Why Muslims Say 'I Don't Know'

Good chance. Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

This evening, I'd to share with you a few thoughts regarding a statement in the book of Allah. And this statement is not only a verse from the Quran or a part of the Quran. This verse represents one of the fundamental elements that make up the Muslims character and the believer's character. Oftent times when we speak about character, character, the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam had the best character and indeed I was sent in order to teach you the best of character and all of these things that many of us have heard. What usually comes to mind when we think of character, a very superficial definition of character and that is, oh, he used to always smile. He was super nice to everybody. Never offended anyone. Everyone liked him because he was so nice. This is not the epitome of character. Character is more than that. This is part of character. Being gentle. Gentle and gentleness is the essence and it is the norm. Harshness is the exception. It has its place but it is the exception. and so forth. But this is not the epitome of character. Character is much more broad than that. When was asked about the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's character, what did she reply? I'm sure that 99% of us here have all heard this before. She was asked about the prophet's character and she said, "Huh, right. His character was the Quran." Let's read the Quran. Let's look at it. the Quran. What are the characteristics that he had that we find in the Quran? Love for the sake of Allah, anger for the sake of Allah, a jealousy over the religion of Allah, a standing for the truth even at the detriment of of a person's own soul. the way of the prophets, the of Allah, the worship of Allah alone without any partners, the rejection of fables and fantasies and superstitions, all of these things from alhamdulillah all the way to this is all character. that is for the believer. And so when was asked what was his character, she said his character was the Quran. Meaning the best example or the best one to exemplify the characteristics of the Quran are found in our prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam. There is a verse in the Quran and its meaning is mentioned throughout the Quran. This is elemental in the Muslim and the believer's character. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says this is the verse. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes the people of knowledge. Those who were given knowledge that made them appropriate witnesses to testify to the greatest truth of all of existence. What is the greatest truth of all of existence? Huh? The greatest truth of all of existence is what? The oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is innate. It is inherent. He does not need his creation to make him one. He is one and unique and only subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is the greatest truth of all of existence. And so Allah chose the angels and the people of knowledge to testify to that great truth. He says, he says, subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah has testified himself and his angels and the people of knowledge who are upon justice and truth that none is rightfully worshiped but alone. law. There is no greater truth. What makes these men and women appropriate witnesses to this great truth coupled with the witness of Allah and the testimony of the angels. One of their characteristics that Allah described just a few verses before. when they hear something from the Quran or something from the messenger of Allah sallall.aii wasallam that they do not understand. Their response is not to reject. Their response is not to twist and turn. Their response is we believe in it. All of it is from Allah. Listen to the words here. And why is this a characteristic of the believer? I am never, no matter how many lifetimes I live, if I lived a thousand times over, going to understand me alone, every aspect of every verse in the Quran and every single narration of the prophet sallall.aii No human being was able to do this but.

[Arabic recitation]

As a said that only a prophet is able to embody the entirety of the sunnah. There's going to be parts of the Quran that I don't understand or don't know. There's going to be aspects of the Sunnah that I don't understand and I don't know. There's going to be aspects of the Quran and Sunnah that every one of us is faced with that you will not understand. Either you will not understand immediately because you're not ready to understand or because you don't have the tools to understand yet or you're just not built to understand it. This is the words of Allah. The book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it is a miracle in itself that it was made that the words of Allah were made comprehensible to the human being. This is a miracle in itself. We are speaking about the one that has no beginning. Allah has no end. Allah didn't come from anyone and no one comes from him in the same way. He was not begotten and he does not beget. He is eternal. What does that mean? What does that mean? How can we comprehend something that? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed himself ever so slightly to the mountain in front of MS and it turned to dust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that MS said my lord let I would to see you and Allah said to him he said you will not be able to see me now. However, look at that mountain, a mountain. Look at that mountain and if it remains in its place and together, then you can see me. Allah says, "And when Allah exposed himself to the mountain in the prophet sallall.aii commented on this verse. He said.

[Silence]

