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Is it permissible to memorize the Quran from a shaykh who contradicts the Sunnah?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A student of knowledge must accompany the pious, righteous scholars—those who possess taqwa (God-consciousness) and uprightness—to learn from them knowledge, practice, and ethics. If he does not find them, he should move to the next best, and so on. He should not acquire knowledge from those who are not worthy of emulation, such as innovators (ahl al-bid'ah) and sinners. However, if he finds no one else, he may learn the Qur'an from them, while being cautious of their innovations. The righteous predecessors used to carefully select their shaykhs and warn against the people of innovation. Imam Malik said: "Indeed, this knowledge is religion, so be careful from whom you take it." In conclusion, a student of knowledge should carefully choose his shaykhs, but if he does not find the desired shaykh, he may learn knowledge and memorize the Qur'an from others.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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