Never Suppress Opinions

Never suppress the opinions of little ones, they may know something that the knowledgeable elders don’t know.

The Hoopoe bird said to the Prophet Sulayman:
أحَطتُ بِمَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِ
“I learned something that you do not know.”
[Qur’an 27:22].

In light of this, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim writes:

ان بعض اهل العلم سئل عن مسالة فقال لا اعلمها فقال احد تلامذته انا اعلم هذه المسألة فغضب الاستاذ وهم به فقال له ايها الاستاد لست اعلم من سليمان بن داود ولو بلغت في العلم ما بلغت ولست انا اجهل من الهدهد

A student corrected his teacher, and the teacher became angry.

The student said respectfully:

“You are not more than Sulayman,
and I am not less than a Hoopoe bird.”

[“Miftaah Dar as-Sa’aadah”, 1/173].