He said when Allah exposed himself to the mountain, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam made this gesture with his hand when he recited this verse. meaning ever so briefly a fleeting exposure and a mountain was rendered into dust. This is a mountain. This book, the Quran, comes from that creator, subhanahu wa ta'ala. There will be things in it that you and I don't understand. All of the Muslim scholars collectively as a whole in every generation understand all of the Quran, but no one man understands it all. And no one woman can. There's going to be things that you hear in the Quran, in the Sunnah, that you don't understand. You might not be ready to understand. What is your recourse? What is your recourse when you're faced with something you don't understand? Do you argue? Do you dismiss? Do you twist the verse or the narration to mean all kinds of outlandish things to make it understandable or comprehensible? That's not the way of the people of knowledge. The people of knowledge, the first thing they understand, if they don't understand anything, they understand their own limitations. and they've come to terms with the their limitations and they know I can't understand everything always and so I'll be faced with things that I don't understand and when I am faced with one of these issues that I do not understand. I don't ask questions that I shouldn't ask. I don't twist the text to fit my narrative. I don't interpret it in the way that I feel and I think because now we're in the era of I think right everyone when they I think well you know I feel right you get a 20-year-old 18year-old on a podcast they're going to tell us now how the world works right there they still haven't even graduated high they're going to tell us how the world work they have a million followers they must know what they're talking about right and then you Listen, I you know what I think? I think that a marriage in order for it to be a good marriage, never been married, they have no idea what they're talking about. No guidance from Allah and no experience from the world. What are they offering us? They're speaking purely because they have a mouth. That's the only reason, right? This is the era that we're in. The Muslim has the character to say that's how it is. That's our religion. I don't understand it specifically, but it's from Allah, and that's what we stand for. You're not going to understand every single thing. And now we feel we have to apologize for our religion. Oh, what about this narration? No, no, no. You know, narrations, they're not really, they're not the Quran. We only take the Quran. Narrations, you know, they're they're iffy. We don't know where they really came from. You know what it's like. And then you ask someone, why are you speaking if you have no knowledge? Why? What are your qualifications to say these things? You're saying things that 1,500 years worth of scholarship never said before you. Are you the new discoverer of Islam? Have you discovered something about the Quran and Sunnah that our prophet was unaware of and all of the scholars of Islam were unaware of? tell us. And so the issue is is that you ask why are you speaking without knowledge? Why? If you don't know, just say I don't know. There's nothing wrong with that. That's how the people of knowledge speak. They say I don't know. When they don't. As a matter of fact, one of the companions said, "I don't know is half of all knowledge. Allah knows best is half of knowledge. They say, "Well, you know, we have to defend Islam." You don't defend Islam by destroying Islam. That's not how it works. Imagine with me the parable. There's an Arabic parable of a man who had a friend as a bear. There was a man and a bear. They were good friends. And when this man would sleep, this bear loved this man so much. He's a bear. He's a He's a He's a beast. He has a beastial intelligence, right? And so he would watch over this man as he slept. He loves this man. He guards him. And so once a fly landed on the sleeping man's nose. And so the bear took a boulder to smash the fly. and smash the fly and his friend's head with it. Right? This is what you're doing when you're defending Islam without knowledge. Right? And so this character that we need to instill not only in our children but in ourselves. Oftent times we speak we need to save the children as if we we're already safe and and they need saving. Our children are are an extension of ourselves. They are what we have made them to be currently. And so when we speak about this character of I don't know, you don't have to explain every single aspect of everything that Allah and his messenger said. You don't have to have an answer for everything. You need to know what's expected of you and you need to have the character and fortitude and courage to say that's our religion. Why is it that way? It has a reason. Allah is the most wise. I don't know what it is, but if Allah said it, I believe it. That's it. But how could you believe something you don't know? I do. I believe it. You don't have to. I do. I believe in Allah and his messenger. I don't need that belief to be predicated and based on understanding every single thing that he tells me. If you imagine that you you give your child commands, right? You tell your child do this, don't do this, and your child is not old enough to understand why. Do you explain every single thing to your children? Every time you say do this or don't do it, you explain yourself to them. What if your child said no? Why? Why do you want me to do that? Because I said so. I'm your parent and you're my child. Obviously, my commands to my children are based on my love and protection of them. But to question a parent at every turn, the child's mind is not ready to understand these things. And it may not be ready until 30 years into the future. That is the difference between knowledge and ignorance. You cannot explain the difference. And so the point here that we're making is that whenever you hear a command of Allah, a command of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam do not demand an explanation that fits your narrative and world view at every turn and unfortunately in our time because of our environment it's statistics are the ultimate evidence right statistics show well if I say how can you argue with science you can't argue with science Allah said yeah but the scholars differ on what that means Allah said that true but it has different meanings and you have to be a scholar to understand it. But statistics show experts tell us oh experts tell us I you know all of these statistics and experts are purchased and are in pockets. That's how it runs. It's a money machine. This this is not this is not a place built on morals. It's a business. these things when you look a a a glass of wine a day is good for your heart health in the little corner and asterisk funded research funded by the National Wine Association. Great, right? Drink more milk. It gives you strong bones. Funded research funded by the by the farmers of dairy farmers of America. Fantastic, right? And you know what? Just 80, 90 years ago, there were commercials and billboards of doctors smoking cigarettes saying this is a it's actually proven that a pack of smokes a day opens up your lungs, make you breathe good. Who are those doctors funded by their research? By the tobacco industry. It was a huge scandal in America. It killed half of the known humanity of the time. This it didn't stop. They didn't repent from that. They just got sued until they stopped. We moved on to other things now, other fads. Why is it we do this with our religion? This is Allah and his messenger. If Allah and his messenger say something and my eyes tell me something else, my eyes are lying to me. And if Allah and his messenger tell me something and my ears are telling me something else, my ears are lying to me. That is the that is the empire of faith that Muhammad and his companions built sallall.aii wasallam and they were proud of that. This is our way of life. This is how we are. Why is it that with women you do this and with that's how it is? Allah said And this doesn't mean that we have no questioning. We don't understand anything of our religion and we blindly follow. That's not what's meant. What's meant is that we do not question Allah and his messenger and twist these words to fit what we think we know. In order to learn, you have to be humble and you have to open your heart. And there is no other way to learn except through humility and patience. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he subhanahu wa ta'ala teach us that which we are ignorant of to teach us that which will be of benefit and consequence to us and to make consequential for us what he teaches us. Alhamdulillah.