If young, but knowledgeable, you’re still not put forward unless you’re free from Fitnah

In The Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Bestower of Mercy.

Al-Allaamah Ubaid Bin Abdillaah Al-Jaabiriy [may Allah have mercy upon him] stated: When the people of virtue and piety were faced with an adversity and an intricate affair, they would go to the senior people of knowledge to ask them and seek a Jawaab Ash-Shaafee Al-Kaafee [i.e. an appropriate answer that would bring about rectification of the religious affairs and preservation of the well-being of the people based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah]. This is a followed path –beginning since the era of Prophet’s companions, then the Imams of the Taabi’een, and after them, the people of knowledge, virtue, religion and Iman. How beautiful is what Ibn Mas’ud said: “The people will not cease to be righteous and upright as long as knowledge comes to them from the companions of Muhammad [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] and their elders. But if knowledge comes to them from their young ones, they will be destroyed. [1]

Shaikh Abdus Salaam Burgess [may Allaah have mercy upon him] stated in Awaa’iq At-Talab that this ruling is not absolute regarding the young ones, for indeed there were a group of the Sahaabah and the Taabi’een who taught and gave verdicts in their young age, whilst the elders were present. However, the likes of these people are hard to find amongst those who came after them. So, if they are found and are known for being upright, possess knowledge and their firmness is manifested, whilst there are no elders to be found, then knowledge of the Shariah is acquired from them if they are free from fitnah! So, the intent is not that the knowledge possessed by the young person is boycotted, whilst the elders are present; rather the intent is that the people are placed in their rightful positions. [2]

The people intended in this article are those young ones whose certificates of graduation or proficiency in some science of the religion has submerged them into trial, so you find them either with Ahlul Bidah or attacking the well-known elder Salafi students of knowledge in their 50s, or those young self-amazed fools who rely on books and audios whilst abandoning the study circles. May Allah guide them and protect us from their evil Aameen.

[1]
الطيب الجني على شرح السنة للإمام المزني
page 19

[2]

Awaa’iq At-Talab. Page 29-35