ʿAbdurRaḥmān bn Mahdī reported:
We were with Mālik bn Anas, then a man came to him and said:
O Abū ʿAbdillāh, I have come to you from a distance of six months (of travel). The people of my land sent me to ask you about an affair.
He (Imām Mālik) said: Then ask.
So the man asked him about an affair and he (Imām Mālik) said: “I am not well-versed in it.”
So the man was amazed because it was like he had come to meet a person that knows all things.
So he said: What do I tell the people of my land when I return to them?
He (Imām Mālik) said: You will tell them that: Mālik said: “I am not well-versed in it.”
Source: Muqaddimah al-Jarḥ wa at-Taʿdīl by Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/18
Culled by: Shaykh ʿArafāt bn Ḥasan al-Muḥammadī
