causes him harm. For some knowledge is beyond what the human intellect can bear and thus harms a person. As ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Tell people what they can understand, and leave aside what they find incomprehensible. Would you like Allah and His Messenger to be disbelieved?” And ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said: “No man relates to a people something beyond their understanding without it becoming a trial for some of them.”

Some discourse is called knowledge when it is ignorance, such as much of the learning of philosophers and speculative theologians, fabricated hadiths, unsound imitation, and astrology. Hence it has been related: “Some knowledge is ignorance, some speech is inarticulateness, and some eloquence is magic.”

Some knowledge harms certain souls because they use it to further their corrupt aims; it is then like a weapon in the hands of a belligerent or wealth in the hands of a wicked person. Other knowledge offers no benefit to people generally, such as knowing the intricacies of the celestial sphere, its fixed stars and attendant bodies