What is your opinion on the school-based study for the beginner student of knowledge?

The questioner : These are Muhammad’s questions. First of all, my Shaykh, he wrote an introduction in which he apologized that he could not come here to a gathering where you are present, because he mentions the Forgiver, the Most Merciful. So I said, “What is the matter with you, young man? Are you buying misguidance with guidance?” I said, “Ask with wisdom.” The first of his questions: Do you know, my Shaykh, Muhammad? He is, praise be to Allah, a young man from the good students.

The Shaykh : He is doing well.

The questioner : His first question asks about the obligation of the young student following a school of jurisprudence until his knowledge becomes abundant and his back becomes strong, so that he can distinguish the bad from the good. What is your opinion? Do you see this as known? You hear from us what we transmit from it, meaning what do we transmit from it, meaning?

The Shaykh : We say, in answer to a question like this, that the matter varies according to the society in which that young man lives. If he lives in a society that is bound to a school of jurisprudence, where they do not know the Book and the Sunnah, and their specialty is that they do not know the Book and the Sunnah, so much so that they need to rely on them, and they do not know anything other than that one of them follows a school, even if he reaches the level of a doctorate, his study is still based on one of the four schools. This is the general case in Islamic societies today. So whoever is in such a society must have his study be school-based, at least initially, because there is no way to seek Islamic knowledge in such a society except through this school-based approach. We suggest to the young people who are afflicted with such a society, which does not help them except with this school-based study, that they keep in mind that they should not believe that this study is equivalent to “Allah said” or “The Messenger of Allah said,” but rather that it is a school among the schools followed by the people of the Sunnah in this era. This is for the one who lives in a society with this characteristic. As for the one who lives in a society—and this is almost rare in most Islamic countries—where their scholars do not follow a specific school, but rather follow the Book and the Sunnah, whether with Zayd or Bakr among the Imams, then in this situation, this young man’s study should be from non-school-based books. And although these are few, they open for him the door to jurisprudence and understanding from the Book and the Sunnah. But without a doubt, he will miss a great deal of knowledge due to the scarcity of sources that help him with this type of jurisprudential study. However, he will find in the books of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and his pious student Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah what will broaden the scope of his understanding and make him confident that, with time, he will be able to recognize issues derived from the Book and the Sunnah. Then, the scholars present in that society will help him in this, just as the books mentioned will help him. So the answer is now clear: it varies from one society to another. And it is required in the first society, in which that young man lives, that he make his school-based study a means and not an end. The end is that he reaches, even if one day, even after a long time, the point of understanding jurisprudence based on the Book and the Sunnah. This is the first question.The Shaykh : The scholars mentioned who are present in that society. So the answer is now clear: it varies from one society to another. And it is required in the first society, in which that young man lives, that he make his school-based study a means and not an end. The end is that he reaches, even if one day, even after a long time, the point of understanding jurisprudence based on the Book and the Sunnah. This is the first question.