What is the validity of the statement: “Taking knowledge solely from books is a religious innovation”?

Al-Halabi : He saysThe questioner : There are people who say: Do not take knowledge from books, but from scholars; and that taking knowledge from books is a religious innovation. What is your opinion of this statement?

The Shaykh : Yes, we say, as we said earlier, and I think the answer to this question was given previously in what they call today an automatic way. We said earlier that the method of learning and seeking knowledge has two ways. The first way is for a group of people who desire to seek knowledge to gather around a man from among the people of knowledge, studying under him according to a followed system, and continuing in that, as we said earlier, until they themselves become qualified for study and for teaching as well. This is the path, and it is a very self-evident matter, and there is no other way; but the thing that some people overlook, or pretend to overlook, is to what extent a student of knowledge continues to seek knowledge from the shaykhs. Undoubtedly, that varies depending on theThe student : person on one hand, and depending on the scholars, their specializations, and the abundance of their presence in such specializations on the other hand. Let us begin with the picture that everyone knows: every person, when he is born, is born ignorant. Then, when he begins to distinguish himself and excel in understanding and perception in the fifth, sixth, or seventh year—and this also varies among people by their innate disposition—he learns from his parents, or from the shaykh of the neighborhood school, or the nursery, as they say today, or so on. He studies the letters alif, ba, and so on. If this person begins studying from a shaykh, then the matter progresses until he reaches the end of primary school, then secondary school, and so on. So, if a graduate, for example, obtains a doctorate, is it obligatory for him not to seek knowledge through his personal study, and not to consider this study valid unless he continues to the last breath of his life studying underThe Shaykh : [shaykhs]? And if this question were raised, the answer would be: No. The important thing is that the student studies what is called the instrumental sciences, meaning the science of language, including grammar and morphology, and he studies Islamic jurisprudence. This study is usually, in most Islamic countries, according to one of the schools of jurisprudence followed today. Then, he must also study Qur'anic exegesis, and he must study hadith in its principles and in the science of the critique and vindication of narrators. This undoubtedly takes a period of time for every student of knowledge. So, the continuation in this seeking varies from person to person. If a person reaches a level where he can read a book from the books of the scholars and understand it, and at the same time has knowledge of the Arabic language and its literature, then it is not necessary for him to continue to the last breath of his life reading underThe Shaykh : [shaykhs]; becauseThe Shaykh : [the shaykh] is presumably older than him and will die before him, and so on. So, the matter is a middle ground between obligating a person to continue studying under shaykhs—and you will never find such a person among you—and reaching a stage where he is independent in his study, studying the books of the previous and later scholars. In light of that, his culture increases day after day, and he is able to benefit people with what our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, benefited him in these years in which he specialized in studying knowledge by the means that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, enabled him with. And I must, at the end of this answer, mention a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is his saying: , “Knowledge is only through learning.” So, a person is not born a scholar; he must seek knowledge by one of the methods we mentioned earlier. Just as humility is through practicing humility—meaning, this is the common case for most people, that they are not people of humility by nature—so the struggle in that case is for a person to practice humility, to force himself to be humble, because in that he struggles against his self, which is inclined to the opposite of those bad morals. If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: , this is a very self-evident matter. But some people, as I told you earlier, imagine that they will continue to the last breath of their life seeking knowledge from some living shaykhs, while they have finished studying under some of them, at least, while they move on to studying knowledge from scholars. As it is said, if I say they are alive, I have told the truth, and if I say they are dead, I have not lied, as the poet said:
We have companions whose hearing we never tire of, *** Trustworthy in absence and in presence.
Who are these companions? They are the scholars who left for us this massive wealth from the second century of the Hijrah to our day. So, in brief, whoever engages in seeking knowledge by its means, and from the people of knowledge from whom he is able to take knowledge, and then studies from the books of these scholars whom we described as being alive in their knowledge and dead in their persons, because that is the sunnah of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, in His creation. But I feel that this question suggests something to me: if seeking knowledge is only from the people of knowledge, where are the people of knowledge specialized in hadith, for example? And those specialized in Qur'anic exegesis, who sit and teach this knowledge and that knowledge to people in the mosques, as our righteous predecessors did? No trace remains of these people. The mosques now have their doors closed, and study in them is not possible in the previous way that I mentioned earlier. If there is no easy path for study left except this systematic primary and secondary study, and so on, and then either the person turns to a job, as is the case with most students, or he dedicates his life to studying knowledge from these remnants that our righteous predecessors left for us. So, this question must be understood in narrow limits, and not in the broad, imaginary meaning that cannot be realized, especially in this time. And finally, I mention that many people today obtain university degrees and high degrees without personally connecting with the professors and teachers who teach their science. All that happens is that at the end of the study, which is two, three, or four years, they give them an exam, and if they pass, they give them a certificate, otherwise they fail. How was this person's study? His study was personal. And finally, and finally, and the talk is long, what prevents Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, from opening up for some people, after they have taken the scientific means from studying the Arabic language, the principles of hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence, that our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, opens up for them and makes them better than the shaykhs they studied under? Especially since in some books that people circulate today, the author speaks about righteous, illiterate people who do not read or write, and yet the scholars, jurists, and cultured people by various scientific means used to come to them and receive knowledge from them. Where did their knowledge come from? They say it was a divine opening. Well, if Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, opens up for an illiterate person, will He not open up for a person who took the means of knowledge to the extent of his ability? Yes, and that is not difficult for Allah. And this is the answer to the question.
Al-Halabi : May Allah reward you with good.
Al-Albani: And you as well.