Defining the Scholar
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Your Eminence! Some confusion and mixing has occurred among some of the youth in defining who the scholar is, resulting in placing those who are not scholars, such as a ascetic, a worshipper, or a preacher, on the same level as the scholars. They made them a source for receiving, guiding, and teaching, and so on. We want you, Your Eminence, to define who the scholar is and his characteristics, and may Allah reward you with good?
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) defined the scholar in a comprehensive definition, saying:
Knowledge is knowing the guidance with its evidence, what is that, and following a scholar without knowing his evidence are equal
So the scholar is the one who knows the true knowledge with evidence. Knowledge may be broad, where a person knows most of the issues, and for what he does not know, he has the ability to know it. Or a person may be a scholar in one single issue; he takes the books, searches in them, and looks at the evidence of the scholars, and thus becomes a scholar in that issue only. From this is what came in the hadith: "Convey from me even if it is one verse" But most preachers bring evidence that has no handle, weak evidence, intending thereby to strengthen people in the required matters and warn them from the feared matters. They are lenient in the chapter of encouraging and warning. There is no doubt that there is benefit in them, but they are not qualified to have Islamic knowledge received from them, such that one relies on what they say.Unless they say: We say, "We say this because Allah the Exalted said such and such," and "We say this because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said such." And they bring a valid hadith, so it is known that whoever brings knowledge and proof is accepted. But Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) warned against reciters without jurisprudence.
And what is meant by jurisprudence is that a person has wisdom to place things in their proper places, and that a person has evidence that serves as a proof for him before Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And I think it is not hidden from the general people who the scholar is and who the student of knowledge is.
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) defined the scholar in a comprehensive definition, saying:
Knowledge is knowing the guidance with its evidence, what is that, and following a scholar without knowing his evidence are equal
So the scholar is the one who knows the true knowledge with evidence. Knowledge may be broad, where a person knows most of the issues, and for what he does not know, he has the ability to know it. Or a person may be a scholar in one single issue; he takes the books, searches in them, and looks at the evidence of the scholars, and thus becomes a scholar in that issue only. From this is what came in the hadith: "Convey from me even if it is one verse" But most preachers bring evidence that has no handle, weak evidence, intending thereby to strengthen people in the required matters and warn them from the feared matters. They are lenient in the chapter of encouraging and warning. There is no doubt that there is benefit in them, but they are not qualified to have Islamic knowledge received from them, such that one relies on what they say.Unless they say: We say, "We say this because Allah the Exalted said such and such," and "We say this because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said such." And they bring a valid hadith, so it is known that whoever brings knowledge and proof is accepted. But Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) warned against reciters without jurisprudence.
And what is meant by jurisprudence is that a person has wisdom to place things in their proper places, and that a person has evidence that serves as a proof for him before Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And I think it is not hidden from the general people who the scholar is and who the student of knowledge is.