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What is the authenticity and interpretation of the Hadith: "Indeed, some knowledge is like hidden treasure; none know it except those who are learned in Allah. And when they speak of it, none deny it except those who are ignorant of Allah"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The imams ruled the hadith to be unauthentic (ghayr thabit). Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: "It has no sound chain of narration (isnad sahih)." Al-Iraqi said: "Its chain of narration is weak (isnad da'if)." Al-Albani said: "Very weak (da'if jiddan)." Some scholars interpreted it, assuming its authenticity, to refer to certain divine attributes that the ignorant deny, whereas scholars affirm them as they came, following the methodology of the Salaf. Sheikh al-Islam mentioned that Yahya ibn Ammar and Abu Isma'il al-Ansari interpreted the hadith in a way that affirms these attributes, because such affirmation is authentically reported from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and from the early generations (Salaf) and their successors (Tabi'in), as opposed to negation. Sheikh al-Islam also stated that the hadith's chain of narration is not authentic by agreement of the knowledgeable, and it is not narrated in the major, authoritative books of hadith, thus there is no need to discuss its interpretation.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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