The Shaykh advises students of knowledge on the best way to pose a question.
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The Shaykh: What appears from your question at first: meaning, dividing the excuse of the one who missed the congregational prayer for a worldly matter.
The questioner : No, the first question is finished.
The Shaykh : It is finished.
The questioner : This question...
The Shaykh: So, I will say, on this occasion, because many of our brothers, the students of knowledge, will ask a question and when the answer comes, they start with words that I, at least, understand to be not a new question. For this reason, I tell them: it is obligatory that your explanation be clear, so you distinguish between one question and another so that one does not get mixed up with the other. Use a period, following the method of the hadith scholars. The hadith scholars, may Allah reward them with good, in their writings adopted a wonderful convention: when a phrase ends, instead of a period, they use a circle.
The questioner : A circle with a dot in its center.
The Shaykh: Without a period, when a phrase ends, a circle separates it from the following phrase without a period. The book is finished. Then, part of their precision is that they collate the book, either with the original if it has one, or with the author who dictated it to them. So, whenever they finish collating a phrase, and the phrase, instead of a period, they place a dot in the center of the circle. What does this dot give? It gives that the phrase is complete because of the presence of the circle, and that it was collated with the original because of the presence of the dot in the center of the circle. And so, I say, you must put a period following the method of the hadith scholars, meaning it should be clear so that one question does not get mixed up with another, and so that the matter does not become confused for the one answering. Now, I understood that this is connected to your question. Why, then, did the scholars differ? If you consider this a separate question from the first question, then we erase what has passed of the question and answer, and we start now with a new question. So, what is its text with you?
The questioner : No, the first question is finished.
The Shaykh : It is finished.
The questioner : This question...
The Shaykh: So, I will say, on this occasion, because many of our brothers, the students of knowledge, will ask a question and when the answer comes, they start with words that I, at least, understand to be not a new question. For this reason, I tell them: it is obligatory that your explanation be clear, so you distinguish between one question and another so that one does not get mixed up with the other. Use a period, following the method of the hadith scholars. The hadith scholars, may Allah reward them with good, in their writings adopted a wonderful convention: when a phrase ends, instead of a period, they use a circle.
The questioner : A circle with a dot in its center.
The Shaykh: Without a period, when a phrase ends, a circle separates it from the following phrase without a period. The book is finished. Then, part of their precision is that they collate the book, either with the original if it has one, or with the author who dictated it to them. So, whenever they finish collating a phrase, and the phrase, instead of a period, they place a dot in the center of the circle. What does this dot give? It gives that the phrase is complete because of the presence of the circle, and that it was collated with the original because of the presence of the dot in the center of the circle. And so, I say, you must put a period following the method of the hadith scholars, meaning it should be clear so that one question does not get mixed up with another, and so that the matter does not become confused for the one answering. Now, I understood that this is connected to your question. Why, then, did the scholars differ? If you consider this a separate question from the first question, then we erase what has passed of the question and answer, and we start now with a new question. So, what is its text with you?
Source
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