What is your opinion on establishing schools for memorizing the Qur'an and the Prophetic Sunnah?
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The questioner : No, we have schools for memorizing the Noble Qur'an. These are part of the regular system, affiliated with regular schools. They give two hundred and fifty riyals monthly. Good! They used to, from the beginning, now they don't give anything for four months, four [months] likewise. Now the demand for them is unprecedented. When the demand increased, they reduced the number of admissions to only twenty students. It used to be accepted as a regular school. Now there are only twenty students. It used to open six elementary grades, starting with first grade, and now it only opens one grade. They want to cut this matter off. We have schools that are spoken of by the groups for memorizing the Noble Qur'an. These are circles in the mosques; there are no stipends, not a single riyal!
The Shaykh : But we don't hear about it on the radio. Ah.
The questioner : No, those are competitions; we have no connection to them. They are under the World Muslim League... under the Endowments. No, these are under... We are talking about the methodology of the young men supervising the brothers. We have no involvement in these regular competitions; we have nothing to do with them.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : Even if our best memorizers, they do not enter them, nor do they look into them.
The Shaykh : Very good.
The questioner : Nor do they consider them anything in what is spoken about them.The Shaykh : Those who graduate from them, ten thousand memorizers, good. I have a complete statistic on them. These people have no connection to stipends, nor do they take a single dirham or dinar for their memorization; rather, they seek His Face. And likewise the girls.
The Shaykh : That is what we want. And praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Good, and the Sunnah is the same. I attended a group of brothers in Qassim, in Buraydah, and they were the first to start this matter of memorizing the Sunnah. They came to the summary of al-Bukhari by al-Zabidi and memorized it. Then they came to al-Mundhiri's summary of Muslim and memorized it. Then now they collected the repeated narrations in the authentic hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim, the agreed-upon ones, and extracted them. Then now they came with the summary of the authentic Sunan of Abu Dawud that you extracted through the Education Office, and compared it, and extracted what is in it besides the two authentic collections, what is not in the two authentic collections...
The Shaykh : ... which is authentic.
The questioner : So they extracted it and began to memorize it. When they finished the three, now they came with al-Tirmidhi and extracted what is in it besides al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud, and memorized it. Then now they are working on al-Nasa'i, and after that Ibn Majah, so they will have memorized the authentic parts of the six books. They call it the authentic parts of the four Sunans with the authentic parts of al-Bukhari and Muslim. And I now know two of them who have completed the summaries of al-Bukhari and Muslim. I know a group of them; I attended a session where they were listening to each other, and they were competing in recitation. So I attended these sessions and they were reciting! ... and that day ... they are, of course, the ones supervising them, and the one who has the merit after Allah the Exalted and MajesticThe Shaykh : Salman al-Oudah is the one supervising this, and he is the owner of the idea, he is the one supervising it.
The Shaykh: May Allah reward him with good.
The questioner : Of course, the one supervising it is Yahya al-Yahya, Yahya and Salman.
Another questioner : He is the one who started this matter.
The questioner : Yes, he started this matter.The Shaykh : Salman and with him one of the brothers, Yahya al-Yahya, likewise a strong assistant to him, he is the one who supports this idea.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Because Yahya al-Yahya was the first to memorize, then his students caught up and memorized it.
The Shaykh : Good, this is a sign of good, but let us return to what we previously discussed, memorizing the hadith is a means and not an end.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : A means and not an end. So it should be followed by another step, which is the end, and that is the jurisprudence of hadith. So perhaps there could be, even if it means a branch for this project, that some of these, at least, because we are still working on the collective obligation, that there be a group of these who have distinction over the others, specializing in understanding the jurisprudence of what they have memorized.
The questioner : This is happening, O Shaykh, and this is happening. And among them is a group who have a daily lesson withThe Shaykh : Salman al-Oudah. They read to him, they recite what they memorize, and he explains to them in the authentic hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim. And his weekly lesson, they recite to him Bulugh al-Maram and he explains it to them, but with elaboration. As for this, with the stronger opinion and clarifying the terms and the like. And as for Bulugh al-Maram, with very strange elaboration, with elaboration by tracing the chains of narration and tracing the narrations to their sources, with elaboration. And the explanations exist and are written by hand, they exist with me completely, the explanationThe Shaykh : of Salman of Bulugh al-Maram. So this exists, may Allah reward him with good. The young man himself comes and listens to him, and he explains to him with elaboration. A lesson after the 'Isha' prayer, and it continues and lengthens after the 'Isha' prayer until they read, meaning a lesson with only two hadiths... it is recorded now, it has reached one hundred and sixty-five...
