The Shaykh spoke about the etiquettes of gatherings.

The Shaykh : Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, every innovation is a religious innovation, every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. Before I present to you what Allah makes easy for me in the way of an impromptu word regarding the da'wah (calling others to Islam) with which Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), I consider it obligatory upon me to remind you of one of the etiquettes of scholarly gatherings that the masses of people, including some students of knowledge, have neglected. We find that in many gatherings, a wide scholarly circle is formed, as was the case when we entered this blessed place, if Allah wills, where it was supposed that people would sit on the edges of this spacious place. There is no harm in sitting in such a manner in a non-scholarly gathering. However, the etiquette of a scholarly gathering is to join together, gather, and cluster so that the Muslims assembled for the seeking of knowledge are not far from one another in their bodies, for the apparent is the indicator of the hidden, as mentioned in many hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). One of these hadiths concerning the etiquette of sitting in the seeking of knowledge is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) entered his mosque one day and saw the people scattered in circles. He said to them: meaning they were scattered. This hadith is in Sahih Muslim. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) drew the attention of those sitting in the Prophet's Mosque at that time not to have multiple circles, but to unify the scholarly circle and gather together, indeed...

The questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was concerned with gathering the people and warned them against scattering in their bodies and forms, even if they were in the open or in the desert. Imam Ahmad narrated in his Musnad from the hadith of Abu Thalhah al-Khushni (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "When we traveled with the Prophet (may Allah send prayers and blessings upon him), we would scatter in the valleys and gorges. One day he said to us: They were not in a scholarly session, but on a journey in the wilderness. They would scatter, each taking a side of shady trees or a moist valley or the like. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) disapproved of that scattering and said: Abu Thalhah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: They responded to Allah and the Messenger when He called them, so they did not scatter in their dwellings. They were a traveling people, and they would gather. What is the secret behind the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) concern for gathering the people and not allowing them to scatter in their bodies, even in the desert? What is the secret? I hinted at this earlier, but a hint often does not suffice in place of an explicit statement. Indeed, an explicit statement sometimes requires explanation, clarification, and elucidation. So I must provide some of this. I said earlier that because...