Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رضي الله عنه — They Asked About the Soul
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه — They Asked About the Soul
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه — They Asked About the Soul
The walk that day led through the ruins of Madinah.
Broken walls. Quiet, empty ground where life had once been.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه was walking beside the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, step by step, through those ruins.
In the hand of the Prophet ﷺ there was no sword — only a simple date-palm leaf stalk, on which he was leaning as he walked.
"While I was going with the Prophet (ﷺ) through the ruins of Medina and he was reclining on a date-palm leaf stalk, some Jews passed by." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
As that group passed, a debate began among them — about a question for the Prophet ﷺ, one of the deepest questions a human being can ask.
"Ask him (the Prophet) about the spirit." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
But others among them hesitated.
They were afraid of the answer.
"Some of them said that they should not ask him that question as he might give a reply which would displease them." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
The hesitation did not win.
"But some of them insisted on asking, and so one of them stood up and asked, "O Abul-Qasim ! What is the spirit?"" Sahih al-Bukhari 125
The question was now in the open air: what is the spirit — the soul inside every one of us?
And then something happened that no one on that road had planned for.
The Prophet ﷺ did not answer.
"The Prophet (ﷺ) remained quiet." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
No quick reply.
No opinion.
No words of his own about the unseen.
Just silence.
But the man walking beside him understood that silence.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه had spent so long in the company of the Prophet ﷺ that he knew what that stillness meant.
"I thought he was being inspired Divinely." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
So he did the only thing a companion could do in such a moment.
He stayed.
"So I stayed till that state of the Prophet (while being inspired) was over." Sahih al-Bukhari 125
He did not interrupt.
He did not walk away.
He did not fill the silence with his own thoughts.
He waited — while the answer was coming down from above.
Then that state passed, and the Prophet ﷺ spoke.
And what he spoke was not his own explanation.
It was revelation itself, just sent down.
In the wording preserved by this hadith, he recited:
"And they ask you (O Muhammad) concerning the spirit --Say: The spirit -- its knowledge is with my Lord. And of knowledge you (mankind) have been given only a little" Sahih al-Bukhari 125
This is the verse itself, Surah Al-Isra, Ayah 85, as it stands in the Qur'an:
وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلرُّوحِ ۖ قُلِ ٱلرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّى وَمَآ أُوتِيتُم مِّنَ ٱلْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
And they ask you about the soul. Say, “The soul is something from the command of my Lord, and you are not given from the knowledge but a little.” Surah Al-Isra (17), Ayah 85
A question about the soul had been asked on a road through ruins.
And the answer came — not from debate, not from a man's guess — but from heaven.
📖 What the Tafsir Says
Ma'ariful Quran, the tafsir carried on this website's own page for this verse, gives the background of this question from the authentic narrations themselves. It records:
According to the Sahih of al-Bukhari and Muslim, Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn Mas’ ud ؓ narrates: 'Once I was walking with the Holy Prophet ﷺ through an unpopulated part of Madinah. He had a stick from the branch of a date palm in his blessed hand. When he passed by some Jews, they were talking among themselves: Muhammad is coming. Ask him about the Ruh. Others asked them not to do that. But, those bent on asking went ahead and asked the question. After having heard the question, the Holy Prophet ﷺ reclined on his stick and stood silent which gave me the inkling that the revelation was about to come on him. After a little while, when the revelation had come to him, he recited the verse: وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ (And they ask you about the Ruh).'
Quran 17:85
🌿 Stop and Think About This Scene
Think about who was asked.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ — the most knowledgeable of mankind, the one taught by Allah Himself.
Yet when the question came, he became quiet.
That quietness is itself a teaching.
It says: there are matters about which even I do not speak from myself.
There are doors that open only when Allah opens them.
And look at the companion beside him.
Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه did not panic at the silence.
He did not think the question had failed, or that the Prophet ﷺ had no answer.
