Some students of knowledge rush to issue rulings on what is lawful and forbidden, thereby contradicting the renowned scholars. What is your advice to them?

The questioner : The questioner says here that some students of knowledge rush to issue rulings on what is lawful and forbidden and err regarding the renowned scholars. What is your advice to these people?

The Shaykh : We have spoken about this issue in the past and said that the wise Lawgiver divided the Muslim community into two groups: one group consisting of the people of knowledge, and another group that needs the people of knowledge but is not among them. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said to the general people: As we all know, the people of knowledge are the people of the Qur'an and the people of hadith who distinguish the authentic from the weak, the general from the specific, the abrogating from the abrogated, and similar principles of jurisprudence and hadith. It is not permissible for a Muslim in the fourteenth century to issue a ruling based on a hadith merely because he came across it in a book. He may not know that it is an authentic hadith according to the methodology of the hadith scholars. He may also know that he lacks the academic preparation and knowledge of the Arabic language to clarify the objectives and meanings of the Book and the Sunnah. Therefore, anyone who has not qualified himself to study knowledge and to be patient with it for many years, until the sincere scholars testify that he possesses knowledge and is able to guide people and direct them to good, is not permitted to assume he has become a person of knowledge merely because he knows some hadiths and memorizes some verses. Often we hear that some of them do not recite the Qur'anic verse correctly; rather, they make errors in its recitation. They do the same with the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).