Once during my diploma years, when I was a passenger in a
‘prebet’ (it’s a term for an unofficial taxi, and no, not Grab or Uber) the
driver asked me a fiqh question which demands some explanation on its ruling. I
don’t remember what the question was about but I’m pretty sure there isn’t
really a fatwa for his question nor is there a black and white answer to it. So
in my perspective, I feel it is absolutely reasonable for my initial response
to be “I don’t know”.
To my surprise he was surprised with my answer. He told me
“mana boleh tak tahu, awak nak jadi ustazah ni!’ So I tried explaining to him
why I’m not qualified to answer that question. He then continued to lecture me
on how I should’ve known because it is my responsibility to answer such
questions from muslims like him. I tried to defend myself further by giving him
an analogy. I told him you don’t see an ophthalmologist when you get a heart
attack, you go see a cardiologist for that, the same rule applies for Islamic
knowledge. (But in reality him asking me that question would be more suitable
to a parable of asking a nurse to perform an emergency C-section)
There’s a few issues we can extract from this incident, but
I’d like to talk about the phrase “I don’t know” and how I as a future ustazah
relates to it and how other future asatizahs should too. I do agree with the
prebet driver to a certain extent but let’s not talk about that just yet. I
feel it is important for future asatizahs to use the phrase “I don’t know” more
often and here are the reasons why
1. Enable the muslim
ummah to distinguish different fields of Islamic studies
For the majority of the muslim ummah, if you’re an ustaz or
ustazah (or a future ustaz or ustazah or just simply look like the
stereotypical ustaz or ustazah) you automatically become a reference for fiqhi
questions. Regardless whether your background is in hadith, comparative
religion or even mathematics. If people regard you as ‘alim’ then anything that
come out from your mouth must be right, right?
Wrong. Future asatizahs need to start answering fiqhi
questions with ‘I don’t know’, explain your field of study, and then tell the
questionor ; “let me ask my colleagues and lecturers for reliable resources in
order to answer your question”. If we do this, only then the muslim ummah
realize that Islamic studies is an extensive network of knowledge and getting
to what’s haram and what’s not is not as simple as they previously think it is.
2. To prevent fatwas
and muftis from being underestimated
I realized there is a strong connection between the prebet
incident and how Pokemon Go players used to curse and stated how they ‘strongly
disagree’ with SS Prof. Dato Dr Zulkifli al-Bakri on his fatwa for playing
Pokemon Go. When we who don’t know, answer questions we are not qualified to
answer; those who are actually qualified to answer fiqhi questions are deemed
unqualified to answer and so their fatwas are ridiculed and scorn off.
People don’t know who is the expert here and one of the
reasons for that is because we students of Islamic studies are too shy to say
we don’t know and pretend that we do. Most people don’t know the difference
between a 19 year old studying for a diploma in Islamic studies and a mufti.
Because to them, both these two people could answer their question. So a mufti
and a future ustazah is at par with each other in their eyes. What they didn’t
realize is the 19-year-old future ustaz or ustazah learnt less than 100 pages
from less than 50 arabic books and couldn’t understand most of it without
referring to an arabic dictionary or a translation of the book or without the
guidance of their lecturers, while on the other hand the mufti had authored
hundreds of books and journals and read thousands of pages of hundreds or
thousands of books and taught hundreds and thousands of people if not millions!
3. Prevents people from
interpreting the Quran and Sunnah without knowledge
Replying “I don’t know” establishes to the questioner that
matters pertaining our faith and acts of worship is not something you can
freely assume without referring to sound knowledge. Islam emphasizes academic
integrity and al-Quran and Sunnah is proof of that. Islam gave birth to an
academic culture in an era where there was not. Today’s reality of the muslim
ummah juxtapose what it started. Many muslims treat al-Quran and Sunnah as if
it was some short fictional work that can be interpreted freely without
academic principles.
The muslim ummah have a right to know just how structured
and thorough the foundations of various fields of Islamic studies that muslim
scholars from the past have laid down. If the muslim ummah are introduced to
this, perhaps there would be a decrement in the amount of people interpreting and
establishing a new fatwa for just by reading a copy of Quran translation.
4. To instill the
importance of seeking Islamic knowledge
Or to at least introduce themselves to its depth and at
least they know that it is not as shallow and narrow as they used to think it
is. Saying “I don’t know” denotes that even the person they think knows it all
doesn’t know; thus signifying the extensiveness of Islamic knowledge. For the
majority of muslims, they feel like islam only comprises of the things their
parents used to teach them when they were little and nothing more than that.
Now I’m not saying that they should learn islam in depth and go and do a PhD on
it, because not everybody is meant to go on that path and not everybody is supposed
to. However, very few muslim realize how vast Allah’s knowledge is until they
start to learn them.
Giving a straight yes or no answer instead of explaining how
you don’t know and that you need to refer to several people and sources for
their question shows how important your pursuit in Islamic studies is,
highlights the profoundness of Islamic studies and shows how inadequate it is
to understand a religion one is embracing by simple yes or no questions. This
then, eventually instills the importance of seeking Islamic knowledge.
5. Because we don’t
know and we should work on that
Saying “I don’t know” will always be some sort of a slap in
the face. It will make us reflect on our responsibility as a student of
knowledge. Even if we are not studying syariah or fiqh, as someone who is
studying Islam, we should always seek and perfect our Islamic knowledge be it
inside or outside of the classroom. Saying “I don’t know” doesn’t mean that you
stop right there, it means that you will start to learn more. Saying “I don’t
know” shows how insufficient your knowledge is and the need to learn for more.
Please be noted though, that answering “I don’t know” does
not apply when answering questions in exams.