He recognised the moment for what it was — revelation descending — and he simply stayed, present and patient, until it was complete.
Years of closeness to the Prophet ﷺ had taught him how to read even his silence.
❤️ The Greatest Lesson for Our Lives Today
The question was about the soul — the deepest thing in a human being.
And the answer Allah sent down ended with a sentence about all of us:
You have been given only a little knowledge.
Not no knowledge.
A little.
Enough to know our Lord. Enough to worship Him. Enough to find the way.
But a little — measured against the oceans of what He knows and we do not.
That is why the answer to the greatest question here is not a lecture about what the soul is made of.
The answer is a boundary, drawn by Allah Himself, with love:
The soul belongs to the command of my Lord — and your knowledge, all of it together, is little.
The most learned response to the deepest question is a taught humility.
A person who truly understands this verse stops pretending to know what he does not know.
And he starts admiring the One who knows it all.
📚 Important Lessons From This Hadith
1. Some questions are answered by heaven, not by debate
The Prophet ﷺ did not improvise an answer about the unseen.
He waited, silent, until the answer descended to him.
Reverence for revelation is greater than the desire to reply quickly.
When a matter belongs to Allah's knowledge, the honourable thing is to wait for what Allah has said — not to invent what He has not.
2. A companion who recognises revelation's moment
Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه read the silence correctly: "I thought he was being inspired Divinely."
So he stayed.
Closeness to the Prophet ﷺ had taught him what the stillness meant.
The people nearest to the truth learn even from its pauses.
3. "You have been given only a little"
The divinely-given answer itself teaches the limit of human knowledge.
The soul's reality is with its Lord.
What we hold is a small portion — real, but small.
Holding that boundary is not weakness; it is the very knowledge Allah chose to give in answer to the question.
4. Ask honestly anyway
The question came from hesitant askers — some of them afraid, some of them insisting.
Yet the question was answered, and the answer became a verse recited by all mankind until today.
Sincere questions are doors.
Ask — and let the answer come from where true answers come.
🏠 How Can We Apply This Hadith in Our Daily Lives?
🧠 When you are asked what you do not know
Do not improvise. Do not guess and dress the guess as knowledge.
Say, with the Prophet's ﷺ example before you: I will find out. I will wait for what is true.
A pause before answering is sometimes the most honest answer of all.
📖 When a question touches the unseen
Return to what Allah has actually revealed.
The soul, the unseen world, the matters of the Hereafter — our guide in them is revelation, not speculation.
What Allah has told us is enough. What He has not told us is not ours to invent.
🎓 When you teach others
Teach your students and your children that "I don't know" is not a shameful sentence.
Allah Himself ended His answer about the soul by telling mankind that their knowledge is little.
A student who learns that boundary has learned one of the greatest lessons in this story.
❓ When you are the one asking
Ask your questions honestly, the way a door is knocked on.
Do not fear a sincere question.
The question on that road — asked by hesitant men among ruins — received an answer from heaven that the whole world still recites.
🌹 The Most Beautiful Message of This Story
A walk among ruins.
A staff of palm-leaf in the Prophet's ﷺ hand.
A question about the soul.
And then — silence.
Not every silence is an absence of an answer.
Sometimes silence is the sound of the answer descending.
The Prophet ﷺ waited for it. Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه waited with him.
And when the words came, they did not only answer the men standing on that road.
They taught every human being, forever, where his knowledge ends — and where his Lord's knowledge has no end at all.
📖 Authentic Reference
Hadith: Sahih al-Bukhari 125
Chapter: The Statement of Allah Ta'ala: "And of knowledge you (mankind) have been given only a little"
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 125
Grade: Sahih
Narrator: Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه
Verse: Surah Al-Isra (17), Ayah 85
Reference: Surah Al-Isra (17), Ayah 85
Tafsir: The passage in 'What the Tafsir Says' is from Ma'ariful Quran, the tafsir shown on this site's page for this verse: Quran 17:85