`Ata’ ibn As-Sa’ib said:
“I knew knowledgeable persons who would experience extreme fear on answering a question posed to them lest it would be wrong.”
`Umar ibn Al-Khattab would also say to his Companions:
“The readier one of you is to answer any question posed to him, the readier he is to enter the Hellfire.’’
Ibn Mas`ud also said:
“I strongly believe that he who gives his opinion on every matter people ask him about is really unwise.”
Whenever the most knowledgeable person among the righteous Successors
Sa`id ibn Al-Musayyab came to giving a legal opinion on a certain matter, he would say: “O Allah save me from giving a wrong opinion and spare others the wrongness of my opinion.”
Many times
Abu Hanifah was reported to have said ‘‘I do not know the answer” although he was brilliant in answering (difficult) juristic questions and showed great ability in deducing and generating juristic rulings.
Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi quoted Abu Yusuf as saying, “I heard
Abu Hanifah saying, ‘But for fear of Almighty Allah’s wrath that I had not made use of my knowledge, I would not have given fatwas at all to whoever asks me. The person who asks me gets the benefit of knowing the answer anyway, while I bear the responsibility (before Almighty Allah) if it has been wrong!’”
Abu Hanifah also said:
“One who gives fatwas and imparts religious knowledge freely without thinking that Allah would bring him to account by asking him, How come you give fatwas without possessing the required knowledge to give them? Such a person is putting himself and his religious commitment at stake. Imam Malik showed far greater cautiousness in this regard. For example, he said, “When a scholar is asked a question, he should first consider to where he will be admitted in the Hereafter, the Paradise or the Hellfire, and reflect upon how he will save himself from punishment on that Day, and then he can answer the question.”
Ibn Al-Qasim reported, “I heard
Malik saying ‘I am reflecting on a juristic question for more than ten years now and I have not reached an answer yet.’”
Ibn Mahdi also quoted
Malik as saying “I may spend a whole night meditating upon one juristic question.”
Mus`ab as well reported, ‘‘My father asked me to take a person who has a problem to
Malik to ask him about a solution to it. When I did, Malik said ‘I do not have a solution to it. Ask the knowledgeable people about it.’”
Ibn Abu Hassan said about
Malik, “Once, Malik was asked twenty-two juristic questions, yet he did not answer more than two questions of them, saying every now and then ‘There is neither might nor power except with Allah.’” Sometimes Malik would say on being asked a juristic question, “(Religious) knowledge is far wider than this.” Once upon his saying statements of this kind, some people said to him, “If you [with all that knowledge] say you do not know, who else would?” He replied, “What are you saying? You do not know me well! I am nobody! What is it that distinguishes me from you so that I know what you do not know?” He then quoted Ibn `Umar as saying “I am not as knowledgeable as you think me to be; I am nobody! It is self-conceitedness and seeking prominence in society that bring about ruin to people, and thus few are the people who have true knowledge.”
Mus`ab also related, “Once,
Malik was asked about something and he said, ‘I do not know the answer.’ The questioner, who was an influential person, said, ‘It is an easy question and I just want to inform the prince about an answer to it.’ Malik replied, ‘An easy question! There is nothing easy in (religious) knowledge. Have you not heard Almighty Allah’s words (Soon shall We send down to thee a weighty Message) (Al-Muzammil 73:5)? Knowledge of this message is thus not as easy as you say, especially when it comes to asking about fatwas derived from it!’”
Malik was also reported to have said every now and then on giving fatwas, ‘‘There is neither might nor power except with Allah’’ and(We deem it naught but a conjecture, and we are by no means convinced) (Al-Jathiya 45:32).
Abu Dawud reported that once
Imam Ahmad was asked to give his personal juristic opinion on a question, but he said, “Let us not tackle such innovated matters.”
Abu Dawud also said:
“Many times I heard Imam Ahmad saying (when asked to give his opinion) on controversial scholarly issues ‘I do not know.”
Once, a man came to
Imam Ahmad and asked him to give his personal opinion on a certain matter, but he said, “I have no answer to it.” Then he cited the statement of `Abdullah ibn Mas`ud referred to above.