How did His Eminence Shaykh Ibn Baz seek knowledge?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
How much we wish that you would clarify for us, may Allah preserve you, how you sought knowledge? And how did you progress in it? Perhaps there is in this sound guidance for us in our scholarly and practical lives.
Answer:
I sought knowledge when I was young and seeing, and I completed memorizing the Qur'an, praise be to Allah, before reaching puberty. I read the Qur'an to Shaykh Abdullah ibn Farid (may Allah have mercy on him) in Riyadh, and I studied knowledge while I was young in Riyadh under several shaykhs, among them: our Shaykh, the Qadi of Riyadh, Saleh ibn Abdulaziz Al-Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), who lived next to our house and prayed in the mosque around us.
Then I stuck to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) for ten years or more, and I read most of the lessons related to hadith, fiqh, grammar, terminology, and usul al-fiqh with him, along with a large scholarly circle (may Allah have mercy on him). He is the eldest of my shaykhs, and he was a great, successful teacher (may Allah have mercy on him). I graduated under his hand, and I read from others, but my reading with him is a significant reading, and it is a reading of great acquisition through his path (may Allah have mercy on him); because he was good in teaching, and good in caring for the students, and his gatherings were continuous, and his circles in the morning and evening were continuous: in the morning, in the late morning, at midday, in the afternoon, and at sunset (may Allah have mercy on him). I stuck to him until I was appointed to the judiciary in the year 1357 of the Hijrah, in the Al-Kharj region.
My sight went in the first year of 1350 of the Hijrah, and I was nineteen years old. When my sight was affected, it was in the year 1346, and some of it remained with me, meaning: I could find my way, and I would read some things, and I would read some, but the sight had weakened. And at the end of the year 1349 and the beginning of the year 1350, the sight went completely, praise be to Allah.
This is some of what happened in my seeking of knowledge, and I memorized the Qur'an as mentioned earlier in the state of youth before engaging with most of the sciences.
How much we wish that you would clarify for us, may Allah preserve you, how you sought knowledge? And how did you progress in it? Perhaps there is in this sound guidance for us in our scholarly and practical lives.
Answer:
I sought knowledge when I was young and seeing, and I completed memorizing the Qur'an, praise be to Allah, before reaching puberty. I read the Qur'an to Shaykh Abdullah ibn Farid (may Allah have mercy on him) in Riyadh, and I studied knowledge while I was young in Riyadh under several shaykhs, among them: our Shaykh, the Qadi of Riyadh, Saleh ibn Abdulaziz Al-Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), who lived next to our house and prayed in the mosque around us.
Then I stuck to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) for ten years or more, and I read most of the lessons related to hadith, fiqh, grammar, terminology, and usul al-fiqh with him, along with a large scholarly circle (may Allah have mercy on him). He is the eldest of my shaykhs, and he was a great, successful teacher (may Allah have mercy on him). I graduated under his hand, and I read from others, but my reading with him is a significant reading, and it is a reading of great acquisition through his path (may Allah have mercy on him); because he was good in teaching, and good in caring for the students, and his gatherings were continuous, and his circles in the morning and evening were continuous: in the morning, in the late morning, at midday, in the afternoon, and at sunset (may Allah have mercy on him). I stuck to him until I was appointed to the judiciary in the year 1357 of the Hijrah, in the Al-Kharj region.
My sight went in the first year of 1350 of the Hijrah, and I was nineteen years old. When my sight was affected, it was in the year 1346, and some of it remained with me, meaning: I could find my way, and I would read some things, and I would read some, but the sight had weakened. And at the end of the year 1349 and the beginning of the year 1350, the sight went completely, praise be to Allah.
This is some of what happened in my seeking of knowledge, and I memorized the Qur'an as mentioned earlier in the state of youth before engaging with most of the sciences.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.