Gems Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf

The Sunnah vs. What People Do

It is reported that:


ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Ḥasan used to often sit with Rabīʿah. One day they were revising and studying various practices from the Sunnah when a man in the gathering said, “[But] this is not what is practiced [by the people].” ʿAbdullah said, “So if the ignorant become so numerous that they become the rulers and judges, will they then be a proof over the Sunnah?” Rabīʿah said, “I bear witness that these are the words of the sons of the Prophets.”


Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Faqīh wa Al-Mutafaqqih article 384.
 
Don’t be the FifthIt is reported that Abū Al-Dardā` – Allāh be pleased with him – said:Be a scholar or a learner, or a person who loves [the scholars] or a follower [of the scholars], but do not be the fifth.Ḥumayd (one of the reporters) asked Al-Ḥasan (Al-Baṣri, who reported this from Abū Al-Dardā`), “And who is the fifth?” He replied, “A heretic (mubtadi’, religious innovator}.”Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm 1:142.
 
It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Adham (d162H) – Allāh have mercy on him – once passed through the market of Baṣrah. People gathered around him and asked:

O Abū Isḥāq, Allāh the Exalted says in his Book. ‘Call on me, I will answer your prayers’, but we have been calling on Him for a long time and He does not answer our prayers. [Ibrāhīm] replied, “O people of Baṣrah, your hearts have died in respect to ten things: First, you know Allāh but you do not give Him His rights; second, you have read Allāh’s Book but you do not act by it; third, you claim to love Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – yet you abandon his Sunnah; fourth, you claim to be enemies to Shayṭān but you conform to [his ways]; fifth, you say you love Paradise yet you do not work for it; sixth, you say you fear The Fire yet you put yourselves closer to it [by sinning]; seventh, you say death is true but you do not prepare for it; eighth, you busy yourselves with the faults of others and disregard your own; ninth, you consume the favors of your Lord but are not grateful for them; and tenth, you bury your dead but take no lesson from them.”


Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā’ 8: 15, 16.
 
It is reported that Al-Nuʿmān b. Bashīr – Allāh be pleased with him – said during a sermon he was delivering in Homs:

Total destruction lies in doing bad deeds during a time of calamity and tribulation.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUqūbāt article 327.
 
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

If you see a man amongst you having committed a sin, do not supplicate Allāh against him and do not revile him; instead, pray to Allāh to cure him and accept his repentance, for when we used to see a man die upon something good, we would have hope for him, and when we used to see a man die upon wrongdoing, we would fear for him.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Tawbah article 112.
 
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 reported that Ḥudhayfah b. Al-Yamān – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

True misguidance is that you approve now what you used to repudiate before (because it was wrong) and repudiate now what you used to approve before; and be aware of changing colours in the religion, for the religion of Allāh is one.

Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānatu Al-Kubrā ḥadīth 25, and others.
 
It is reported that ʿAdī b. Ḥātim – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

You will remain upon good as long as you do not start approving of what you used to repudiate and as long as you do not repudiate what you used to know (to be right), and as long as your scholar can speak amongst you without fear.

Op. cit. ḥadīth 26.
 
[h=2]The Integrity of a Man and his Prayer[/h]It is reported that Abū Al-‘Āliyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
I would travel for days to a man to hear [knowledge/ḥadīth ] from him, and the first thing I would check about him is his prayer: if he performed it properly I would stay and hear [knowledge] from him, but if he neglected it, I would return without hearing from him, and I would say, ‘He will be even more neglectful of other matters.’
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Riḥlah fī Ṭalab Al-Ḥadīth article 22; Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 4:209.
 
It is reported that ʿAdī b. Ḥātim – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

You will remain upon good as long as you do not start approving of what you used to repudiate and as long as you do not repudiate what you used to know (to be right), and as long as your scholar can speak amongst you without fear.

Op. cit. ḥadīth 26.
 
Al-Albānī states, commenting on the chain of transmission of the narration in Al-Maṣannaf:

This is a good (jayyid) chain of transmission, and it comforms to the conditions stipulated by Muslim (for his Ṣaḥīḥ) … in summary: that which is authentic and established from the Companions is qunūt before bowing in the witr prayer.

Irwāʾ Al-Ghalīl 2:166.
 
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Fulfil what Allāh has obligated you to do and you will be from the most devout of people, stay away from what Allāh has forbidden you and you will be from the most careful of people, and be satisfied with what Allāh has apportioned for you and you will be from the richest of people.

Hannād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd, article 1032
 
Did the Companions used to laugh?It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – was asked:


Did the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – used to laugh? He replied, “Yes, and the īmān (faith) in their hearts was greater than the mountains.”


ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣan’ānī, Al-Muṣannaf 11:327.
 
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-Tārīkh 2:136.
 
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 Imām Al-Shāfiʿī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Do not live in a land in which there is neither a scholar to inform you about your religion, nor a doctor to tell you about your body.

Al-Bayhaqī, Manāqib Al-Shāfiʿī 2:115
 
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.
 
Yūnus reports: Maymūn b. Mihrān once wrote to me saying:

Beware of dispute and argumentation about the religion, and do not argue with a scholar nor an ignoramus. As for the scholar, he will withhold his knowledge from you, and will not be concerned with what you do. As for the ignorant person, he will only cause roughness in your heart and he will not obey you [anyway].

Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan no. 302.
 
It is reported that Bilāl b. Saʿd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

If you see a man being obstinate, argumentative and impressed with his own opinion, then his loss is complete.

Abū Nuʿaym, ʿHilyatu Al-Awliyāʾ 5:228
 
It is reported that Jundub b. ‘Abdillāh Al-Bajalī – Allah be pleased with him – was once asked for advice and instruction. He said:

I advise you to fear Allāh and obey Him (taqwā) and I advise you to adhere to the Quran, for it is a light in the dark night and a guidance during the day, so implement it no matter how much struggle and poverty you have to face. If a calamity befalls you, put your wealth forward to protect your religion, and if the calamity continues, put forward your wealth and your life to save your religion [but never risk your religion], for the ruined is he whose religion is ruined, and the looted is he whose religion is taken. And know that there is no poverty after Paradise, and no riches after the Fire.


Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 3:174.
 

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