If a student of knowledge is asked about an attribute whose establishment he does not know, what should he answer?

The questioner : Or to someone else, that one should not ask about an attribute of Allah except for what is established, or except for what the Salaf asked about. Sometimes a student is presented with an attribute that some people hold, and he does not know whether the Salaf held it or not, so he asks about it.

The Shaykh : The principle is that if an attribute is presented to you and you do not know whether it is established by the Book and the Sunnah or not, you must not affirm it in any way.

The questioner : But I do not mean asking about it.

The Shaykh : If it contradicts [the established], you ask a scholar whether it is established in the Sunnah. There is no harm in that.

The presenter : Appointment.

The Shaykh : This is different; for example, if an attribute of Allah comes to mind and one does not know whether it came in the Book and the Sunnah or not, then first, from the perspective of creed, he does not believe in it, because the default is that attributes are based on revelation, and he is not obligated to believe in what he has no knowledge of, so he must refrain from it. There is no harm in asking a scholar he thinks has knowledge of it; there is no harm, this is a question about knowledge, an ignorant person wants to ask. But for us to delve deep and be excessive about an attribute that came absolute from the Shari'ah, and we go digging and scrutinizing, that is what the Salaf disliked.