Guidance for the Muslim in Using the Computer and Modern Technology in the Pursuit of Knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh: That he should be knowledgeable about the knowledge he wishes to extract...
The student: You mean the religious knowledge here.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: Such as tapes.
The Shaykh: ... whatever it may be, because as is clear to everyone, the computer is what you teach it; it learns what you teach it. If it is good, it is good; if it is evil, it is evil; if it is correct, it is correct; if it is wrong, it is wrong. Therefore,
The student: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh: And peace be upon you. Therefore, the one who wants to benefit from this wondrous, strange device must be knowledgeable in his heart.
The student: All right, Shaykh, if he is knowledgeable in the art of computers and seeks the assistance of the people of knowledge and virtue in the Shari'ah so that they are, so to speak, on one path, supporting one another.
The Shaykh: We told you this is a possibility; this is a possibility. In fact, this is the obligatory thing.
The student: Yes, our Shaykh, may Allah honor you. Perhaps you have heard about the Heritage Center that is working on an encyclopedia of the Noble Prophetic Hadith using the computer.
The Shaykh: Where is the Heritage Center?
The student: In North Makkah, here.
The Shaykh: Yes, I have heard of it.
The student: Yes, and now they have approximately a quarter of a million hadiths with chains of narration entered into the computer, along with more than thirty-five books on the men of the chains and a number of books on terminology. They have now developed programs that allow you to retrieve a hadith by the name of the narrator, or by any narrator in the chain, or by a word in the text, or by the end of the text, by any method, or by the hadith number. By any method you wish, you can retrieve the hadith. And if you want to know the biography of one of the narrators, you also request it by typing the name of this narrator, and it gives you everything that has been said about him through the books they have entered.
The Shaykh: I... we have actually tried this. I have the book *Fihrist al-Thiqat* (Index of the Trustworthy) by Ibn Hibban. We naturally transferred the names from the original and arranged them on the computer.
The student : May Allah reward you with good.
Another student :Abu Layla .
The Shaykh: So some of our brothers had stored this book, *al-Thiqat*.
The student: You mean the religious knowledge here.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: Such as tapes.
The Shaykh: ... whatever it may be, because as is clear to everyone, the computer is what you teach it; it learns what you teach it. If it is good, it is good; if it is evil, it is evil; if it is correct, it is correct; if it is wrong, it is wrong. Therefore,
The student: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh: And peace be upon you. Therefore, the one who wants to benefit from this wondrous, strange device must be knowledgeable in his heart.
The student: All right, Shaykh, if he is knowledgeable in the art of computers and seeks the assistance of the people of knowledge and virtue in the Shari'ah so that they are, so to speak, on one path, supporting one another.
The Shaykh: We told you this is a possibility; this is a possibility. In fact, this is the obligatory thing.
The student: Yes, our Shaykh, may Allah honor you. Perhaps you have heard about the Heritage Center that is working on an encyclopedia of the Noble Prophetic Hadith using the computer.
The Shaykh: Where is the Heritage Center?
The student: In North Makkah, here.
The Shaykh: Yes, I have heard of it.
The student: Yes, and now they have approximately a quarter of a million hadiths with chains of narration entered into the computer, along with more than thirty-five books on the men of the chains and a number of books on terminology. They have now developed programs that allow you to retrieve a hadith by the name of the narrator, or by any narrator in the chain, or by a word in the text, or by the end of the text, by any method, or by the hadith number. By any method you wish, you can retrieve the hadith. And if you want to know the biography of one of the narrators, you also request it by typing the name of this narrator, and it gives you everything that has been said about him through the books they have entered.
The Shaykh: I... we have actually tried this. I have the book *Fihrist al-Thiqat* (Index of the Trustworthy) by Ibn Hibban. We naturally transferred the names from the original and arranged them on the computer.
The student : May Allah reward you with good.
Another student :Abu Layla .
The Shaykh: So some of our brothers had stored this book, *al-Thiqat*.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.