Gems Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf

Abd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

I entered upon Mālik b. Anas when a man was asking him about the Qur`ān. [Imām Mālik] said, “Perhaps you are a companion of- Amr b. ‘Ubayd. May Allāh curse ‘Amr, for he was the one who innovated this bid’ah of Kalām -. If Kalām was knowledge, the Companions and their Followers would have spoken it, like they spoke about the regulations and laws [of Islam]. But [Kalām] is falsehood that leads to falsehood.”

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Abd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

I entered upon Mālik b. Anas when a man was asking him about the Qur`ān. [Imām Mālik] said, “Perhaps you are a companion of- Amr b. ‘Ubayd. May Allāh curse ‘Amr, for he was the one who innovated this bid’ah of Kalām -. If Kalām was knowledge, the Companions and their Followers would have spoken it, like they spoke about the regulations and laws [of Islam]. But [Kalām] is falsehood that leads to falsehood.”
 
It is reported that Abū Al-Dardā – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
You will never be pious (a person of taqwā) until you become knowledgeable, and you will never be beautiful with your knowledge until you act [by it].

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr,-Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihī-article 1239.
 
It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyād – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How will you be if you reach a time when you will see people who do not distinguish truth from falsehood, believer from unbeliever, trustworthy from treacherous, nor ignorant from knowledgeable, and neither recognize what is right nor censure what is wrong?

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-1:188.
 
It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Goodness is not in your wealth and offspring being plentiful; true goodness is when your [good] deeds are plenty and you have great understanding and forbearance, and when you compete to worship your Lord. If you do good you praise Allāh and thank Him, and if you sin you beg Allāh’s forgiveness. There is no good in this life except with two types of men: A man who sins but then corrects himself through repentance, and a man who strives and hastens to get [the good] of the hereafter.

Ibn ‘Asākir,-Al-Tawbah-article 13.
 
Imām Al-Buwayṭī – Allāh have mercy on him – reports:

I heard Al-Shāfi’ī say, “A man does not become complete in this life except when he has four [qualities]: religiousness (al-diyānah), trustworthiness (al-amānah), safeguarding [from sin] (al-ṣiyānah) and sobriety (al-razānah).”

Al-Bayhaqī,-Manāqib Al-Shāfi’ī-2:189.
 
It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, Allāh has angels who seek out the circles of remembrance [of Allāh], so be careful who you sit with; make sure it is not with an adherent of bid’ah, for Allāh does not look at them. And the sign of nifāq (hypocrisy in faith) is that a man mingles with an adherent of bid’ah.

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-1:460
 
It is narrated that ‘Uthmān b. ʿAffān – Allāh be pleased with him – said in a sermon:

Son of Adam! Know that the angel of death who has been assigned to you has not ceased to pass you and move on to others, ever since you have been in this world. But it is as if he is about to pass someone else and move on to target you, so be careful and prepare for him (by correcting your deeds). And do not forget him, for he does not forget you. And know o son of Adam, if you are heedless about yourself and do not prepare, no one else will prepare for you. You must meet Allah the Mighty and Majestic, so take for yourself and do not leave it to someone else. Peace be on you.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm-2: 73, 74.
 
It is reported that Ayyūb Al-Sakhtiyānī was asked:

Is knowledge today greater or lesser [in amount]? He replied, “There is more speech today, but there was more knowledge in the past.”

Al-Fasawī,-Al-Ma’rifah wa Al-Tārīkh2:136.
 
“Always fear Allah, like if only one person was to go to hell, it could be you. Never get disappointed from Allah, like if only one person was to go to Jannah, it could be You.”

Abu Bakr A-Ssidik

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“Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, does not have kinship, and therefore, He does not grant anyone special status, favors, or exemptions, except with regards to obeying His command and abstaining from what He forbids.”

Abu Bakr A-Ssidik
 
It is reported that when Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī was on his deathbed, some of his companions came to him and said:

O Abū Sa’īd, offer us some words you can benefit us with. He replied, “I will equip you with three words, then you must leave me to face what I am facing. Be the farthest of people from those things you have been forbidden, and be the most involved of people in the good you have been commanded to do; and know that the steps you take are two steps: a step in your favor and a step against you, so be careful where you come and where you go.”

