The Shaykh repeating his advice to one of the attendees regarding the issue of learning recitation.

The Shaykh : So that our brother is pleased with us.

The questioner : O Shaykh, you have put me in a difficult situation with the issue of not teaching. You have put me in a difficult situation now.

The Shaykh : It is strange, by Allah. Now, if one person tells another, "Do not work," does that free him or put him in a difficult situation?

The questioner : We do not like to argue with you. We are fine. The one who has patience with us is the one who is fine.

Another questioner : You did not take your answer. You did not stop at...

The Shaykh : But the group has a word for you, but I will not say it to you because the group is more forgiving than I am.

The questioner : This is well known.

The Shaykh : This one does not like to discuss with me. What do you think?

The questioner : Out of our love for the Shaykh, we point it out to him. I am now, we are concluding the discussion, and I am grateful. We accept the man, not the hand.

The Shaykh : I seek Allah's forgiveness. I do not accept it.

The questioner : By your great favor upon the Sunnah and its people and upon us all, this knowledge stirs a jealousy for the Sunnah, and because of our few meetings with you in these details, this is what put us in these difficult situations.

The Shaykh : I did not fall into a single difficult situation.

The questioner : If Allah wills, we have been tested with the Sufis regarding this knowledge. Is there a way to direct this knowledge in a Salafi manner that pleases Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and follow the Sunnah in it?

The Shaykh : You are on the military method: "Stay in your place." And I am telling you: learn, do not teach, and do not come to me.

The questioner : How do you mean?

The Shaykh : O my brother, I am not speaking about Al-Albani. May Allah guide you. I am telling you: learn, do not teach. Do you not know the difference between "learn" and "teach"?

The questioner : And this is the problem.

The Shaykh : I see you are drowning in problems. Every one of them has a problem. What is the problem? Bring it so we can see.

The questioner : I mean, I am in charge of the Quran house in the mosque.

The Shaykh : That means you are acting as a Salafi recitation teacher.

The questioner : Not a recitation teacher, but rather, we hope through it to preserve the Sunnah through the mosque.

The Shaykh : O my brother, may Allah be pleased with you. O Abu Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with you. Accept my advice. Before you teach, learn.

The questioner : I mean, I have learned.

The Shaykh : You have not learned. We need to go back and start the night over from the beginning! Imitation is not knowledge. I am going to ask you now: what have you read from the books of the early scholars in this field? Nothing. I tell you, nothing. And I am not a knower of the unseen, nor am I one with intuition. What do you think? Do not say you read. I tell you, you have not read anything from the books of the early scholars in this knowledge. Tell me, "No, you are wrong, I read such and such." Can you do that?

The questioner : I can. I read Ibn al-Jazari's book *Al-Nashr*.

The Shaykh : What did you find in it? Did you find in it what you received?

The questioner : The discussion we are having is almost entirely from Ibn al-Jazari's book.

The Shaykh : No, you ruined it. You said "almost." I am far from being specific.

The questioner : There is from Ibn al-Jazari. I read the books of the grammarians on pausing, like the book of Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas and the book of al-Ashmuny.

The Shaykh : Do not wander now.

The questioner : This is what I read in.

The Shaykh : O my brother, I understand now. May Allah reward you with good. You read in some books that are not the books of the early scholars, like al-Dani and his like. You read Ibn al-Jazari. On my head and eyes. But I asked you: is your departure in your knowledge from what you read in al-Jazari, or from what you received?

The questioner : As for the knowledge I discussed, I departed from the understanding of Ibn al-Jazari, not fromThe Shaykh : what I received from him.

The Shaykh : I am telling you, no. Do you see how much "Jarr" (a local term for a specific type of error or exaggeration) they say in our region in Syria? You say, "I read such and such." I tell you, "No, what do I know more than you?" No, how am I "Jarr"? You are saying something now that contradicts what is in al-Jazari. If you had read al-Jazari, you would have spared me this night and the one before it, because al-Jazari says the words I told you earlier when I distinguished for you between reading a recitation, O Abu al-Harith, and reading a transmission. This is al-Jazari's statement. So if you had been a reader of it and departed from it, you would have saved us the whole journey.

