Disadvantages of limiting oneself only to books

There are two ways of acquiring knowledge: 

1 – Acquiring it from trustworthy books,
which have been written by scholars who are known for their knowledge
and trustworthiness and whose ‘aqeedah (belief) is known to be free
of innovations (bid’ah) and myths. 

Taking knowledge from books can help
a person to reach a certain level, but there are two obstacles: 

The first obstacle is that this takes
a long time, because one needs a lot of time and a lot of painstaking
effort until he gets the knowledge he wants. Many people may not be
able to overcome this obstacle, especially when they see that those
around them have wasted their time without gaining anything, so they
get bored and tired, then they do not get what they want. 

The second obstacle is that the knowledge
of the person who acquires knowledge from books is usually weak, because
it is not built on a solid foundation. Hence we find many mistakes made
by those who take their knowledge from books, because they have no guidelines
or principles with which to deal with minor issues referred to in the
Qur’aan and Sunnah. We find some people come across a hadeeth which
is not mentioned in the reliable books of Saheeh and Musnad, and this
method goes against the principles followed by the scholars and indeed
by the ummah, then they take this hadeeth and build their belief on
it. Undoubtedly this is wrong, because the Qur’aan and Sunnah have principles
around which the minor issues revolve, and if there is something that
contradicts these principles and cannot be reconciled with them, then
that should be abandoned.

2 – One of the ways of gaining knowledge is to learn
from a scholar who is trustworthy with regard to his knowledge and his
religious commitment. This way is quicker and is more reliable, because
in the first method the seeker of knowledge may go astray without realizing
it, either because of misunderstanding or because he is lacking in knowledge,
or for some other reason. But in the second method he can discuss, give
and take with his teacher, which will open to the student many doors
to understanding and examining, how to defend the correct views and
refute weak views.  The student should prioritize and read book
which summarize knowledge before studying it in depth. In this manner
he will progress gradually. He should not move on to the next level
before he has thoroughly grasped the current level; in this way his
progress will be sound.