Najeeb Yamani

Silence Toward the Ignorant Is Wisdom!

July 9, 2026 - 00:03 | Last update July 9, 2026 - 00:03

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How many faces are skilled at creating noise, and how few minds are good at making an impact.

There is a type of person who lives captive to an image they have drawn for themselves, more keen on polishing it than on building its reality, and striving to convince others of a greatness that exists only in their sick imagination. That is the ignorant person dressed in the cloak of knowledge, while his mind is bare of learning, and draped in a robe of majesty while his soul is devoid of virtue.

Delusion reaches such an extent that he believes his lies, loves his imagined image, and considers applause proof of his greatness. He resents every superior person, searches for their flaws, tries to belittle them, and speaks about them with spite and rancor. He quarrels with people, abandons ideas, and replaces proof with mockery, and facts with accusations; thinking that defaming others raises his own status.

As for the scholar, he does not need to announce himself; because his knowledge speaks for him, and he does not chase the spotlight, because his impact precedes his name.

He knows that knowledge is a sea without a shore, and he does not see admitting ignorance as a deficiency, but rather considers it the first gateway to knowledge.

The ignorant person considers admitting lack of knowledge a defeat, so he answers every question, gives opinions on every art, and speaks on every issue, even if it is beyond his narrow scope of understanding.

He speaks more than he listens; because speech is for him a means to hide the emptiness of his mind and the shallowness of his thinking, and he is a hollow mass of flesh walking on earth. The scholar becomes more humble as his knowledge expands, while the ignorant become more arrogant as their understanding narrows. He builds his edifice on the sands of pretension, and replaces achievement with talk, action with showmanship, proof with exaggeration; he is adept at flattering and sycophancy, thinking that much talk compensates for lack of knowledge, that raising one's voice makes up for a weak argument, and that appearances can conceal inner emptiness. And because ignorance makes its owner feel inferior, he flees from facing himself to fabricating a false heroism.

He tells stories that exaggerate his worth, adds to his biography what he never lived, attributes to himself achievements he never participated in, and frequently mentions his connections, titles, and photos, as if value is bought by external adornment, not by human substance.

He fears the true scholar because he exposes his falsehood, and dreads scientific discussion because proof destroys his illusions, and prefers to sit among simpletons who believe every embellished story and applaud his theatrics. He lives his entire life as an actor on the stage of life, fearing the curtain's fall, so that his true history and whereabouts are revealed.

The ignorant person thinks that people cannot distinguish between gold-plated and pure gold, and forgets that time is the most skilled critic, and that days test men in a test where false eloquence is of no use, nor tricks and deceit save their owner.

How many have risen quickly on the wings of pretension, then fallen quickly after the masks fell.

And people's scale remains fair no matter how long time passes; false titles wither, masks fall, lights dim, and only noble morals remain. Full ears of grain bend, while empty ones stand upright. Humility is a sign of fullness, and arrogance a sign of emptiness.

The ignorant person deceives people for some time, but he cannot deceive people all the time,

Truth does not die, but waits patiently until masks fall, so the scholar appears with his knowledge, the humble person is known by his character, and the ignorant charlatan is exposed by his delusion, and every person returns to their true size. Nothing elevates a person but his knowledge, nothing immortalizes him but his impact, and nothing gives him respect but his honesty.