There are some students of knowledge who rush to issue rulings on what is lawful and forbidden and who declare the renowned scholars to be in error; what is your advice to them?

The questioner : The questioner says here: There are some students of knowledge who rush to issue rulings on what is lawful and forbidden, and who declare the renowned imams to be in error; what is your advice to these people?

The Shaykh : We have spoken about this issue in the past, and we said: The wise Lawgiver has divided the Muslim community into two groups: a group of people of knowledge, and a group that needs the people of knowledge but is not among them. So He, Blessed and Exalted is He, said to the general public: . And the people of knowledge, as we all know, are the people of the Qur'an and the people of hadith who know the authentic from the weak, the general from the specific, the abrogating from the abrogated, and the like of the principles of jurisprudence and hadith. It is not permissible for a Muslim in the fourteenth century to rush into issuing a fatwa based on a hadith merely because he came across it in a book, when he may not know that it is an authentic hadith according to the method of the scholars of hadith. He may also know that he does not have the scientific preparation and knowledge of the Arabic language to clarify the objectives and meanings of the Book and the Sunnah. Therefore, whoever has not qualified himself to study knowledge and to be patient with it for many years until the sincere scholars testify that he has knowledge, and that he is able to guide people and direct them to good, it is not permissible for him. It is not permissible for anyone who thinks in his mind that he has become a person of knowledge merely because he knows some hadiths and memorizes some verses. Often we hear that some of them do not recite the Qur'anic verse correctly; rather, they make errors in it. And they do the same with the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).