The questioner : Shaykh, when you touched on this point, I told you I had read it and knew it.
Al-Awaishah: Only the Hafs method. These are rulings, for example, the issue of ikhfa (concealment) and idgham (merging) and so on, of this kind only. I limited it to that and the practical application of this matter, without the other matters he delved into and expanded upon. Only these details, meaning acting upon them. What do you say?

The Shaykh : I say if he is confident inThe Shaykh : the Sufi from whom he received the etiquettes of recitation, and is confident in his knowledge, and distinguishes the obligatory from the recommended from the permissible, then he should teach based on this detail he received, being confident. But if he is not so, as we understood from him that he is a follower of taqlid (blind following), then we advise him only to learn.

The questioner : No, he teaches only the Hafs transmission, basically.

The Shaykh : Yes, he did not tell me that he teaches the seven or ten recitations.

The questioner : Second,The Shaykh : I told you that actually, I had a repulsion originally. I am a man who has a repulsion from everyone named a Sufi. And thus, it is permissible to consult us.The Shaykh : I consulted Abu 'Abdullah about the times. We told him, "We want to learn."

The Shaykh : What did you pray for him?

The questioner : May Allah guide him.

The Shaykh : It was not like that. I prayed for him. May Allah make it easy for him. This is a prayer against him. May Allah guide you.

The questioner : It is better to pray for his guidance. May Allah guide him. So I consulted him. I told him, "There is a Sufi man. I want to learn from him the rulings of tajwid. What do you think?" He gave me the description of the man, and I entered based on the guidance or advice of Abu 'Abdullah. No, this was before the incident, long before.

The Shaykh : I mean, before the previous prayer became due.

The questioner : So we entered. I actually do not acknowledge the knowledge of the Sufi at all, even if I loved him in my heart. But we entered with this man and learned from him cautiously. We learned and left. And I loved, I mean, that this knowledge not remain in the hands of these people who are corrupters. I consider them corrupters. And thus, why should this knowledge remain in the hands of these people? Because our Salafi brothers, as you mentioned, are turning to this knowledge. Why should this knowledge remain in the hands of these people?

The Shaykh : There is no benefit. Stay in your place. It has become three or four times. We repeat this speech and there is no relief.

The questioner : No relief. There is no power or strength except in Allah.

The Shaykh : O my brother, I am telling you: learn this knowledge. Learn correct knowledge from its sources. And do not teach people what you received from that Sufi. So learn the knowledge. As I said earlier, you read *Al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr* (The Spread in the Ten Recitations) and so on. And learn, listen, and learn in study and learning until you become a Salafi teacher, then a reader. Do not be a Khalafi teacher.

The questioner : We ask Allah for this, which is what I strive for, O Shaykh, by Allah.

The Shaykh : No, you will not strive for it unless you accept my advice.

The questioner : I want, I will sit with you so that every time we fall into a trap, we get out of it.

The Shaykh : O my brother, I do not have a scholar in recitations and tajwid and so on to sit with me. If I were told, "I want to sit with you to learn hadith," I would tell you, "I have no free time." So how about a knowledge in which I am not a specialist? But the important thing is, listen to my advice. The point is, we are a model of what you are humming about, saying "the Salafis" and "the Salafis." You are one of them. So be other than that Sufi in his knowledge. And this does not happen except by learning, not by teaching. Because your case is the case of those who are studying hadith now. Praise be to Allah, Islamic knowledge, they will all become hadith scholars, and it has not even been one, two, three, or four years, and they want to write in hadith science. We tell these people: learn, then spread. So I tell you: learn this knowledge from its pure, high sources, and forget this Sufi from whom you received, so that when you begin to teach, you do not teach in his way, but you teach in your way, that is, with insight. And peace be upon you.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. An acceptable advice. That man is erased from my life and his method.

The Shaykh : And Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise. I testify that there is no deity but You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.