Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
What is the best way for a Muslim who is concerned about his religion (but busy with university studies, and has a lack of teachers, or teachers who have enough time) to learn what is obligatory on him about the religion? Is it obligatory for every religious person to read many Islamic texts? Is it wrong if one likes to look into the proofs [s. for legal rulings] because it increases one in conviction and ambition?
What is the knowledge obligatory upon those morally responsible?
http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00003646.aspx
Recorded translation by Faraz Rabbani
Text translation by Shazia Ahmad
The obligation on a morally responsible Muslim is to expend his efforts in the way of learning what is obligatory on him to learn, including: `aqida (tenets of faith), purification, prayer, fasting, buying and selling and everything that affects him because of his occupations, such as being a doctor. If he doesn’t learn these, he is a sinner. The purpose in making these things obligatory to learn is that make one’s worship and business valid through [s. knowledge of] its components and conditions. As for knowledge beyond that, it is sunna to learn, and also, let it be known that learning the obligatory is not restricted to reading a text or a book. It is possible that on might get one’s questions answered about obligatory knowledge, such as a question about `aqida or a ruling that personally affects him concerning his worship or trade, but the best way to understand the rulings is persisting attending knowledge-based fiqh lessons by a person who is qualified to teach. All in all, the obligatory is reaching this knowledge to take the morally responsible individual out of sin, whether this be by way of one book, many books or by asking. One is not excused from this [s. acquiring the obligatory knowledge] by saying one is busy with [s. secular] studies or anything else, for the responsibility of the Muslim is that he exalt the commands of the shari`a, and that he be avid to follow them and not neglect them by occupying himself with matters of this world; even though making a suitable living is required in the shari`ah, the matter of the afterlife takes precedence over it. One should also be aware that the time it takes to learn the personally obligatory knowledge is not much, especially compared to all the time that one wastes in amusement and play, which is the case with many people. So let the questioner and others, organize their time and take advantage of his youth to correct his religion and this worldly-affairs.
As for a Muslim who enjoys looking at the proofs of rulings, it is not wrong, it is even sunna to learn, for knowing the proofs is from the sciences of the shari`ah. So whoever occupies himself with learning the proofs, memorizing them and recording them, will be rewarded, he will get the blessings of seeking knowledge that is unmatched. But one should be aware of an important matter, that most people are heedless of, who like to look at the proofs and haven’t reached the level of scholars and that is: that many Islamically uneducated people who have merely memorized some proofs, think themselves as scholars of their age and give themselves the positions of a ruler and judge on the fiqh of imams of the religion who have beautified this world with their knowledge and have given glory to the afterlife by their rewards. So this person then starts to reject what they say and the rulings that they have deduced from texts of the law and its regulations. They reject them so much that they retain no more adab, as many that we know by experience. So when this occurs, it makes the learning of what is sunna, a path to what is actually haram, for it is not permissible for an uneducated person to condemn scholars in what is derived from ijtihad and study. Even the scholars cannot condemn scholars in matters where there is genuine difference of opinion
– Amjad Rasheed