Scholars and Students of Knowledge
Is Tazkiyah Required for a Woman to Teach in the Mosque Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayan
Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayan explains that knowledge must be taken from qualified scholars. A woman who learns only from translated books and tapes without proper guidance should not teach others. Teaching without correct understanding can lead to mistakes and burden her with others’ sins.
Questioner:
May Allāh be benevolent to you and bless you, the female questioner says: A muslim woman who seeks knowledge through the route of translated books and cassettes and has the opportunity to contact the scholars for matters that become difficult for her (to understand). Is it permissible for her, or possible for her to teach other Muslim women in the mosque built upon the situation of there not being anyone besides her to teach them matters of etiquette, creed and methodology?
Shaykh ʿAbdullāh al-Ghudayān:
It is known that a person takes knowledge from the mouths of the scholars and takes every (type) of knowledge from the person who is grounded in this knowledge. So when you wish to take knowledge of tafsīr of the Qurʾān you take it from a person grounded in this knowledge and likewise for all the other sciences, and this is is one means.
The second means is that a person reads books, but he does not read books and depend on them unless he is fit and capable of understanding them upon the right way. Because if he had deficiency in his understanding he may understand something upon other than the correct way and afterwards he may speak with what he has understood and what he speaks with is a mistake, then the people act upon what he has made them to understand erroneously and hence he will carry the burden of their sin.
In relation to this woman, I advise that she does not teach because she reads from (translated) books without anyone to make her understand these books. This is the answer to this question.
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