The Importance of Always Referring to the Major Scholars
Imam Ash-Shawkani — may Allah have mercy on him — relates in his book Al-Badr at-Taliʿ (vol. 1, p. 473), in the biography of Ali ibn Qasim Hanash: “Among the insightful statements I heard from him was the following: ‘People fall into three categories:
The first category, the highest in rank, consists of the great scholars. They are able to distinguish truth from falsehood. Even when they disagree, their differences do not give rise to discord, because they recognize the knowledge possessed by one another.
The second category, the lowest in rank, consists of ordinary people who have remained upon their natural disposition (fitrah) and have no aversion to the truth. They follow those whom they take as examples: if those they follow are upon the truth, they are upon the truth as well; and if those they follow are upon falsehood, they are upon falsehood as well.
The third category, which lies between the other two, is the source of evil and the principal cause of the discord that arises in religion. It consists of those who have not pursued knowledge deeply enough to attain the rank of the first category, yet have not remained at the level of the people in the second category. Thus, when they see a scholar from the first category making statements they are unfamiliar with, which contradict the [false] opinions they have adopted due to their shortcomings and lack of knowledge, they attack him and attribute all kinds of reprehensible statements to him. Through their fallacious arguments and deception, they also corrupt the natural disposition (fitrah) of the people in the second category, causing them to turn away from the truth. And it is then that discord in religion reaches its height.’
This is the meaning of the words we heard from him. And he spoke the truth. Whoever reflects upon this matter will find that it is indeed as he described.”