{"_id":"668da0840b76658b4c233952","title":"How does one know which books one can read without a teacher and books that need to be taught by a teacher (regarding Islamic material)?","question":"How does one know which books one can read without a teacher and books that need to be taught by a teacher (regarding Islamic material)?","answer":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"In every discipline of the Islamic sciences, it is essential to begin studying with a qualified teacher (shaykh). Once the student has built a strong foundation, they can continue their studies through independent reading. It is extremely dangerous to trivialize this process and assume that one can self-study entirely, which is a common trend in our times. This is one of the reasons for the prevalent confusion and chaos. There is an old Arabic saying: من كان شيخه كتابه فخطؤه اكثر من صوابه \\\"Whoever has a book as his teacher, his mistakes will outnumber his accuracies.”\\n\\nThe key point is that we have foundational disciplines such as Aqidah (theology), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Hadith (prophetic traditions), Tafsir (Quranic exegesis), Usul (principles of jurisprudence), Arabic language, Tazkiya (spiritual purification), and Seerah (biography of the Prophet and sahaba). These disciplines are fundamental, necessitating a teacher to ensure a solid grounding. Once a person has established a strong foundation, they can then independently explore these disciplines and others in greater depth.\\n\\nIt was once said to Imam Abu Hanifa, “In such and such a mosque there is a circle that discusses fiqh (lit. the “understanding of fine points of the religion”)”. He asked, “Do they have a master over them?” and they said no. He said, “They will never understand” (Ibn Muflih, al-Adab al-shariyya wa al-minah al-mariyya. 3 vols. Cairo n.d. Reprint. Cairo: Maktaba Ibn Taymiya, 1398/1978, 3.374).\\n\"}]}","tags":[{"_id":"668d9fe50b76658b4c232851","tag":"Contemporary Life: Knowledge","count":33},{"_id":"668d9fe70b76658b4c23288e","tag":"Knowledge: Scholars","count":22}],"createdOn":"2024-07-09T20:41:40.622Z"}