Another questioner : One of the most comprehensive explanations of Bulugh al-Maram, meaning, and a number of scholars praised it. The explanation of Bulugh al-Maram and and and the jurisprudence of hadith!
The Shaykh : Very good.
Another questioner : As for the rest of the week, every day he has, after Fajr until the sun rises, five days a week, they memorize the summaries of al-Bukhari and Muslim as indicatedThe Shaykh : and he explains to them the jurisprudence of hadith...
The Shaykh : How far has he reached in Bulugh?
The questioner : In Bulugh, my last tracking of it is that he finished the Book of Mosques...
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : He finished the Book of Mosques... then the second thing, of course, is the lesson of Kashf al-Shubuhat, the Three Fundamental Principles, and the Book of Tawhid, and Zad al-Ma'ad. They finished these books... of course, 'Aayidh al-Qarni has the matter of memorization, they listen to him in the summary of al-Bukhari and read to him in al-Fath al-Rabbani, this is daily in al-Fath al-Rabbani, daily.
The Shaykh : Following the Musnad?
The questioner : Yes, they read to him daily and listen to him in the summary of al-Bukhari, and praise be to Allah and His grace, there is a good scholarly revival, somewhat.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Of course, apart from memorizing the texts with many of the shaykhs, like this memorizationThe Shaykh : Abdullah ibn JibrinThe Shaykh : Abdul Aziz al-Rajihi andThe Shaykh : Of course Ibn UthaymeenThe Shaykh : Ibn Baz, no doubt, but I say from among others.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : May Allah help us, but we still have something with us andThe Shaykh : We asked about it in our previous visit, and you spoke about it, may Allah preserve you, and Abu Badr touched on it in his message or in his lecture, "The Examination of Hearts." Until now, we have no one who studies the actions of the hearts, even though Abu Badr raised this, perhaps it will start, but unfortunately it did not start...
Al-'Amir: I wish someone would teach us, me.
The questioner: Likewise, the actions of the hearts, purification, and the remaining education, and this is what is now...
The Shaykh: Yes, this is lacking in the Muslim world, and this requires a certain class of scholars, and these, unfortunately, in my belief, do not exist!
The questioner: And even if among the most prominent of those who existThe Shaykh : Husayn, may Allah reward him with good, he has good messages on this topic. We ask Allah to accept them from him.
The Shaykh: May Allah grant success for that, if Allah wills.
Abu Layla : Oh Allah.
The questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : But we don't hear about it on the radio. Ah.
The questioner : No, those are competitions; we have no connection to them. They are under the World Muslim League... under the Endowments. No, these are under... We are talking about the methodology of the young men supervising the brothers. We have no involvement in these regular competitions; we have nothing to do with them.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : Even if our best memorizers, they do not enter them, nor do they look into them.
The Shaykh : Very good.
The questioner : Nor do they consider them anything in what is spoken about them.The Shaykh : Those who graduate from them, ten thousand memorizers, good. I have a complete statistic on them. These people have no connection to stipends, nor do they take a single dirham or dinar for their memorization; rather, they seek His Face. And likewise the girls.
The Shaykh : That is what we want. And praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Good, and the Sunnah is the same. I attended a group of brothers in Qassim, in Buraydah, and they were the first to start this matter of memorizing the Sunnah. They came to the summary of al-Bukhari by al-Zabidi and memorized it. Then they came to al-Mundhiri's summary of Muslim and memorized it. Then now they collected the repeated narrations in the authentic hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim, the agreed-upon ones, and extracted them. Then now they came with the summary of the authentic Sunan of Abu Dawud that you extracted through the Education Office, and compared it, and extracted what is in it besides the two authentic collections, what is not in the two authentic collections...
The Shaykh : ... which is authentic.
The questioner : So they extracted it and began to memorize it. When they finished the three, now they came with al-Tirmidhi and extracted what is in it besides al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud, and memorized it. Then now they are working on al-Nasa'i, and after that Ibn Majah, so they will have memorized the authentic parts of the six books. They call it the authentic parts of the four Sunans with the authentic parts of al-Bukhari and Muslim. And I now know two of them who have completed the summaries of al-Bukhari and Muslim. I know a group of them; I attended a session where they were listening to each other, and they were competing in recitation. So I attended these sessions and they were reciting! ... and that day ... they are, of course, the ones supervising them, and the one who has the merit after Allah the Exalted and MajesticThe Shaykh : Salman al-Oudah is the one supervising this, and he is the owner of the idea, he is the one supervising it.
