I Do Not Know

Somebody travelled from al-Maghrib — from al-Andalus, from the far west — to Imam Mālik in Madīnah. He had forty questions, and he asked Imam Mālik these forty questions. Imam Mālik answered thirty-four of them with lā aʿlam: I do not know. Forty questions — out of the forty, thirty-four he said: I do not know; Allah knows best. The man said: I came all the way from Morocco to here, and you do not know? Imam Mālik said: I do not know. This man had travelled all the way. And now, sometimes, we volunteer: we jump into a conversation, and we volunteer an answer.

Lā aʿlam niṣfu al-ʿilm — some of the ʿulamāʾ said: I do not know is half of knowledge. A sign of knowledge is when you say: I do not know. That shows that this person has some knowledge.

They came to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once — and we learn two things from this incident with ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Somebody asked ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb a question when ʿUmar was khalīfah. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: did this thing happen? Hal waqaʿat? The man said: no. He said: fine. Go back home. When it happens, then come back and ask me, and I will gather the people of Badr to give you an answer.

We learn from this hadith of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb that we should not try to know about things we do not need to know about. If the incident did not happen, why hypothesise? I mean, there are some outrageous things — like this question that was presented to the fuqahāʾ. This was in the old times. This question was presented to the fuqahāʾ. They said: what if somebody is carrying wind in a bag? You know wind — it comes out of the body. They said: somebody gathered that wind in a bag and put it on his back, and then he flew in the air — they did not have aeroplanes at that time — and then he flew in the air. Can he pray? Can he pray with that wind on his back? Look at the… There is somebody who has nothing to do, lying on his bed thinking about these hypothetical situations.

So ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: I am not going to answer the question. If it did not happen, I am not going to answer it. Go back home; when it happens, then come back. And what did ʿUmar say? He said: I am not going to answer it; I am going to bring the people of Badr who are still alive and form a council, and then we are going to give you a fatwā. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb could not give a fatwā alone; he had to bring the people of Badr to give a fatwā. Allāhu akbar.

Now — in the time of the anbiyāʾ, they were not supposed to ask some questions, because the waḥy was still coming down. Now, you need to ask questions if you do not know. If you do not know something, ask questions. But ask questions about al-ʿilm alladhī yanfaʿ, knowledge that will benefit you. Do not ask about ʿilm lā yanfaʿ, knowledge that will not benefit you.