The Shaykh’s remarks on following a school of jurisprudence, its guidelines, and its current reality.

The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: What do you mean, from his country?
The student: No, our Shaykh...

The Shaykh: May Allah guide you.
The student : Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh: I am saying now that in most Islamic countries, it is not possible to seek knowledge except through following a school of jurisprudence. This may not be something you have fully digested, but you must listen to something that is not yet digested for you, so that with time it becomes digested.
The student: If Allah wills, and peace be upon you.

The Shaykh: I am saying.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: Seeking knowledge today is not possible except through following a school of jurisprudence, except in some countries where there are Salafi callers to Islam and scholars who spread the call and teach people pure jurisprudence, not the jurisprudence of a specific school. But what is the proportion of this in the Muslim world?
The student: It is small.

The Shaykh: Perhaps one in a million, or even less than that. But we say: whoever is afflicted with seeking knowledge through following a school of jurisprudence must not make following a school of jurisprudence the ultimate goal he ends up with — peace be upon you, welcome — for it is merely a means to Islamic sacred law; he should not stop there but rather progress.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: He moves from following a scholar without knowing his evidence to following the evidence, and from following the evidence to independent legal reasoning, if that is facilitated for him. If it is not facilitated, many of the doctors today study the school of jurisprudence and die upon it.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: Even though they have acquired some of the means that enable them to escape from following a scholar without knowing his evidence and to elevate themselves to at least the level of following the evidence.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: The reality is not so, but I am saying we need to visualize, my brother, the reality and not talk about the fantasy. The one who lives in Albania, for example, or in Yugoslavia, where is he going to learn in the manner of Ibn Hazm? Where is he going to learn?
The student: What does he do?

The Shaykh: It is impossible.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: Yes, and , but when he is alerted and it is said to him, my brother, you studied the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, or you did not study it but received it from your fathers and grandfathers, but now knowledge has expanded and we have many books of Qur'anic exegesis and books of hadith, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said such and such, and so on. This is one thing, and another thing — also — is that you must have this idea: it is not just that we come and see a man of a specific school of jurisprudence, you or he or I or that one, and we say to him, Allah said such and such, and he does not accept our words. We do not come and judge him as a man who is fanatical about his school of jurisprudence and rejects the hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). We also must not take this stance. Why? Because he is excused. Who are you? Who am I? Who is he? He has what we do not know yet.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: And therefore the call requires some wisdom and strategy. I am pleased with a phrase from some of these callers to Islam, but it is applied within limits and not as a general rule: "Cast your word and walk away," "Cast your word and walk away." This is among the meanings of His saying — the Exalted — : .
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: , there is no deity but Allah.