Discussion of the scholar and the follower, and the Shaykh spoke about Abu Ghuddah.

The Shaykh : Today, this style of seeking knowledge has become rare because the means of disseminating knowledge have been facilitated through the printing of books, so the writings have taken the place of the authors. Just as it was obligatory in the old way for the student of knowledge to choose a shaykh known for the soundness of his creed, free from deviation and influence by some of the misguided Islamic sects, and just as it was obligatory for him to choose, after this selection, a scholar—a scholar in the true scientific sense, meaning by the Book and the Sunnah, not a scholar by the sayings of some of the imams or some of their followers. This is not a scholar. The scholar is, as Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his description of knowledge:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, *** The Companions said; it is not obfuscation.
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist.
Nor is it denying the attributes and negating them *** Out of fear of denial of the divine attributes and likening Allah to creation." So knowledge, then, is: Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said. And the scholar is the one whom you hear, in most of his time, saying in his answers and his fatwas: Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said. He is not the one who says: So-and-so said such and such, and so-and-so said such and such. In the Syrian expression, he is a storyteller, meaning he recounts what so-and-so and so-and-so said. There is no difference between him and a recording device; it recounts what it was taught. If it is correct, it is correct, and if it is wrong, it is wrong. But the one our brother mentioned just now may record correctly and may record incorrectly, mixing correct with incorrect. Does it distinguish the correct from the incorrect? Nothing of the sort. So it is with the follower (mقلid) exactly; he is merely a storyteller who recounts what he heard, but he does not distinguish between the correct and the incorrect, between the truth and misguidance. Thus, the student of knowledge, may Allah have mercy on you, must choose the shaykh. And if the shaykh possesses the sound creed and beneficial knowledge, and beneficial knowledge is nothing but knowledge derived from the Book and from the Sunnah, and the correct Sunnah, in my opinion, the students of knowledge like you know Abu Ghuddah. And in reality, regarding knowledge, Abu Ghuddah is like the hump of a camel. Do you know the hump? Yes, so you know that he does not have a sound creed and he does not have knowledge of the Book and the correct Sunnah. And I say now, the correct Sunnah, because he is a woodcutter in the night, and he transmits in some of his annotations what suits his own desire, not because he has verified that what he annotated is correct in reality. No, rather, he is as Imam al-Shafi'i said when he gave an example of the follower (mقلid): "His likeness is like a woodcutter in the night who gathers firewood and then throws it on his back, and in it is a viper that stings him, and he is not aware." This is the state of the followers. And how excellent is the saying of Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi, the Hanafi, who is rare among the Hanafis in his knowledge, especially regarding the Sunnah, hadith, and their chains and narrations. He says: "There is no difference between a follower (mقلid) and a beast that is led." This is a very wonderful example. So the follower (mقلid) has no knowledge. And from the rare jurisprudence, and from its rarity, is that it emanates from the followers (mقلids). Where it is stated in the book al-Hidayah: It is not permissible to appoint the ignorant to the judiciary. It is not permissible for the judge to be ignorant. The matter is very clear. But what needs clarification or elucidation is what the commentator of al-Hidayah did, namely Ibn al-Humam, the Egyptian, the author of the commentary on al-Hidayah which he named Fath al-Qadir. He said: The commentary on "the ignorant," meaning the follower (mقلid), is that it is not permissible to appoint the ignorant to the judiciary. He said: Meaning the follower (mقلid). This means that the follower (mقلid) is not a scholar. And this is a matter on which there is consensus, as transmitted by Abu al-Hasan al-Sindi, who is one of the distinguished scholars of the Hanafis and one of those greatly influenced by the Sunnah, unlike the majority of the Hanafis. He transmits from al-Hafiz al-Suyuti that the scholars agreed that the follower (mقلid) is not a scholar. For that reason, Ibn al-Humam said in his commentary on "the ignorant": Meaning the follower (mقلid). So whoever is a follower (mقلid), especially in creed, like the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah, is not a scholar. So what do our students hope for when they turn to this book of Abu Ghuddah to gain from his knowledge? And the one who lacks a thing cannot give it. This is what I advise our students of knowledge: to know how to eat the shoulder, to know from which author they take the sound knowledge. And Abu Ghuddah, we know him in Aleppo. Although my residence was in Damascus at that time, I used to visit there once a month for the sake of da'wah on one hand, and for the sake of studying manuscripts in the Islamic Endowments Library there in Aleppo on the other hand. And our brothers used to ask him to meet with us, but he refused and insisted. And we had gathered a session with him before that and discussed an issue, which is that the Hanafis permit treatment with intoxicants, and he is a Hanafi, as is well known. So when I mentioned to him his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) that is in Sahih Muslim he said: The hadith needs to be reviewed. We said to him: Review it, and the hadith is in Sahih Muslim. What does he want to review? This is getting rid of the proof out of fanaticism for the school of jurisprudence. After that, despite the repeated insistence of some of our brothers to agree to a meeting with me to discuss with him what concerns the differences between the callers to the Sunnah and the callers to the narrow school of jurisprudence, he refused and was arrogant. And I stop here at the completion of the verse.