The methodology of seeking knowledge / SHeikh Salih ibn Abdul Aziz Ali Sheikh ; translated by Abu Zubair Shaheed Muhammad

Summary
Many young students of knowledge read a variety of different books today, at times relating to Hadeeth (i.e. Prophetic Traditions) and at others relating to Tafseer (i.e. Qur'anic Interpretation) or Fiqh (i.e. Jurisprudence). They listen to many lectures and attend the circles of knowledge, but if they would stop for a moment and re-evaluate themselves they would realize that, although some of them attend these lectures for a whole year and some for two years, they never fully comprehended these lectures they were attending, or they would realize that the benefit was not as productive as they anticipated.

This is because they did not acquire a strong knowledge based foundation before attending these lectures. This foundation would have allowed them to properly format, process and comprehend the information they were absorbing, and would have enabled them to pursue the correct path when seeking knowledge. Hence, the sole reason for this deficiency in their comprehension and understanding is the lack of a precise systematic knowledge based methodology when seeking knowledge.

It is imperative for the student to develop and follow a distinctive and systematic method in his search for knowledge, and if he fails to do so, he will eventually fall short in his quest for knowledge. It is because of this we see many students become bored and loose interest in seeking knowledge and after a few years, he abandons the path of knowledge all together. You will find after sometime this same individual eventually returns to his original state of being just a layman from the Muslim_s or from those who suffice themselves with reading from books!!