Yasir Qadhi – Islam and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

			Well then
		

			you
		

			don't need how
		

			many Mina most need me
		

			salon to salon Marisa Allahu Allah Allah He also heavy you want to learn more? Today short thought
that I thought I'd do something different inshallah we'll make some psychology with Islam learn
something in sha Allah beneficial and link it to our tradition as well.
		

			modern psychologists have documented a phenomenon that is common in all disciplines in all fields is
a human problem is what is called the cognitive bias. And that is something known as the Dunning
Kruger effect. Okay, Google that after the Dunning Kruger effect. It's a very interesting
phenomenon. And what this phenomenon indicates, and this is across all disciplines, is the
following. When you don't know something, you know, you don't know it, and you give weight to the
people of authority in that field. But an interesting phenomenon is observed. The minute you start
learning, and you will master level one,
		

			you get an overall boost of confidence, and you think you know exponentially more than you actually
do.
		

			And you have a sense of such confidence that you feel more qualified than majority are many experts.
And it takes some serious mistakes to cause you to come crashing down, and then slowly you build
another so the Dunning Kruger effect has actually been charted. If you have confidence with
knowledge, you start at zero, it shoots all the way up with a little bit of knowledge very high, and
then it falls down slowly. And then very slowly, it begins to rise again. Okay, so if you had a
chart of the Dunning Kruger effect, it would be straight up like a you know, straight sharp angle,
and then is going to go down on a curve, parabolic curve, and then slowly is going to go and that's
		

			going to be real knowledge. Okay, now we see the Dunning Kruger effect. Most commonly, every parent
is going to love this in teenagers. Okay? The notion of that when the teenagers learn how to drive
when the teenagers Google a few facts or or they study something in college, they think they know,
you know, and maybe they do know that one fact better than you do. Maybe they do. But obviously they
don't know life do they they don't know experience when they drive cars. Okay. Why is it that every
19 year old gives his parents heart attacks when he's driving? Because he's overconfident? He thinks
he knows everything. Right? He knows because he's just learned how to drive and that's the Dunning
		

			Kruger effect. Okay, the same goes for every single discipline. Now, how is it linked to Islam? Our
scholars say that the first sign of the students have knowledge of studying Islam and learning Islam
is arrogance. When you begin to learn hulless you think you know you heard a fatwa, you heard one of
these? You heard one ayah Hollis, you know, if you hear one chef give a verdict. You think this is
how converted, that's it. And you will fight over it and consider everybody else to be wrong and
deviant. But as our teacher said, the more you learn, the more tolerant you become. The more you
learn, the more humble you become. And the sign of a person of knowledge is humility. And a sign of
		

			a true person of knowledge is acceptance and tolerance you understand where others are coming from,
and a sign of the Dunning Kruger effect is the beginning student of knowledge, the one who just
learns one opinion. And that's why our teachers would say when we were studying overseas, they would
say, diversify your teachers learn from lots of people. So you learn the spectrum of opinions. Don't
just learn one, don't just learn one opinion or one person that's gonna then you're not going to be
you know, open minded enough and another classical alum of the past he said that, you know, without
mentioning the Dunning Kruger, but this example is exactly the Dunning Kruger right? He said that,
		

			you know, the beginning student of knowledge, he stands at the shore when he's just beginning he
looks at the ocean, and he knows he knows nothing is too far away. Then when he gets on the boat, he
gets confident I can conquer. I know everything. Okay? Hello. So I'm here when the boat goes in the
middle of the ocean and he can't see anything. He realizes what does he realize? He knows nothing.
Okay, this is the example of that when you really know nothing. You know nothing Hello, that's the
ocean there. But when you just get into the boat and you feel I can drive I know this is the shore
there the water there, but just wait when you go deep in the ocean. Wait when you are completely
		

			lost, you cannot see the shore then you realize that there is a barrel here.
		

			ALM is a knowledge that has no end to it. And that will only come once you have comfortably left
once you have gone forward. So the bottom line and what is the purpose of this in every single
field, every single field, we have to be careful that we do not become guilty of that
overconfidence. And Allah reminds us in the Quran, do not speak without knowledge. Allah reminds us
in the Quran, ask the people of knowledge if you do not know, final example. And then we conclude
another example that was sometimes results in a tragedy that in the time of the prophecies and
famous example, I've said this before, that there was a group of Sahaba on an expedition. There were
		

			no scholars amongst them, but there was one person studied a very little bit and in the battle, one
of them became wounded. There was a wound in his head that is frustrated, it's pus, and for whatever
reason, then he fell asleep and then he woke up he had to do also and there was no scholar in the
expedition. So this minor student of knowledge and he is a Sahabi. He goes no the fatwa is clear,
the Ficus clear you have to do also, even if there's a wound and his festering you have to pour
water on it. This is the Dunning Kruger effect. Okay. The guy didn't know any better. It's also have
a he did also poured water on the festered wound, and obviously it became worse and he died. By the
		

			time they go back to the medina he died. The Prophet system was visibly angry. And he said, How
could you have said this? In fact, in one version, they He literally says, oh, Buddha would Cthulhu
who Katella hula, they killed him with that fatwa. May Allah curse them this actually a hadith that
in your overzealousness you think Islam doesn't have any leeway? Any concession and by the way, look
at what is happening. Well, I don't want to go to a longer look at the foolishness the stupidity
look at what happened in the COVID crisis when minor students of knowledge did not want to and we
were saying and people were saying we need to shut the massager down. This is a crisis but it was
		

			those minor students of knowledge. No the shittier this Yeah, okay, the surely I want you to live it
doesn't want you to die. The shitty takes into account common sense. But this is the Dunning Kruger
effect all over again, the same footwork that that person gave, oh, he has to do hosel and the
Profit System said you killed him. That's not what the shitty I says. Why didn't you ask the real
people of knowledge? This isn't the Hadith. Why didn't you ask if you didn't know why did you think
you knew when you didn't have that? So the point being again, much can be said here but to Allah He
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we see the manifestation of this reality Call it whatever you will, that
		

			obviously modern psychologists call it this effect. In reality it is human psychology. We find it in
these Hadith as well that it is a phenomenon of human nature. Be careful do your brothers and
sisters do not take knowledge from those that are just beginning to not take knowledge from in any
discipline in the in the field of medicine when cutting edge stuff? It needs to go to the senior
those that have wisdom and experience and long, you know, degrees or pedigrees I should say not just
degrees long experience and not to the beginning students of knowledge may Allah subhana wa Tada
bless us with humility and with iman and Taqwa and May Allah guide up all of us and guide others
		

			through us to Zachman Lafayette and I'm wondering what I was able to catch