Principle 12 — Ask Someone Who Knows

The Quran states: If you do not know, then ask the one who knows. (16:43) That is, if you do not know something, then consult with those who do. People do not usually like to ask. They think that asking is like admitting one’s intellectual inferiority. This is a deadly habit. The healthy habit is to think that asking is just like consulting dictionaries and encyclopedias. No man can have all the available knowledge on his own. He reads books to make up for this shortcoming. In the same way, it should be a habit to ask those who know to share their knowledge with others. One who knows is like a living book. Asking the knower is just like reading a book. Besides increasing knowledge, asking a knower also enhances relationships.