Gems Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf

It is reported that Ḥabīb b. ʿUbayd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Learn knowledge, understand it and benefit from it (live by it); and do not study it in order to decorate yourself with it, for if you live long you will likely see a time when knowledge will be used for beautification like a man beautifies himself with his garments.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq no. 1056.
 
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Whoever hears of a bidʿah, let him not tell it to those who are with him, lest he cast it into their hearts.

Commenting, Al-Dhahabī states, “The majority of the Imāms of the Salaf are upon this; they see that the hearts are weak, and specious arguments ensnare.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:261
 
It is reported that Ḥabīb b. ʿUbayd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Learn knowledge, understand it and benefit from it (live by it); and do not study it in order to decorate yourself with it, for if you live long you will likely see a time when knowledge will be used for beautification like a man beautifies himself with his garments.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq no. 1056.
 
It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
This world (the dunyā) is [only taken as] a home by those who will have no real home [in Jannah], and it is the wealth of those who will have no real wealth, and it is gathered and collected for by those who have no real intelligence.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dhamm Al-Dunyā article 16.
 
It is reported that Qatādah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Whoever has been given wealth, beauty, garments or knowledge and then is not humble will have severe repercussions on the Day of Resurrection.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Tawāḍuʿ Wa Al-Khumūl ḥadīth 90.
 
Muʿāwiyah b. Qurrah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

When Iyās was born I invited a group of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and fed them, and they supplicated. I said, “You have all supplicated so may Allāh bless you in what you have supplicated for, and when I make a supplication please say āmīn.” So I supplicated much for him (my newborn) for his religion, his intelligence and the like, and verily now I recognize in him [the qualities] in the supplication of that day.

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad ḥadīth 1255. Al-Albānī grades its chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ in Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 950/1255.
 
It is reported that Imām Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
To learn a single topic of knowledge and teach it to a Muslim is more beloved to me than having the whole world and giving it in the cause of Allāh.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Faqīh wa Al-Mutafaqqih article 53.
 
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The seeking of knowledge cannot truly be achieved except with four things: time (al-farāgh, being free to study), sufficient wealth (al-māl, to avoid preoccupation with seeking a living), preservation (al-ḥifẓ, memorization) and piety (al-waraʿ, religious cautiousness).

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 3:243, article 1602.
 
It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Adham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Whoever seeks knowledge sincerely, for the servants of Allāh to benefit by and to benefit himself, then being hidden (from fame) is more beloved to him than seeking loftiness. He is the one who becomes more lowly to himself, strives more in worship, fears Allāh more, yearns for Allāh more, and becomes more humble amongst people. He cares not what he has of this dunyā night or day.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān article 1653.
 
It is reported that Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Stay away from the sinful amongst the scholars and the ignorant amongst the worshippers, for these two are the calamity of everyone who would fall into fitnah.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān ḥadīth 1753.
 
It is reported that it was said to Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ – Allāh be pleased with him – during the time of fitnah:

Will you not fight? For you are one of the people of shūrā (to be consulted in these affairs), and you are more deserving of this matter (leadership) than others? So he replied: I will not fight until you bring me a sword with two eyes and lips that recognizes the believer from the unbeliever, for I have done jihād and I know jihād.

Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyatu Al-Awliyāʾ 1:94
 
It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
By Allāh, he who gives people verdicts (fatwā) for every question they ask him is crazy (majnūn).
Ibn Battah Al-‘Ukbarī, Ibṭāl Al-Ḥiyal article 81, et al.
Imām Ibn Battah (d. 304H) laments:
So here is Ibn Masʿūd, swearing by Allāh that a person who gives people verdicts for every question they ask him is mad. And [now] if a person swore, he would not be breaking his oath, and if a person said, he would be speaking the truth: that most of the muftis of our time are mad. For you will hardly find a man who is asked about an issue pausing to consider carefully before answering, nor fearing Allāh and bringing to mind that Allāh is watching him, and fearing that He will say to him: What is the basis of your answer? Rather, most of them worry that it will be said: so-and-so was asked a question and he had no answer…
 
ʿAlqamah reports:

Ibn Masʿūd and [the rest of] the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ used to say the qunūt supplication before bowing in the witr prayer.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf ḥadīth 6911, and others.
 
Al-Muzanī reports:
I heard Al-Shāfiʿī say:

A man once asked Ubay b. Kaʿb – Allāh be pleased with him, “Exhort me with something I can benefit by and by which I will be rewarded.” He replied, “Be brotherly with brothers according to how righteous they are, do not expend your speech on those who are not interested in it, do not seek anyone to meet your need who does not care if he does not fulfil it, and do not envy the living except for something you would envy the dead.”

Al-Ājurrī, Juz fīhi Ḥikāyāt ʿan Al-Shāfiʿī article 24.
 
It is reported from Anas b. Sīrīn that he said:

It once reached us in Kūfā that Masrūq used to flee from the plague. Muḥammad denied this and said, “Let us go to his wife and ask her.” So we entered upon her and asked her about this, and she replied, “No, by Allāh, he never used to flee, but he would say, ‘These are days of preoccupation, so I like to be alone during them to worship.’ So he used to go aside and be alone to do worship. Sometimes, I would sit behind him and cry because of what I saw him doing to himself; he would pray so much that his feet would swell. I heard him say, ‘the plague, abdominal disease, postpartum bleeding and drowning: whoever dies during any of them will have it in his credit as martyrdom.'”

Ibn Saʿd, Al-Ṭabaqāt Al-Kubrā 8:202 (Al-Khānji)
 
It is reported that Abū Bakr Al-Maṭū’ī said:

I sat in the circle of Abū ‘Abdillāh Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal for twelve years while he read the Musnad to his children, and I never wrote a single ḥadīth, I only looked at his behavior, character and etiquette.


Ibn Al-Jawzī, Manāqib Aḥmad, article 210.
 
ʿAlqamah reports:

Ibn Masʿūd and [the rest of] the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ used to say the qunūt supplication before bowing in the witr prayer.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf ḥadīth 6911, and others.
 
The people of knowledge and understanding that I have met in our country, when one of them was asked a question on an issue, he would feel like one about to die. But the people of our own time love giving fatwa (without hesitation). Had they known what they are going to face tomorrow (in the Day of Judgement) they would not have done that. Umar, `Ali and ‘Alqama are some of the best Companions of the Prophet, yet when anyone of them was asked a question, he would consult his fellow companions before giving an answer. But it is unfortunate that fatwa has become the pride for the people of our time”.Imam Malik ibn Anas.
 
It is reported that Bishr b. Al-Ḥārith said:

I heard Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ say, “It has reached me that Allāh has barred repentance from every adherent of bid’ah (religious innovation), and the worst of the people of bid’ah are those who hate the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him.” He then turned to me and said, “Make the firmest of your deeds with Allāh your love for the Companions of His Prophet, for [then], were you to come to the standing of judgment (on the Day of Resurrection) with the likes of the Earth in sins, Allāh would forgive you; but if you come [on that Day] with even the smallest amount of hatred for them, no [good] deed will benefit you.”

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm 5: 412.
 
It is reported that Imām Mālik said:

The Salaf used to teach their children to love Abū Bakr and ʿUmar like they used to teach them a sūrah of the Qurān.

Al-Lālakāʾī, Sharḥ ʾUsūl ʾIʿtiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah #2325.
 

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