The Shaykh: May Allah reward him with good.
The questioner : Of course, the one supervising it is Yahya al-Yahya, Yahya and Salman.
Another questioner : He is the one who started this matter.
The questioner : Yes, he started this matter.The Shaykh : Salman and with him one of the brothers, Yahya al-Yahya, likewise a strong assistant to him, he is the one who supports this idea.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Because Yahya al-Yahya was the first to memorize, then his students caught up and memorized it.
The Shaykh : Good, this is a sign of good, but let us return to what we previously discussed, memorizing the hadith is a means and not an end.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : A means and not an end. So it should be followed by another step, which is the end, and that is the jurisprudence of hadith. So perhaps there could be, even if it means a branch for this project, that some of these, at least, because we are still working on the collective obligation, that there be a group of these who have distinction over the others, specializing in understanding the jurisprudence of what they have memorized.
The questioner : This is happening, O Shaykh, and this is happening. And among them is a group who have a daily lesson withThe Shaykh : Salman al-Oudah. They read to him, they recite what they memorize, and he explains to them in the authentic hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim. And his weekly lesson, they recite to him Bulugh al-Maram and he explains it to them, but with elaboration. As for this, with the stronger opinion and clarifying the terms and the like. And as for Bulugh al-Maram, with very strange elaboration, with elaboration by tracing the chains of narration and tracing the narrations to their sources, with elaboration. And the explanations exist and are written by hand, they exist with me completely, the explanationThe Shaykh : of Salman of Bulugh al-Maram. So this exists, may Allah reward him with good. The young man himself comes and listens to him, and he explains to him with elaboration. A lesson after the 'Isha' prayer, and it continues and lengthens after the 'Isha' prayer until they read, meaning a lesson with only two hadiths... it is recorded now, it has reached one hundred and sixty-five...
Another questioner : One of the most comprehensive explanations of Bulugh al-Maram, meaning, and a number of scholars praised it. The explanation of Bulugh al-Maram and and and the jurisprudence of hadith!
The Shaykh : Very good.
Another questioner : As for the rest of the week, every day he has, after Fajr until the sun rises, five days a week, they memorize the summaries of al-Bukhari and Muslim as indicatedThe Shaykh : and he explains to them the jurisprudence of hadith...
The Shaykh : How far has he reached in Bulugh?
The questioner : In Bulugh, my last tracking of it is that he finished the Book of Mosques...
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : He finished the Book of Mosques... then the second thing, of course, is the lesson of Kashf al-Shubuhat, the Three Fundamental Principles, and the Book of Tawhid, and Zad al-Ma'ad. They finished these books... of course, 'Aayidh al-Qarni has the matter of memorization, they listen to him in the summary of al-Bukhari and read to him in al-Fath al-Rabbani, this is daily in al-Fath al-Rabbani, daily.
The Shaykh : Following the Musnad?
The questioner : Yes, they read to him daily and listen to him in the summary of al-Bukhari, and praise be to Allah and His grace, there is a good scholarly revival, somewhat.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Of course, apart from memorizing the texts with many of the shaykhs, like this memorizationThe Shaykh : Abdullah ibn JibrinThe Shaykh : Abdul Aziz al-Rajihi andThe Shaykh : Of course Ibn UthaymeenThe Shaykh : Ibn Baz, no doubt, but I say from among others.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : May Allah help us, but we still have something with us andThe Shaykh : We asked about it in our previous visit, and you spoke about it, may Allah preserve you, and Abu Badr touched on it in his message or in his lecture, "The Examination of Hearts." Until now, we have no one who studies the actions of the hearts, even though Abu Badr raised this, perhaps it will start, but unfortunately it did not start...
Al-'Amir: I wish someone would teach us, me.
The questioner: Likewise, the actions of the hearts, purification, and the remaining education, and this is what is now...
The Shaykh: Yes, this is lacking in the Muslim world, and this requires a certain class of scholars, and these, unfortunately, in my belief, do not exist!
The questioner: And even if among the most prominent of those who existThe Shaykh : Husayn, may Allah reward him with good, he has good messages on this topic. We ask Allah to accept them from him.
The Shaykh: May Allah grant success for that, if Allah wills.
Abu Layla : Oh Allah.
The questioner: Peace be upon you.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.