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If a person starts telling
you, whether in private or public, something that
you already knew very well, you should pretend as if
you do not know it. Do not rush to reveal your
knowledge or to interfere with the speech.
Instead, show your attention and concentration.
The honorable tab'i Imam Ata ibn Abi Rabah said: "A
young man would tell me something that I may have
heard before he was born. Nevertheless, I would
listen to him as if I had never heard it
before."
Khalid ibn Safwan al-Tamimi, who frequented the
courts of two Khalifahs: Umar ibn Abdul Aziz and
Hisham ibn Abdul Malik, said: "If
a person tells you something you have heard before,
or news that you already learned, do not interrupt
him to exhibit your knowledge to those present. This
is rude and ill mannered." The honorable
Imam Abdullah ibn Wahab al-Qurashi al-Masri, a
companion of Imam Malik, Al-Laith ibn Sad and Al-Thawri,
said: "Sometimes a person
would tell me a story that I have heard before his
parents had wed. Yet, I listened as if I have never
heard it before." Ibrahim ibn al-Junaid
said: "A wise man said to
his son: 'Learn the art of listening as you learn
the art of speaking.'" Listening well
means maintaining eye contact, allowing the speaker
to finish the spech, and restraining your urge to
interrupt his speech. Al-Hafiz al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
said in a poem:
Never interrupt a
talk
Though you know it inside out
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