What is the ruling on suspending judgment in some legal matters?

Al-Id Abbas: We do not receive revelation, and Jibril does not come to us, but a person asks someone who is more knowledgeable than he is. He reviews the issue, for example, I was asked about a matter where I did not know the legal ruling and it had not come to my attention before. In that case, I do not simply exercise independent legal reasoning.
Independent legal reasoning is done after exerting effort. One who exerts effort reviews the books, asks the scholars, looks into and searches the texts, reviews the statements of the people of knowledge, the explainers of hadith, and the interpreters of the verses.
So suspending judgment is obligatory for one who does not know the ruling, otherwise he will blunder in the religion of Allah blindly. A person who is a scholar and knows the ruling states it. If he does not know the ruling, we tell him, "Say what comes to your mind?" That will not do.
We tell him, if the scholars of independent legal reasoning have reasoned, there is no harm, but reasoning... in this matter, sometimes the matter requires days and months. So what is his position during all that time? He is suspending judgment, not issuing a ruling until he finishes verifying the case. In reality, our professor (may Allah preserve him), I think you will see in many hadiths that he is silent about them... he is asked and he says, "I do not know." If the truth were according to your opinion, he would have had to issue a fatwa saying, "By Allah, this is correct, this is such and such." He does not assert, "By Allah, the most likely is such and such." Yes, in this way a person would consider the forbidden permissible and mean to forbid the lawful.

The questioner : And this is by the grace of Allah.
Al-Id Abbas: Do not thank him. In the books, the professor Shaykh Nasser verified a book, "Mishkat al-Masabih", do you know it? The book "Mishkat al-Masabih". In the first edition, which is widely circulated among people's hands now, many of the hadiths are not verified; he is silent about them. "Ahmad narrated it," and he is silent. The Shaykh remained silent for years. In the second edition, or the second verification, he clarified most of the hadiths about which he had been silent, meaning he clarified their ruling. And in some of the hadiths about which he had previously ruled, he had a new independent legal reasoning. And still, some of the hadiths, though very few, are without clarification, the ones he is silent about. This is also one of the clearest examples that a person must speak with knowledge. If he does not know, he is silent. Perhaps your statement is correct if there were no one in the entire world but this person. What would the people who need to act do? We would tell them, "Exercise independent legal reasoning based on what appears to you at this moment." But who says that by Allah there is no one in the Muslim community but one person? You did not know; they asked you, so direct them to ask someone else . Therefore, suspending judgment is the obligatory thing, and stating the ruling like that is not correct, because an immature opinion will come, like bread that is not yet baked. So we avoid it, and there is no sin on him. Do you remember the statement of Imam Malik? They used to come to him from the far regions. Some of them came, a delegation from the banks of the river from Khurasan, with forty questions. They asked him, "What is your opinion on the first question, O Imam?" He said to them, "I do not know." The second question, the third, out of forty questions, thirty-six questions, he said to them, "I do not know, I do not know, I do not know," until they were exhausted, and he was Malik. Where are we from Malik? Where are we from the least of the least? So they said to him, "We have broken the backs of our camels for you, and yet you say, 'I do not know.'" He said to them, "Whoever says, 'I do not know,' has issued a fatwa." Meaning, I would not burden you by saying in the religion of Allah without knowledge. This is the path of the righteous predecessors, and I mentioned previously an example of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), likewise, when he was asked, he would suspend judgment until the revelation came to him. And this is also from the position of our contemporary professors, so perhaps the truth becomes clear with this, if Allah wills.

The questioner : The truth...?
Al-Id Abbas: The truth is, we appreciate our brother Abu Hasan, and we know this of him. There are many examples that he is one who returns to the truth, and praise be to Allah. This is a very good trait, and it indicates sincerity and humility. May Allah firm him, and increase him and us and all of us, if Allah wills. And of course, he encouraged us to seek knowledge, and he is, if Allah wills, the first to apply it.

The questioner : ... So this is what I know.
Al-Id Abbas: By Allah, I do not remember exactly now. Ask Abu Hasan. Did you say that Allah will hold a person accountable for what is in his heart?

The questioner : The statement of the verse in the Qur'an.
Al-Id Abbas: ?