The presenter mentioned one aspect of learning knowledge, but there remains another aspect of seeking knowledge, which is staying with scholars or some of the shaykhs?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The presenter mentioned one aspect of learning and knowledge, but there remains another aspect of seeking knowledge, which is staying with one of the scholars or one of the shaykhs. What is your opinion, O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : By Allah, my opinion is that this is good. This means that a person focuses on one shaykh from among the shaykhs and makes him the foundation, just as we said regarding the madhhab and others, so that he does not become scattered. Especially the young beginner. The young beginner, if he seeks knowledge from several people, will waver, because people are not of one opinion. Especially in our time now. In the past, meaning a while ago, people here in the Kingdom never deviated from al-Qawa'id and al-Muntaha. You would find their fatwas were the same and their explanations were the same. One did not differ from the other except in delivery and the beauty of style. But now, when every person memorized a hadith or two, he said, "I am Ibn Jala and the one who sees the tips of the fingers, and I am the imam to be followed, and Imam Ahmad is a man, and we are men." So the matter became chaos. Every person started issuing fatwas, and then these fatwas were not based on principles at all, not on any principles. Sometimes, by Allah, fatwas come that make you cry and laugh. I used to be keen to record such fatwas, but I said, "I fear that I will be among those who pursue the faults of their brothers," so I left it to avoid that. Otherwise, things are reported to us that are far from the truth, from the stars to the dust. So I say, as you mentioned, staying with a shaykh whom a person focuses on, as long as he is at the beginning of his seeking, is especially important so that he does not waver. For this reason, our shaykhs used to forbid us from reading al-Mughni and Sharh al-Muhadhdhab and books that contain multiple opinions when we were in the time of seeking. They would say, "This will waste you. You will be happy when you find an issue and see people discussing it, but it will waste you." Some of our shaykhs mentioned that Shaykh 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman Ababatin (may Allah have mercy on him), who was one of the greatest shaykhs of Najd, to the extent that he was called the Mufti of the Najdi lands, was mentioned as being devoted to al-Rawd al-Mu'abbad, not reading anything else, or rather, not reading anything but it, which is the most correct. He would repeat it every time he finished it. But he would take it by its explicit meaning, its implied meaning, its indication, and its wording. So much good resulted from this. But if a person's horizons have expanded, then he should look at the opinions of the scholars, because he benefits from them with scientific benefit and practical benefit. But at the beginning of seeking, I advise the student to focus on a specific shaykh and not go beyond him. And if his horizons have expanded, praise be to Allah, the books are available and the shaykhs are many.
The Shaykh : By Allah, my opinion is that this is good. This means that a person focuses on one shaykh from among the shaykhs and makes him the foundation, just as we said regarding the madhhab and others, so that he does not become scattered. Especially the young beginner. The young beginner, if he seeks knowledge from several people, will waver, because people are not of one opinion. Especially in our time now. In the past, meaning a while ago, people here in the Kingdom never deviated from al-Qawa'id and al-Muntaha. You would find their fatwas were the same and their explanations were the same. One did not differ from the other except in delivery and the beauty of style. But now, when every person memorized a hadith or two, he said, "I am Ibn Jala and the one who sees the tips of the fingers, and I am the imam to be followed, and Imam Ahmad is a man, and we are men." So the matter became chaos. Every person started issuing fatwas, and then these fatwas were not based on principles at all, not on any principles. Sometimes, by Allah, fatwas come that make you cry and laugh. I used to be keen to record such fatwas, but I said, "I fear that I will be among those who pursue the faults of their brothers," so I left it to avoid that. Otherwise, things are reported to us that are far from the truth, from the stars to the dust. So I say, as you mentioned, staying with a shaykh whom a person focuses on, as long as he is at the beginning of his seeking, is especially important so that he does not waver. For this reason, our shaykhs used to forbid us from reading al-Mughni and Sharh al-Muhadhdhab and books that contain multiple opinions when we were in the time of seeking. They would say, "This will waste you. You will be happy when you find an issue and see people discussing it, but it will waste you." Some of our shaykhs mentioned that Shaykh 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman Ababatin (may Allah have mercy on him), who was one of the greatest shaykhs of Najd, to the extent that he was called the Mufti of the Najdi lands, was mentioned as being devoted to al-Rawd al-Mu'abbad, not reading anything else, or rather, not reading anything but it, which is the most correct. He would repeat it every time he finished it. But he would take it by its explicit meaning, its implied meaning, its indication, and its wording. So much good resulted from this. But if a person's horizons have expanded, then he should look at the opinions of the scholars, because he benefits from them with scientific benefit and practical benefit. But at the beginning of seeking, I advise the student to focus on a specific shaykh and not go beyond him. And if his horizons have expanded, praise be to Allah, the books are available and the shaykhs are many.