Is it a condition for a scholar to be considered a scholar that the scholars testify to that for him?

The questioner : As far as I heard from him, he also says, and this is his statement, that this statement preceded the fact that a person is not called a scholar unless the people of knowledge testify to that for him.

The Shaykh : Fine, there is no objection, but this is with regard to people. As for between him and his Lord, this testimony neither fattens nor satisfies hunger.
So now, I mean, I am hearing very strange issues now. He says that he claims about himself that he is a mujtahid (a scholar qualified to derive rulings).

The questioner : Perhaps his words imply that, but he did not say that he is a mujtahid.

The Shaykh : Then

The questioner : He said he does not speak about himself; rather, he mentions these matters in such a way that he leaves no one, meaning he speaks with these details, as if he is the only one who knows these matters, while keeping himself away from speaking about himself.

The Shaykh : Well, but the people of knowledge say: "The tongue of reality is more eloquent than the tongue of speech." I mean, I am the one; I do not say about myself that I am a scholar, but people feel that I have knowledge, and therefore they direct questions to me. So it is not necessary for me to say about myself that I am a scholar, because if a person says about himself that he is a scholar, he has erred, because knowledge does not end. But our discussion is whether he is forcing himself into the category of those who follow scholars without knowing their evidence (taqlid), and you do not understand that from him, do you?

The questioner : Yes, that is what we understand from him.

The Shaykh : What you understand is negative, meaning you do not understand that from him.

The questioner : He seems to distance the listener's understanding that he is not from the people of taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence); he distances the listener's understanding that he is not from the people of taqlid, with knowledge.

The Shaykh : And he does not bring it close.

The questioner : But he looks at the state of the country in which we live.

The Shaykh : And he does not bring it close to the listener's mind that he is from the people of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning)?

The questioner : And that he is not from the people of ijtihad. The important thing is to establish the information in the minds of the listeners that there is no rank of following, and to reinforce his statement by saying: "Bring me evidence from the statements of the people of knowledge, even from those he acknowledges and agrees with, that they explicitly stated that there is a rank among the ranks of following, and he uses that in his da'wah (calling others to Islam)." This is the statement.

The Shaykh : No, this explicit statement exists. Do you think he stopped at a book? "La ilaha illa Allah" (There is no god but Allah), its name is one, its name is al-Fullati. Do you know anything about him?

The questioner : Al-Fulani or al-Fullati?

The Shaykh : Al-Fulani, al-Fulani. His name is very long. His book.

The questioner : Tanbih Uli al-Abصار (Alerting the Possessors of Insight).

The Shaykh : Yes, complete the title. It is very long.

The questioner : "Tanbih Uli al-Abصار ila Sunnat Sayyid al-Muhajirin wa al-Ansar" (Alerting the Possessors of Insight to the Sunnah of the Master of the Emigrants and the Helpers).

The Shaykh : Yes, this is it. This book explains this topic. Also, Ibn al-Qayyim in his book "I'lam al-Muwaqqin 'an Rabb al-'Alamin" (Informing the Guided about the Lord of the Worlds). As I said, this exists with these people. But we say now that he does not know by his person the authentic hadith from the weak one. He might follow, for example, al-Hakim or al-Dhahabi or al-Bukhari or Muslim, or so on. Is an individual from the general public of the ummah (the Muslim community), or even the illiterate who do not read or write, who hears a shaykh (a scholar or teacher) say "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said," and this person might be...The Shaykh : ignorant of the science of hadith, and might be transmitting a lie without knowing or feeling it, but...The Shaykh : a shaykh who is illiterate takes this hadith and memorizes it, then he transmits it to others, to his wife, to his child, and so on. Is this equal to this man you are pointing to? If he heard me, for example, say "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said," and he says to me, "Is this hadith authentic or good?" I say to him, "Authentic" or "Good." He says to me, "Who narrated it?" I say to him, "Al-Bukhari narrated it," may Allah will it, or I say to him, "Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it," better and better. Is this equal to that?
This first layman, this is the one who follows without knowing the evidence (mقلid). The mقلid is not discerning. This second one is discerning. And our Lord says in the Noble Qur'an: So discernment is either through the means of another, and this is following another with discernment, or the discernment is obtained from him, from himself, and in it is his research and ijtihad. So while the first one is discerning through another, he becomes a source of discernment for another. So which rational person denies this difference? It is not possible to deny this. This is a judgment I make in his absence, and although this is not permissible, we do not judge a specific person, Zayd, that this man, first, is not a shaykh in age. Is this a huzayrah (a type of date or a term for a specific quality), or not? I did not understand you?

The questioner : Yes, he is not a shaykh in age.

The Shaykh : This is the first point. And the second is that he is not a shaykh in knowledge either. And I think I am correct in the second as in the first. What do you say in what you know? Is he a shaykh in knowledge?

The questioner : I hold him accountable for what he said: "He is not called a scholar unless the people of knowledge testify to his knowledge." So which of the people of knowledge testified to his knowledge?

The Shaykh : Well, did you direct this question to him?

The questioner : I did not direct this question to him.

The Shaykh : In any case, this statement indicates that he is not a scholar, because we always say to our brothers that our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, divided the Muslim community in terms of ijtihad knowledge and its opposite into two parts, and He said: He addressed the larger public by saying to them: The people of knowledge are the people of knowledge regarding the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and those other than them are below that. But who denies the established reality that those other than these people of knowledge differ completely? One man is by nature dull and stagnant, he has no moving intellect, he has a fixed thought, and so on. And another is at the other end in activity and thought, and so on, but he is not from the people of knowledge. Who does not distinguish between these two? And who does not distinguish that this first one barely understands from...The Shaykh : after a long lecture that, for example, smoking is forbidden, while that one understands the evidence for the prohibition and can be a professor to the others from the knowledge he acquired from others. So who says that this is like that? This is denying the sun at high noon. And it is not correct, as it was said:
"And nothing is valid in the minds if the day needs proof"
In any case, there are three ranks: knowledge, which is ijtihad; following the mujtahid with discernment; and taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), whose companion is like a beast, however it is led, it follows. And so on.

Another questioner : Our Shaykh, some shaykhs insist that we are mقلids (those who follow without knowing the evidence).

The Shaykh : Ah, this is of that kind. They have no explanation and no clarity in the issue. Yes, that is right.
One person follows and says, "Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said." And one person says to him, "Where did you get this from, my brother?" He says, "By Allah..."The Shaykh : He said so. There is a great difference between the one who says...The Shaykh : "He said so," and the one who says, "By Allah, He says so, and the Messenger of Allah says so." Others.