imam malik is known to reply 'laa adri'/i don't know readily even if he had a slight doubt, though he knew the answer. siyar a'alam an-nubala: al-haytham ibn jamil said: i heard malik being asked forty eight questions and he answered thirty two of them with: 'i don't know'. [i.e., he answered only sixteen; twice as many he replied 'i don't know'] from khalid ibn khidash, who said: i presented forty questions to malik and he answered not except five. ibn abd al-Barr said: it is correctly [narrated] from abu darda'a that: 'i don't know' is half the knowledge' [lā adrī nişfu'l ílm]
this has been posted on our forum before but it is truly befitting here: jahilta wa lam taálam bi annaka jaahilun fa man lī bi an tadrī bi annaka lā tadrī? wa min aájabi'l ashyāyi annaka lā tadri wa annaka lā tadrī bi annaka lā tadrī You are ignorant; and you don't know that you are ignorant How can i make you understand that you don't know? And the amazing thing is that you don't know, and that you don't know, that, you don't know. Kitāb Adab ad-Dunyā wa’d Dīn, Al-Māwardī, pg.
this is related to recent threads in particular but internet "scholars" in general. why can't people just say these 3 magic words? why are they so proud and haughty? i believe it was imam malik who was asked 48 questions and he said "i don't know" to most of them due to his taqwa. today, we have these novices who have heard a few lectures and read a few books and think they can challenge the real masters of yore. it is so irritating for me to see this lack of sincerity and the arrogance of people who can't even accept that they are wrong even if the truth is manifest. you can't understand fiqh or usul al-fiqh; hadith or usul al-hadith - so just ask those who do. and when they tell you; lower your heads out of respect. and when you are asked about matters that are beyond you; please plead ignorance. the master sallAllahu 'alaihi wasallam said the hellfire is for those who interpret the qur'an according to their whims. suyuti is telling you; ghazali is doing the same; muhaqqiq e dihlawi too; zabidi and the list is long - but no, oh no, we are too proud to accept their verdicts because it goes against us. this is similar to the christians and jews who would pay their scholars to change their books so that rulings would suit them. instead of acceptance, they changed the texts! --- after the truth is so manifest; people still unwilling to accept it proves once again that tawfiq is only from Allah.
our giant scholars of the past did not have a problem saying the 3 words that even the novices amongst us cannot seem to manage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7711221.stm
