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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The hadith of Abu Hurayrah regarding the two vessels and whether it is from concealing knowledge

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Question:
He says: Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
I preserved from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) two vessels of knowledge. As for one of them, I have disseminated it, and as for the other, if I had disseminated it, this would have been cut, and he pointed to his neck.حفظت من النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وعائين من العلم أما أحدهما فقد بثثته، وأما الآخر فلو بثثته لقطع هذا وأشار إلى رقبته
Is this withholding knowledge?

Answer:
No, they said that the sack he did not specify was the hadiths concerning trials, the hadiths that were transmitted regarding trials. If he had explained them to the people, it would have been dangerous for him that they might kill him; the oppressors would kill him. And concealing knowledge, if it is to avert a greater harm, is concealed.
The default ruling for knowledge is that it is obligatory to disseminate it, except when necessity calls for concealing it.
what Allah’s right over His slaves is and what His slaves’ right over Allah isما حق الله على العباد وما حق العباد على الله
Sunan Ibn Majah 4296Sahih (Darussalam)
? He said, "I said, Allah and His Messenger know best." He said,
Allah's right on His slaves is that they should worship Him (Alone) and should not worship any besides Him. And slave's right on Allah is that He should not punish him who worships none besides Him.حق الله على العباد أن يعبدوه ولا يشركوا به شيئا، وحق العباد على الله ألا يعذب من لا يشرك به شيئا
Sahih al-Bukhari 2856
. Mu'adh said, "Should I not inform the people," meaning that Allah does not punish one who does not associate anything with Him? He said,
Do not inform them, lest they become lax.لا تخبرهم فيتكلوا
They become lax in sins and say, "As long as it is not a big deal, the matter is easy." They become lax in sins and disobedience, so he was commanded to conceal this issue so that its dissemination would not lead to people becoming lax, relying on the aspect of hope, and abandoning the aspect of fear.
So if explaining a piece of knowledge leads to greater harm, it is concealed. 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said,
Inform the people of what they know. Do you wish that Allah and His Messenger be denied?حدثوا الناس بما يعرفون أتريدون أن يكذب الله ورسوله؟
So do not bring matters that people's minds cannot handle, even if they are the truth, lest they deny them. If they deny them, they deny Allah and His Messenger. People are given [knowledge] according to their comprehension and according to what they understand, and they are not given something they do not understand, but rather they are progressed with gradually, bit by bit. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-089-مكانة العلماء وحاجة الأمة إليهم|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (43:10)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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