Ways of Acquiring Knowledge: "Scholars and Books"

The Shaykh : When news of his case reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: Then, No one can reach the rank of the scholars. This rank cannot be attained, as some imagine, overnight, nor can it be attained even if one spends a long lifetime among limited books and books restricted to specific fatwas that do not follow the path of His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He: A student of knowledge cannot reach the rank of the scholars except through two means. One of them is currently available and accessible, while the other, unfortunately, I say is rare and scarce. The other means is returning to the books of the scholars, to the books of the scholars that they left for us, selecting from them what their authors follow in the correct methodology, the methodology of the Book and the Sunnah and what the righteous predecessors were upon, and not merely following a specific school of jurisprudence while ignoring the benefit from other books that, if they do not surpass it in knowledge and verification, are not inferior to it. This means is available today, especially as printing presses publish for us every day books we did not know before, neither manuscript nor printed. And here is the example now in your hands, which is thisThe Shaykh : The so-called Al-Albani has reached extreme old age and finds that he has missed much of the knowledge. Therefore, he is reviewing his past knowledge to correct what he may have missed in scholarly verification. Why? Because the other means was not available to him, which is the verified scholars who gathered what Allah willed of knowledge. For it is the Sunnah of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in His creation that the predecessors benefit from the successors, or rather, the successors benefit from the predecessors, and some benefit from others. If a student of knowledge does not have access to scholars of various specializations, he has no reference except to return to these books that they left for us, may Allah have mercy on them, Blessed and Exalted is He, as it was said:
"We have companions whose hearing we never tire of, / Trustworthy in secret and in public. / If I say they are alive, you are not a liar, / And if I say they are dead, you are not refuted." This method today is, unfortunately, the only one available. But this requires a special type of student of knowledge who is endowed with activity, endowed with free time, endowed with diligence, and above all, endowed with sincerity for the face of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, along with perseverance and persistence, and with a long time. Then he finds himself having reached a level where he is able to author and issue fatwas, especially since the scholars who received knowledge through the first method may be compelled to testify that this person has the right to issue fatwas to people regarding the questions that come to him. But the problem, the whole problem in this time, as we say on many occasions, is the corruption of upbringing and the corruption of morals. Today, without a doubt, no one can deny that there is an awakening in knowledge. But instead of being accompanied by moral upbringing in line with the knowledge awakening, the level of moral upbringing has declined. Many of those who set themselves up for teaching and instruction do not represent the morals of the scholars, let alone the young students of knowledge who are deluded by the shoddy merchandise they acquired in a short time. Therefore, I advise our young brothers in the pursuit of knowledge to study knowledge for themselves, and not to rely on their own understanding, and to seek help in clarifying and verifying what they claim to verify of issues from the scholars who are attested to by the people of action as being true scholars. I give you an example of myself