Explanation of the author's statement: The twentieth: That the cause of the loss of knowledge is the death of the scholars.

The Shaykh :"The twentieth: That the cause of the loss of knowledge is the death of the scholars". Yes, this is one of the greatest causes of the loss of knowledge: that the scholars die, leaving only the ignorant people to issue rulings without knowledge. Among the other causes of the loss of knowledge are heedlessness, turning away from it, preoccupation with the affairs of this world, and indifference to it, for these are among the causes of its loss. Then, knowledge may exist yet be considered nonexistent, and that is when there are many readers but few jurists. There are many readers who know the knowledge, but the jurists who act upon their knowledge are few. In reality, this makes the knowledge useless, and its existence is like its nonexistence. Indeed, its existence is more harmful to the community than its absence, because when the common people see someone who claims affiliation with knowledge and who knows the knowledge, but he is silent and does not act in accordance with his knowledge, they assume that what people are doing is right and correct. Thus, the harm of knowledge that does not benefit is greater than the harm of ignorance. If it were ignorance, they would seek the knowledge and look for it. Therefore, the summary of this chapter is to clarify that the cause of disbelief is not limited to one cause, nor is there no other cause. What is the cause of disbelief? Exaggeration regarding the righteous. And exaggeration is dangerous and has severe consequences. So we must place the righteous in their proper station, and the Muslim and the criminal, and the righteous and the corrupt, are not equal. We place each in his station, but we do not exceed that station by exaggerating in him. So the important thing is that the religion of Allah is a middle path; it does not give a person more than he deserves, nor does it deprive him of what he deserves. And this is justice.