Explaining the recommended practice of drawing close together in gatherings and the prohibition of separating in them.

Abu Layla: O our brothers, if you would be so kind as to take some papers from the host of the house so that you can write down your questions, if Allah wills, and some of the brothers will be asking the questions.

The Shaykh : The praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides is not to be led astray, and whoever He leaves to stray has no guide. And 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, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. This good gathering, if Allah wills, reminds me of a noble sunnah that people have long turned away from in all their gatherings, except what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) wills. This is because there are authentic hadiths reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that all agree that just as it is obligatory for Muslims to be of one heart, it is also obligatory for them to cluster together and gather in one place. There is no one higher than another, nor one seated higher than another; rather, they are equal, as mentioned in some hadiths, even if the chain is weak and not authentic: . Among these hadiths is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), when he saw his Companions scattered in the mosque, would say to them: , meaning, do not scatter; gather together and do not scatter. Do not scatter with your bodies; do not scatter in your outward appearance, for the outward is the sign of the inward, and the outward affects the inward, whether in righteousness or corruption. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) emphasized this wonderful psychological meaning in other hadiths, one of which is something we must be aware of because it relates to some gatherings obligatory for Muslims in their mosques, namely their gathering in rows. They must be in them as Allah the Exalted said: . It was the way and sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he would not begin the prayer as imam with people behind him until he ordered them to straighten their rows. He would straighten the rows and be concerned with their alignment, like arrows. He would emphasize this with a very important command, saying to them: . In another narration, which is also authentic, regarding the goodness of prayer, but greater than that is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , meaning, strike the hearts of some of you with others due to neglecting this obligatory matter, which is straightening the rows. If there is a person ahead and another behind, they have neglected this noble Prophetic command: , meaning, between your hearts. More than that, you will hear a hadith that has no relation to the row in prayer, but rather to sitting, not as you heard in the first hadith about sitting in the mosque, but sitting outside the mosques, indeed outside the town where people live and are scattered by the nature of their reality into many gatherings. That is in the desert, in the wilderness, in the open, as Abu Thalhah al-Khushani (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "When we traveled with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and we stopped, we would scatter in the valleys and gorges, according to what was convenient for us; Allah's earth is vast." He said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said to us one day: . Your scattering when you stop in the valleys and gorges is from the work of Satan." Abu Thalhah (may Allah be pleased with him) said, and here is the point: "So after that, when we traveled with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and stopped in a valley or gorge, we would gather until, if we sat on a carpet, it would have been enough for us." This is in the desert, in the wilderness. Therefore, among the etiquettes of gatherings of knowledge is closeness of bodies so that it becomes a good omen and a legislated cause for the closeness of hearts, which may have some discord or difference between them, and that is what the Wise Lawgiver forbids, as is known in many verses of the Qur'an and hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, let no one be annoyed by this incidental crowding. Know that first, it is a desirable, prescribed matter, as you heard in these authentic hadiths. Second, the situation is what suggested such severe crowding. After this introduction to this good occasion, we mention something else. It is customary in the pursuit of knowledge for some people who desire to understand the religion to gather around a man who may have been given more knowledge than others, and they receive from him what he has of knowledge from the Book, the Sunnah, jurisprudence, or something else of the sciences of Islam. But there is another way of receiving knowledge that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) has specified in the Qur'an and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) has pointed to in some authentic hadiths. I mean receiving knowledge by the method of question and answer, as Allah the Mighty and Majestic said in the well-known verse: . And in the other verse: . The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed this legislated means in some Prophetic hadiths. As reported in Sunan Abu Dawud from the narration of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a detachment for jihad in the path of Allah, and a battle occurred between the Muslims and the polytheists. Then night overtook them, and they scattered, and each group slept in its place. One of the Companions, when morning came, found that he had emitted semen. He knew that he was obligated to perform the full ritual bath, but he had been wounded in his body, so he was hesitant to perform the obligatory full ritual bath. He asked those around him, hoping they would find a dispensation for him not to bathe, fearing that he would be afflicted with illness due to his wound. He asked, and they said: "There is no dispensation for you; you must bathe." The man bathed, and the result of this bathing was that a fever struck him and rose, as is known. Then the outcome was that the man died. When the news reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), he became very angry and said: . They killed him, meaning they were the cause of his death, because of that unjust, oppressive fatwa in which they said it is not permissible for you except to bathe, so his death was in this bathing. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So the ignorant person has two ways to learn what he must know. The first way is what we mentioned, which is the method of study circles. The other way is to ask about what concerns him in his religion. In this method, there is a benefit not found in the first method. Because the first method is, in fact, the method of one who wants to walk the path of seeking knowledge until he becomes, as it is said, pointed to with the finger. But not everyone can take this path that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke of: . Not everyone can take this path customary among scholars and students of knowledge, while the other method is easy for everyone and is more beneficial for the general people. Because one may sit for long hours, indeed many days, and perhaps many weeks, seeking knowledge in the customary manner, and it does not bring to him the questions that revolve in his mind, what he encounters during his work and his relations with people of different schools and inclinations, and he does not find a place for questioning there. So it was of the perfect wisdom that Allah the Mighty and Majestic legislated this other path, which is the method of question and answer. On this basis, we say: . And we are among the students of knowledge. If we have knowledge of what is asked of us, we answer; otherwise, we remain silent. Half of knowledge is "I do not know." Therefore, it does not burden me to say "I do not know" about something I am asked about. And consequently, it should not burden you, and you should not say, "Here..."The Shaykh : What do I know? Bear witness to me, as Allah the Exalted said: . And now, please, what questions have come to us?