We say, “Allah knows best” regarding matters whose knowledge is unclear to us.

The third category comprises those in whom both love and hatred converge—that is, the sinning believer. He is loved from one angle and hated from another: you love him for the goodness and obedience he possesses, and you hate him for the sins and violations he commits. This is the distinction the Muslim must observe.

Love is a tremendous domain that deserves careful attention and study, for upon it rests much of the creed and the affairs of religion. A person must not drift along as a mere follower, unsure of whom he should love and whom he should hate. Rather, he must make love and hatred a scale by which he differentiates between the allies of Allah and the allies of Satan. He must not turn that scale into one of worldly interest and whim: if someone furthers his worldly concerns or grants him some portion of wealth, he loves him—even should that person be among the most unbelieving and most depraved; and if someone gives him nothing, he hates him—even should that person be among the most righteous of the righteous. Such conduct is impermissible.

This is a momentous issue—the issue of knowledge. A person must not speak about what he does not know: if he is certain of a matter, he may speak; but if he is ignorant of it, he must refrain. He must not engage the matters of religion and worship without knowledge; rather, he should pause and say, “Allah knows best.”

Imam Malik, the Imam of the City of Emigration, was approached by a man who questioned him about forty issues. Malik answered only four of them and, regarding the rest, said, “I do not know.” The man objected, “I travelled to you from such-and-such a land on my mount, and you say, ‘I do not know’?” He said,