Abū Nu’yam,-Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā`-2:154
 
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan b. Al-Ḥasan b. ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him – said to a person from the Rāfiḍah:

Love us, but if we disobey Allāh, then hate us; for if Allāh was going to benefit anyone because of his relation to the Messenger of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him, without obedience [to Allāh], He would have benefitted the mother and father [of the Prophet].

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`4:486.
 
It was said to ‘Ā`ishah – Allāh be pleased with her, “There are people who faint when they hear the Quran.” She said. “The Quran is nobler than to have people lose their minds from it. Rather, it [should be] as Allāh the Mighty and Sublime said:

Those who fear their Lord tremble with fear by it, then their skins and hearts settle to the remembrance of Allah. (Sūrah Al-Zumar: 23)

Abū ‘Ubayd Al-Qāsim b. Sallām,-Faḍā`il Al-Qur`ān-p214.
 
It is reported that ‘Abd Al-Rahmān b. Mahdī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If it were not for the fact I hate that Allah is disobeyed, I would have wished that no one remain in this city except that he had spoken ill of me and backbitten me; for what is nicer than a good deed a man finds in his records on the Day of Resurrection without having done a thing or even having known?”

Abū Nu’aym,-Hilyatu Al-Awliyā`-4:45.
 
Al-Bukhārī reports that ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – came to the Black Stone (performing ṭawāf, circumambulation), kissed it, and said, “I know that you are a stone, you do not cause benefit or harm; and if it were not that I had seen Allāh’s Messenger – peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him – kiss you, I would never have kissed you.”

Al-Bukhārī,-Al-Ṣaḥīḥ,-Chapter on what has been said about the Black Stone.
 
It is reported that a man came to ʿAbdullāh b. Mas’ūd – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked, “Teach me some comprehensive and beneficial words.” He replied, “Worship Allāh and do not associate any partners with Him, and be with the Qur’ān wherever it is. And whoever comes to you with some truth – whether he is young or old, even if he is hated by you – then accept [that truth]. And whoever comes lying to you – even if he is beloved and close – then reject it from him.”

Abū Bakr Al-Kharā`iṭī,-Masāwī Al-Akhlāq wa Madhmūmihā-p72.
 
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak said, “I once borrowed a pen in Al-Shām (Transjordan) and went to return it. But when I came back to Marwu (Eng.-Merv-, in Central Asia) I saw that I still had it, so I went back to Al-Shām to return it to its owner.”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 8 p395.
 
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Wealth is the disease of this Ummah, and the scholar is the doctor of this Ummah. So if the doctor brings the disease to himself, how will he cure the people?”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 7 p243.
 
It is reported that Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “We were the beginning [the heads] of this Ummah, and perhaps a man from the best of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – and the most righteous amongst them could maintain only one chapter of the Qur`ān or thereabouts. For the Qur`ān was weighty upon them, and they were given knowledge of it or action based on it. But the last of this Ummah will find the Qur`ān light [and easy] – the child and the non-Arab will recite it, without possessing any knowledge about it.”

Al-Harawī,-Dhamm Al-Kalām wa AhlihīVol. 5 p144.
 
It is reported that Muḥammad b. Sīrīn said, “They used to consider themselves on the
path as long as they followed-al-athar-(guidance of the Sunnah and Salaf as passed down in the narrations).”

Al-Lālakā`ī,-Sharḥ Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā’ah-Vol.1 p120.

It is reported that ‘Uthmān b. Ḥāḍir said, “I said to Ibn ‘Abbās: ‘advise me.’ He replied, ‘It is upon you to be upright, follow-al-athar, and beware of innovating [in religion].’”​
 
It is reported that Shurayḥ – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If I am afflicted with a calamity, I praise Allāh for it four times: I praise Him because it wasn’t worse than it was, I praise Him when He gives me the patience to bear it, I praise Him for enabling me to say-al-istirjā’-(‘To Allāh we belong and to him we will return’; see Al-Baqarah: 154-156 ) in hope of a great reward, and I praise Him for not making it a calamity in my religion.”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`,-in his biography of Shurayḥ Al-Qāḍī.
 

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