So it is upon you O Muslim, and O Student of Knowledge in particular, to verify and that you are not hasty in taking everything that you hear.  It is upon you to verify and to be aware, who is the one who said this thing?  And where did this idea come from?  And then what is its basis, and its proofs from the Book and the Sunnah?  Then where did this person study and who did he take knowledge from?  So these matters require verification, particularly in this time.  So we do not accept every saying that anyone is saying, even if he speaks well, and speaks eloquently, and speaks abundantly and attracts people’s hearing, do not be taken in by it until you look and see the extent of their knowledge and understanding of the Religion that he has.

 Or it may be the case that a person’s speech may be little, but he is a person of understanding of the Religion.  And it might also be the case that a person’s speech may be plentiful, but he is an ignorant one who has nothing from knowledge and understanding of the Religion.  Rather he just has magical/enchanting speech so that he fools the people, and gives the false impression that he is a scholar and that he is a person of understanding and that he is a thinker and the likes of that, so that the people are taken in and he takes them away from the Truth.  So what is counted is not the amount of speech and being able to ramble on, rather what is counted is what it contains with regard to knowledge and what it contains with regard to being based upon correct principles.  And it may be the case with speech that is little but it is correctly based upon correct principles.  This will be far more beneficial than abundant speech which is just lengthy, and from which no benefit can be taken except a little.  And this is the situation in our time, where speech is abundant and knowledge is scarce; the recitors are many, and the people of knowledge and understanding (fuqahaa~) are few in number.  And fiqh (knowledge and understanding of the Religion) does not come about by being able to speak a great deal, or to recite a great deal, or being able to speak well or being able to word things well…

…So the eloquent person, he can turn the Truth into falsehood and falsehood look like the Truth by means of his eloquence, so beware of this.  And therefore the Prophet sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam he warned against the person who is very eloquent in speech, the person who moves his tongue around just as the cows move the tongue around.1  He (sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam) warned against this one and he said,

“Some speech is like magic.”2

Meaning it enchants the people’s hearing (acts like magic upon the hearing of the people)…

… So al-fiqh (knowledge and understanding of the Religion) contains a protection from trials and tribulations.  And al-fiqh means al-fahm (understanding of the Religion).  And a person may have memorized a great deal, but he does not have understanding, so therefore he and the common person are just the same.  Indeed the common person may be better than him because he withholds himself and he recognizes his own ignorance, while this one does not realise that he is actually an ignorant person.  Therefore the matter is not just memorizing a great amount or speaking a great deal.   The matter is a matter of fiqh (understanding) and therefore he sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam said,

“Perhaps one who has something conveyed to him will be better comprehending than the one who heard it (originally).”4

So a person may memorize something, and transmit and narrate, and yet there may be someone there who understands it better than he does.  (Allaah’s Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam said)

“There may be a person who conveys knowledge of the Religion but he is not one who comprehends it.”5

He is a carrier of the knowledge and a transmitter of it, however he is not one who has understanding of it.  So fiqh (knowledge and understanding of the Religion) is a gift from Allaah which Allaah gives to whomever He wishes from His servants.  However, if he utilizes it properly and advances it/causes it to grow then he will benefit from it.  But if he neglects it, it will be lost. 

His saying, “So do not be hasty and do not enter into anything from it until you ask and look:  Did anyone from the Companions of the Prophet  sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam speak with it?”  This is a tremendous piece of advice if some speech pleases you regarding the Religion.  As for speech about the affairs of this world, then that is not the topic under discussion here.  Rather if some speech with regard to the Religion seems pleasing to you then don’t be hasty until you examine it:  Is it founded upon something true and upon proof or is it just from the person’s own head and his own thinking?  For if it is, then it is just scum, like the scum which is carried on the top of flood water.  Leave it (in that case).  But otherwise if it is founded and based upon the Book and the Sunnah, then it is true.  So therefore to do not be hasty in taking speech without restraint, even if it seems pleasing to you in its fine manner of speaking and it is eloquence and its forcefulness and in the style of address, do not be hasty about it until you examine and you test it against the Book and the Sunnah, and examine and see who said it.  Is he a person of knowledge and understanding (a faqeeh) or not a person of knowledge and understanding?  Until you ask the people of knowledge about it (this matter) and you look and see, did anyone from the Salaf (Predecessors) say it or did they not say it?  And this is something I have warned against many times, that I say:  Do not introduce personal deductions and opinions and sayings and wording which have not been preceded upon.  Take as your example the Salaf and the speech of the Salaf, and if you bring something which you have no one who precedes you upon it, then it will be something odd and strange, and its danger will be far more than its benefit.   

Excerpts taken from ‘Ithaaful-Qaaree bit-Ta`leeqaat `alaa Sharhis-Sunnah’ by Shaykh Saalih ibn Fowzaan al-Fowzaan hafizahullaah

Translated by Aboo Talhah Daawood Burbank, rahimahullaah

From Sh Fawzaan’s explanation of Sharh-us-Sunnah:

And harmonising the texts is what is obligatory.  If there are differences between texts, then as far as it is possible to harmonise between them, this must be done.  And this is clear; and all Praise is for Allaah.  And the Speech of Allaah can never contradict itself. Rather some parts of it explain other parts.  As for the person who takes one aayah and abandons a different ayaah, then this is from the people of deviation.  He the Most High said:

فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ في قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاء الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاء تَأْوِيلِهِ

(Explanation)

So as for those people in whose hearts is deviation, then they follow that which is unclear, seeking discord and seeking to falsely interpret it

(Soorah Aali `Imraan (3), aayah 7)

So evidence is taken from the Qur·aan in totality. 

كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ رَبِّنَا 

 (Explanation)

All of it is from our Lord

(Soorah Aali `Imraan (3), aayah 7)

Just as the raasikhoon (those firmly grounded in knowledge) say.  So the Qur·aan, some parts of it explain the rest.  And there can never be any contradiction in it because Allaah has negated from it any contradiction.  He, the Most High, said:

أَفَلاَ يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِندِ غَيْرِ اللّهِ لَوَجَدُواْ فِيهِ اخْتِلاَفًا كَثِيرًا 

(Explanation)

Will they not ponder/reflect upon the Qur·aan.  If it had been from other than Allaah, they would certainly would have found in it many contradictions

(Sooratun-Nisaa· (4), aayah 82)

So if you have a problem in understanding an aayah, then you look into the Qur·aan for that which will explain it.  And if you do not find that, then you go to the Sunnah to find that which will explain it in the Sunnah.  And if you do not find its explanation in the Sunnah, then you go to the sayings of the Companions, those who narrated from the Messenger sallAllaahu ` alayhi wa sallam, to find in their sayings that which will explain the aayah which you have a problem in understanding.  The Qur·aan, and all Praise is for Allaah, is preserved in its wording and in its meaning.  It neither opposes nor contradicts itself, rather contradictions only occur in the understandings of mankind. 

And likewise those false claimants to knowledge, those who did not truly study knowledge and did not take the principles of deriving evidence and of how to reach conclusions, they derive proof without understanding (fiqh).  And they affirm things which no-one before them affirmed from the people of knowledge because of jahl, ignorance, and because of ta`aalum, pseudo-knowledge/false knowledge.  So these are tremendous matters which require learning and require precision and require careful consideration and require verification, because the `aqeedah (creed and belief) is the foundation.  And if there are deficiencies in it, this will be a deficiency in the foundation (of your religion).  

(Translated by Abu Talhah rahimahullaah)

Imam Barbahaaree said:

The Religion is only what came from Allaah the Exalted and Most High. It was not left to the intellects of men and to their opinions; and knowledge of it is what comes from Allaah and from His Messenger (sallAllaahu’alaihiwasallam)

Sh Fawzaan explained:

His saying, “It was not left up to the intellects of men and their opinions.”

The Religion is not what men deem to be good or what they hold as their opinion, because this is not the Religion of Allaah. This is the Religion of the people, which they have newly invented. As for the Religion of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, then it is what He legislated.  As for that which the men hold as their opinion, based upon their own opinions, this is not the Religion of Allaah the Perfect and Most High.  Rather it is just a religion of whoever holds that opinion. So nothing can be ascribed to Allaah from the Religion except that which He legislated upon the tongue of His Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam. And as for what others besides Him legislated, then it cannot be ascribed to Allaah, rather it can only be ascribed to whoever legislated it, and Allaah is free of it.  He the Most High said:

أَمْ لَهُمْ شُرَكَاء شَرَعُوا لَهُم مِّنَ الدِّينِ مَا لَمْ يَأْذَن بِهِ اللَّهُ

Do they have partners who legislate for them religion which Allaah has not permitted (Sooratush-Shooraa (42), aayah 21)

His saying, “And its knowledge is with Allaah and His Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam.” The affairs of the Religion are towqeefiyyah (depend upon text); there must be proofs from Allaah and His Messenger with regard to the affairs of the Religion. The matter is restricted to what occurs in the Book and the Sunnah from the affairs of the Religion. And newly introduced matters and innovations are abandoned, that which Allaah has not sent down any proof for – even if their people hold them to be religion, and they draw closer to Allaah through them, then we turn no attention to these things and we do not believe in them, because the Religion of Allaah is what He legislated and His Messenger.

Because the Religion is based upon knowledge which came from Allaah and His Messenger. And do not follow the desires of the people and the opinions of the people and what they declare to be good and what they follow each other upon, and it has no basis in the Book of Allaah or the Sunnah of His Messenger sallAllaahu `alayhi wa sallam. Just as he `alayhis-salaatu was-salaam said:
“Whoever introduces into this affair of ours that which is not from it, it is rejected.”

And in one narration:
“Whoever does an action which our affair is not in accordance with, it is rejected”[1]

So the person who wishes that his action be righteous and be beneficial, then he should adhere to two matters:

The first matter: is that he makes his Religion pure for Allaah and free from shirk.

And the second matter: ittibaa` following the Sunnah of Allaah’s Messenger sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, free of innovations and newly introduced affairs.

A person will indeed find many things which contradict what is correct in the `aqeedah, matters which contradict what is correct in matters of worship, many of them; (because) the people have desires, and have their own aspirations, and they have  their own opinions and they have their own ways (which  they follow). So we do not follow the people, rather we present whatever the people are upon to the Book and the Sunnah. So whatever conforms with the Book and the Sunnah then it is the Truth, and whatever contradicts these two then it is false and futile.

(Translated by Abu Talhah rahimahullaah)