In The Light of Experiences

On this occasion, Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi (d. 1998) asked the students whether a camel’s hooves are split or solid, like those of an ox or a horse. There were about 20 students in our class, but no one could answer with certainty. Everyone gave speculative answers, sometimes one and sometimes another. Following this, the teacher gave a lecture. He remarked, ‘Your responses suggest that you lack an understanding of the nature of a camel’s hooves.’ He then cited an Arabic proverb: ‘La adri nisf al-ilm,’ which translates as ‘To say I don’t know is half of knowledge.’ He explained, “If you knew that you were unaware of the nature of a camel’s hooves, then in this matter, you would already have half of the knowledge. Recognizing your ignorance would create in you a desire to complete your knowledge by finding out how a camel’s hooves actually are. If the awareness of ‘la adri’ (I do not know) had been awakened in you, then upon seeing a camel, you would carefully observe its hooves and transform your ignorance into knowledge.” This madrasa incident had such a profound impact on me that it became my general attitude to recognize my ignorance in every matter so that I could turn it into awareness. This spirit of intellectual inquiry was instilled in me from the early days of the madrasa. Later, I read some works by Western authors on this subject, such as The Spirit of Inquiry. These works revealed to me that this sense of curiosity is the foundation of all intellectual progress.