Shaykh al-Islam—may Allah have mercy on him—relates in his treatise al-Fatwā al-Ḥamawiyyah that the earlier scholars used to say: “Nothing has corrupted worldly affairs and religion except four kinds of people: a half-learned theologian, a half-learned jurist, a half-learned linguist, and a half-learned physician.

• The half-learned theologian undermines religions and creeds, for those who dabble in speculative theology without reaching its end become beguiled by it, whereas those who do reach its end recognize its true nature and return to the truth.

• The half-learned jurist ruins entire lands, because he judges without justice, throwing this man’s right to that man and that man’s right to this.

• The half-learned grammarian corrupts the tongue; imagining he has mastered the rules of Arabic, he commits errors that spoil speech.

• The half-learned physician destroys bodies: lacking proper knowledge, he may prescribe a medicine that is really a poison, or fail to prescribe the needed cure, and the patient dies.”

The upshot is that no one may issue a legal ruling except where he is truly qualified to do so. If Allah, exalted be He, has willed that a person become an imam for the people—guiding them and giving them fatwas along a straight path—that will surely come to pass; but if Allah has not willed it, his audacity in issuing fatwas will benefit him nothing.

Ibn Masʿūd—may Allah be pleased with him—then cited as proof the words of the Most High: “Say: I ask you for no recompense for this, nor am I one of those who affect pretension.” (Quran 38:86) And Allah is the One who grants success.