Saying "I do not know" is half of knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is this saying correct, that saying "I do not know" is half of knowledge? And is this reported from any of the Companions?
Answer:
I do not know, by Allah, but saying "I do not know" has great merit in that a person acknowledges his ignorance and does not presume to say what he does not know.[Al-Baqarah 2:169] In it is proper conduct with Allah and with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and proper conduct with the Shari'ah. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is this saying correct, that saying "I do not know" is half of knowledge? And is this reported from any of the Companions?
Answer:
I do not know, by Allah, but saying "I do not know" has great merit in that a person acknowledges his ignorance and does not presume to say what he does not know.
and to say about Allah what you do not know.
وَأَن تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Source
شرح كتاب فتح المجيد في شرح كتاب التوحيد [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع كتاب التوحيد - 4 — islamhouse.com (55:30)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.