Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
Taking Knowledge in Stages
It is reported that Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said to Yūnus b. Yazīd:
O Yūnus! Do not try to overcome knowledge, for verily knowledge is [like vast] valleys: whichever of them you take will stop you before you traverse it. Instead, take it over the days and nights. And do not take knowledge all at once, for whoever tries to take it all at once will lose it all at once. Rather take it bit by bit over the days and nights.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm article 652.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀṣ – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Nifāq (hypocrisy) used to be something unusual amongst all the Īmān. Soon, Īmān will be something strange amongst all the nifāq.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānah 1:173 article 6.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
We Take Our Religion from the Companions
ʿAbbād b. Al-ʿAwwām narrates:
Sharīk b. ʿAbdillāh came to us around fifty years ago, and we said to him, “O Abū ʿAbdillāh, here amongst us there are people from the Muʿtazilah who reject these āḥādīth [like]: ‘Allāh descends to the lowest heaven’, and ‘the people of Jannah will see their Lord’. So Sharīk narrated to me around ten such narrations, then said: ‘As for us, we have taken our religion from the sons of the Tābiʿīn, from the Ṣaḥābah. Who have they taken from?’”
Al-Ḏahabī, Al-ʿUluw. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in Mukhtaṣar Al-ʿUluw article 146.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
Why is Knowledge Learned?
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Knowledge is only learned to [apply it and] put into practice the Taqwā of Allāh the mighty and sublime.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm article 943.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that Ḥudhayfah – Allāh be pleased with him – was asked:
“What is the worst fitnah?” He replied, “That good and evil is presented to you and you do not know which of them to follow.”
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf, Kitāb Al-Fitan, article 38565.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
May Allah swt help us to help ourselves and protect us from fitna Ameen.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
Whenever ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās – Allāh be pleased with them – saw a muṣḥaf (copy of the Qurān) decorated with silver or gold he would say:
Do you tempt the thief, when its beauty is in its inside?
Abū ʿUbayd Al-Qāsim b. Sallām, Faḍāʾil Al-Qurān article 907.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Blessings arrive with gratitude [to Allāh], and gratitude is connected with more [blessings], and the two are tied together: more blessings from Allāh will never stop unless gratitude from the servant stops.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Shukr article 18.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz b. Abī Rawwād – Allāh have mercy on him – said to a man:
Whoever does not take exhortation [and is not effected] by three things, will not be exhorted by anything: Islām, the Qurān and old age (graying).
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUmr
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
A man once asked ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀṣ – Allāh be pleased with them:
“Are we not from the poor of the Muhājirīn?” He replied, “Do you have a wife to go back to?” The man replied, “Yes.” ʿAbdullāh asked, “Do you have a home to live in?” The man said, “Yes.” ʿAbdullāh said, “Then you are one of the rich.” The man said, “And I have a servant.” ʿAbdullāh said, “In that case, you are a king!”
Muslim, Al-Ṣaḥīḥ #5290
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
If the people were gathered on one plain, all of them believers, except for two unbelievers amongst them, they would join each other. And if the people were gathered on one plain, all of them unbelievers, except for two believers amongst them, they would join each other.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-ʾIbānah Al-Kubrā 1:455
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that Abūl-ʿĀliyah said:
There will come upon the people a time when their hearts will be derelict of the Qurān; they will find neither sweetness nor pleasure by it. If they fall short of doing what they have been commanded to do, they will say: Allāh is most forgiving, merciful (He will forgive us), and if they do what they have been forbidden from doing, they will say: we will be forgiven, we haven’t committed any shirk with Allāh. Their affairs will all be based on [false] hope, having no truth and sincerity with it. They will wear the skins of lambs over hearts of wolves. The best of them in his religion will be someone who compromises.
Imām Aḥmad, Al-Zuhd article 1741.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that Masrūq – Allāh have mercy him – said:-There is no house better for the believer than the niche of his grave, for then he will rest from the worries of this world, and be secured from the punishment of Allāh.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that a man saw Ibn ʿAbbās – Allāh be pleased with them – holding the tip of his tongue saying:
Woe to you, say what is good and you will reap gain, and be silent from speaking evil and you will be safe.
The man asked him:
O Ibn ʿAbbās, what is the matter that I see you holding the tip of your tongue saying such-and-such?
He replied:
It has reached me that the servant of Allāh will not be as angry at anything on the Day of Resurrection as he will be at his tongue.
Imām Aḥmad, Al-Zuhd p236
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
Aḥmad b. Yūnus reports:
I saw Zuhayr b. Muʿāwiyah come to Zāʾidah b. Qudāmah (d.160H) and speak to him to get him to narrate ḥadīth to a man, so Zāʾidah asked,-Is he from Ahl Al-Sunnah?-Zuhayr replied,-I do not know that he has any bidʿah.-Zāʾidah said,-No, that is another matter!-Is he from Ahl Al-Sunnah?-Zuhayr said,-Since when have people become like this?-Zāʾidah replied,-Since when did people curse Abū Bakr and ʿUmar?!
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq Al-Rāwī #754.
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Verily, you will find the believer (muʾmin) consistent time after time, upon one way, showing the same face; [whereas] you will find the hypocrite (munāfiq) changing colors, trying to be like everyone around him, running with every wind.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm #1936
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that Imām Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
We used to sometimes come to a scholar and what we learned of his manners was more beloved to us than the knowledge we took from him.
Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyatu Al-ʾAwliyāʾ #4575
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that a man once wrote to Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them:
Please write down all knowledge for me.-Ibn ʿUmar replied:-Knowledge is vast, but if you can meet Allāh having kept your back light of the burden of people’s blood, your stomach void of people’s wealth and having kept your tongue from [disparaging] their honour, then do so.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 3:222
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported from Sufyān b. ʿUyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – that a man once asked ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. ʾAbī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him,-What was the status of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar with Rasūlullāh – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him?-He replied,-Their place with him is like their place with him today (i.e. where they are in their graves).
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 4:254
Re: Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf
It is reported that a man came to ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked,-What do you think about a man who committed a sin?-He replied,-He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.-[The man] said,-He did that, but then sinned again?-[ʿAlī] said,-He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.-The man again said,-He did that, but returned to sin. [ʿAlī] said,-He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.-The man said for the fourth time,-He did, but then sinned again.-ʿAlī then said,-Until when?Then he said,-He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him; and not give up until it is Shayṭān who is defeated [overcome].
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 910