Al-Fawzan On Depending On Books And The Internet For Knowledge

Shaykh Ṣāliḥ b. Fawzān Al-Fawzān was asked the following question after delivering a lecture on Being Upright on the Religion of Allāh, at a university in Saudi Arabia.

Question 3: Is it allowed for a student of knowledge who studies at this university to take knowledge from the Internet? [The questioner] says we have advised him but he says some scholars have allowed this.

Response: Knowledge is not to be taken from the Internet, cassettes (recordings) or books; rather knowledge is only taken from the scholars. Knowledge is through direct personal learning (al-talaqqī), one must learn and understand [knowledge] from the scholars. If knowledge could be taken from books, or whatever else takes their place, the scholars, in the past, would not have travelled to [other] scholars to learn from them and take knowledge from them. And Allāh the Lofty and Sublime said (what means):

And it is not (proper) for the believers to go out (in battle) all together. Of every troop of them, a party only should go forth, that they [who are left behind] may get instruction in religion, and that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware [of evil]. 

Meaning of Qurān 9:122

Thus, it is necessary to travel to the people of knowledge, to the Islamic universities and colleges, to learn Islamic knowledge wherever it is found, and a person must not suffice himself with browsing (reading from books), listening to cassettes or the likes; one only benefits by these things as utilities. As for depending on them and [then] considering oneself a knowledgeable person (scholar), this is a gross error, yes.

Al-Fawzān, Ṣāliḥ b. Fawzān. ‘Being Upright On The Religion Of Allāh’. Official Website of His Eminence Shaykh Dr Ṣāliḥ b. Fawzān Al-Fawzān. Web. 12 Mar. 2015. Available at: http://www.alfawzan.af.org.sa/node/4439

Published on Thu 12 Mar, 2015 by  Ustaadh Owais Al-Hashimi (حفظه الله)

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Source: https://owaisalhashimi.info/al-fawzan-on-depending-on-books-and-the-internet-for-knowledge/ 

Note: Posted with kind permission 

How to Recognize the Callers to Misguidance | Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān

The Questioner:

The following question is from the student ‘Alī Jābir who thanks your eminence and says how do we know the callers to misguidance in this time who incite unrest and turmoil; particularly those who do so through social media?

Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān:

“First of all, one must know where did they study and from where did they take knowledge? This is the first thing.

Secondly, you must know the methodology which they traverse upon.

Who they imitate? Whose example do they follow? Do they follow the example of the Imāms of Islām and the scholars of Islām or do they follow other than them?

So there must be a distinction made between these people and other than them by knowing from where did they take knowledge, who did they study with and who did they develop  under? So that their origin, methodology and history can be known.”

Translated by Abu-Layth Qaāsim Mutiva 

Originally published on December 7, 2016 by www.MasjidalWahyain.com