Which two grammatical analyses of «فَأَنْتُمَا لَا تَعْلَمَانِ» does al-Nawawī allow?
Narrator Criticism: Teacher Verification, Conflicting Ascriptions and Claims of Hearing
- A categorical declarative negation proving both addressees were ignorant; no interrogation is possible
- Either «lā» is additional (“Do you two know?”), or the interrogative hamzah is omitted (“Do you two not know?”), yielding a confirmatory question
- «Lā» must only be additional; a confirmatory question retaining the negation is impossible
- «Lā» must express prohibition, telling both critics not to investigate the meeting