Questioner:

Some students of knowledge do not approve of studying with some of our brothers who are superior to them in some subjects, and their excuse is that they are not proficient in the Arabic language, and thus they go to study with people of innovation, so should every subject be taken from its people even if they are do not have great knowledge of the Arabic language?

Shaykh Muqbil ibn Hādī al-Wādiʿī:

These people – O’ my brothers, how similar they are to the people of Zabīd (a town in Yemen)! A man came and started speaking against the superstitions and fallacies which they were involved in, and when he finished they said: “Mā Shā Allah he did not make a single grammatical mistake  – not a single grammatical error!”. They gave their attention to his grammar, but as for the meanings which they were more in need of, then no!  The evils which are present amongst us are much worse than whether or not one makes a grammar mistake – this is one issue.

Another point – the virtuous man, Ismāʿil ibn Abī Khālid used to make lots of grammatical mistakes. Ibn ʿAdi – i.e. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAdi, the author of  al-Kāmil also used to make many grammatical mistakes. Ibn Kathīr said regarding some of his teachers, in the explanation of Sūrah al-Ṣaff, under the speech regarding the repeatedly transmitted narration, he said “our shaykh was illiterate, so some of those present read it to us and he would listen.”

Read the books of history. Read the books of ḥadīth. You will find that many people carried out works and did a service for Islam and authored books, and they made grammatical mistakes. [The actions of the people in this question] is wrong. If your friend is proficient in the science of ḥadīth, but he makes grammatical errors – then this is something and that is something else! With this, I advise our brothers to improve themselves [grammatically] because perhaps an innovator or a stubborn person will oppose them because of their grammatical mistakes, and Allah’s ﷻ help is sought.  The point of concern is that this [statement] is considered to be wrong, and we advise those [who say this] to benefit from their brothers from people of Sunnah. Because studying with the people of Sunnah is blessed. They will aid you and Allah’s ﷻ help is sought.