A little knowledge is dangerous knowledge – when a person has a small amount of knowledge and then pretends to be a shaykh giving lectures and teaching at institutions is the biggest danger to the ummah today. And we have a lot of them in our time. Even if the individual does not say he is a shaykh or an expert, but is invited to conferences and seminars to give talks on the deen and he  goes along doing so knowing that he does not have an actual formal education in the field ie. not having studied at an institution or under a shaykh who went on to give him ijazah, is one of the main reasons for the excess amounts of fitna around today.

We find these days many so-called scholars who have been to the university of madinah al-munawwara to study, and have returned to fill imam vacancies. They immediately start to spread their filth. However, when they are approached and a detailed discussion takes way you find that they have no knowledge of hadith or tafsir let alone the principles of fiqh and shariah. You find that they actually went over and learned a bit of arabic (and i say a bit, even their arabic is poor) and memorised a few ahadith. Becoz they fluently recite arabic texts, the laymen immediately assume this person is learned.

A well known scholar ‘Dr Yusuf Qardawi’ said in his book  ‘Islamic  awakening  between Rejection and Extremism’ (pg.  41-3):  “Imam al-Shatibi (Rahimahullah) wrote (in his book  al-I’tisam,  2.  182-4):  ‘Ibn  Abbas  (Allah  be pleased with him) was right.  When a person knows the reason behind a certain  verse or surah, he knows  how to  interpret  it and what its objectives are.  However, ignorance  of  that  leads people  to misinterpret  it and to have different  opinions,  without an insight and  knowledge  which could lead them to the truth, and prevent  them from indulging ignorantly in such matters with no support or evidence from al Shari’ah,  and  therefore  go astray and lead people  astray. This can be  demonstrated by what is reported by Ibn Wahab from Bakir who asked  Nafi’:  What does Ibn Umar  (Allah  be  pleased  with him) think  of  al-Haruriyyah  (i.e;  al-Khawarij  who  were  also  called al-Haruriyyah  after the place -Harawra- where they gathered and were found by Ali ibn Abu Talib and the  Companions  of the  Prophet  [may Allah be pleased with them all] who supported him)?  Nafi’  answered: He thinks they are the most evil of people.  They  applied the verses which pertain to the kuffar on the believers.’  (NB- Imam  al-Bukhari has recorded Ibn Umar as saying in his Sahih [vol.9,  pg.50;  English edn]:  These  people (the  Khawarij  and  heretics ) took some verses that had been revealed  concerning the  disbelievers  and interpreted them as describing the believers ).

Al-Qardawi also  said  (pg.  42):  One  of  the causes of  such shallowness  is that  extremists  never  listen  to  people  who hold different views (and I can personally  testify to that), never accept any  dialogue  with them or  imagine  that  their own views  could be tested in the light of others, and may thereby be either  accepted or rejected.  Most of them have not been taught by reliable Muslim ulama who  are  specialised  in  the  field.  Rather,  they  have  received semi-knowledge directly  from  books  and  newspapers  without  any opportunity for revision or discussion which could test the learner’s understanding  and analyze the depth of his  knowledge.  They  simply read,  ‘understand’,  then  deduce  what they  wish.  However,  their reading, understanding, and deduction may well be wrong or deficient. There  might be someone  somewhere  who  opposes  their  opinions  on stronger and more valid bases, but they are not aware of that because nobody has drawn their attention to such a possibility.  These devout young  people  have  ignored  the facts that if they want to study al Shari’ah, they must seek the help of reliable Muslim  scholars.  They cannot venture into this extensive and entangled  discipline  without the  guidance of  reliable  Muslim  scholars  who can  interpret  and explain  obscurities,  define terms, and point out the  relationships between the parts and the whole and also equate  similarities.  Those who  venture  into it alone  will  meet  with  the same  catastrophic results  which  could  certainly  befall the  unskilled  swimmer  who ventures  into  dangerous  waters.  Proper  knowledge  of al Shari’ah cannot be  perfected  without  practice  and close  contact  with the experts,  especially in those areas where opinions diverge, evidences seem to contradict  each other, and certain  matters seem to be under suspicion.  This is why our  venerable  ‘ulama’ have warned us not to seek to study and  understand al Qur’an al Karim through a person who has only  memorized it without any knowledge of its contents,  nor to seek knowledge  through a person who has acquired his own “knowledge” from reading  newspapers  and journals  only, without being  properly instructed by reputable and qualified scholars.”  (source)