Words from the Senior Scholars (may Allaah have mercy on them)

SHAYKH MUHAMMAD IBN SAALIH AL-‘UTHAYMEEN:

“It is essential for a student of knowledge to safeguard his time from being wasted. And time wasting occurs in a number of ways: – Firstly: That one leaves committing to memory and revising what one has read. Secondly: That one sits with his friends and indulges in vain and idle talk which contains no benefit.Thirdly, and this is the most harmful of them upon a student of knowledge: That he has no concern except pursuing people’s statements with he said this and he said that (ma qila wa ma qala) and with what occurred and what is taking place regarding an issue that is of no concern to him. And there is no doubt that this is from a weakness of [his] Islaam, since the Prophet saw said: “Part of a person’s good Islaam is to leave alone that which does not concern him.” And busying oneself with qila wa qala and excessive questioning are time-wasters.

And it is, in reality, a disease which, when it comes into man – we ask Allaah for well-being – it becomes his greatest concern. Due to this, he may even sometimes show enmity (‘ada) to one who does not deserve enmity, or show allegiance (wala) to one who does not deserve allegiance, because of concerning himself with these issues which pre-occupy him away from knowledge, under the pretext of “championing the truth”, whilst this is not the case! Rather, this is part of preoccupying oneself with an issue that does not concern him. If, however, a report comes to you without you having pursued or sought it, then all people receive news, but they do not busy themselves with it, nor does it become their greatest concern. This is because this pre-occupies the student of knowledge, corrupts his affair; and opens up for the Ummah the door of bigoted partisanship (hizbiyyah), which then splits the Ummah.” [Kitaabul ‘Ilm (204-205)]