envy or hatred or sectarian hostility in his heart, as you know, how common this type is! "A response to Al-Albani on such-and-such." Without reading the letter, the title is enough for him regarding the person addressed. He does not need to know what is right or wrong. So he will create confusion, and it actually exists. Therefore, I always advise our brothers in Aleppo, in Damascus, in Amman: if you are beginners, write for yourselves, my brothers. Do not rush to publish. Because after you have matured, with your previous talent, and peace be upon you, you handled the matter by presenting the letter to some of the scholars of knowledge. If this is verified, the matter is good. But I, for example, if I consider myself among the scholars of knowledge, I have no objection to studying so-and-so's letter and so-and-so's letter, and writing to me a response before it is published: "You were right in such-and-such and wrong in such-and-such." So practically, the subject that the author wrote will represent his personal opinion, except for what is rare. And what you kept going around is among the rare cases. Therefore, the matter is clearer than it needs much research with the condition you mentioned. That is a good thing and benefits all people. But the reality is not so. In the name of Allah.

The questioner : Students of knowledge, as long as you have many letters, choose from them what you see to be closest to the truth. Then, if you correct the same copy without letters and without anything else, let some of the students of knowledge help you in this.

The Shaykh : And my projects, we say, "I have no free time, I am scratching my head?" You are going around something.

The questioner : This is a responsibility...

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah! My brother, what am I to do? What am I to do? I fulfill a duty that the scholars of knowledge bear witness to.

The questioner : Like orphans at the tables of the base. If you do not devote part of your time to us, who will devote themselves to us?

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you, O Shaykh. This speech is directed to a person sitting like this.

The questioner : No, we are not...

The Shaykh : As for me, with the praise and favor of Allah, my family rightly complain that they do not get their due from us. So I do not have this free time to work here and work there. So we ask Allah to grant us strength from Him.