Mālik said, “A scholar’s shield is the statement, ‘I do not know.’ When he neglects that shield, his vital points are struck.” (1)

Musʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh remarked, “In the time of Rabīʿah, Mālik’s teaching circle was on a par with—indeed larger than—Rabīʿah’s, and he would issue fatwas alongside him in the presence of the ruler.”

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār reported: Mutarrif narrated to us, and Mālik narrated to us, saying, “When I resolved to leave Rabīʿah’s gathering, I sat with Sulaymān ibn Bilāl in one corner of the mosque. When Rabīʿah rose, he came over to us and said, ‘O Mālik, are you playing games with yourself? You have pranced about—zafanta—and Sulaymān has clapped for you! Have you reached the point of setting up a circle of your own? Go back to your seat.’” (2)

Al-Haytham ibn Jamīl said, “I heard Mālik asked about forty-eight issues; to thirty-two of them he replied, ‘I do not know.’”

Khalid ibn Khidāsh said, “I came to Mālik with forty questions; he answered only five.”

Ibn Wahb transmitted from Mālik that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd ibn Hurmuz say, “It befits a scholar to bequeath to his companions the phrase, ‘I do not know,’ so that it becomes a foundational principle to which they can always return.”

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said, “It is authentically reported from Abū al-Dardāʾ that the words ‘I do not know’ constitute half of knowledge.” (3)