Ok, I'm starting a thread for general sayings of the Salaf and I want everyone to contribute inshallah.
Please provide the source for your posts. It is not enough to say "X" said such and such. It should be probably referenced so that we can all gain the full benefits!
Example:
Al-Hasan al-Basree (rahima-hullaah) said: Seeking knowledge when one is young, is like etching on a stone [In other words, the knowledge which one memorises when one is young will be so strong in one's memory, that it is as if it had been etched on a stone, wAllaahu A'lam!].
Source: Mabaahith fee Ahkaam al-Fatwa - Page 28
Last edited by 'Abd-al Latif; 05-27-2016 at 04:36 PM.
Reason: Corrected grammatical/punctuation mistakes.
And verily for everything that a slave loses there is a substitute, but the one who loses Allah will never find anything to replace Him.” [Related by Ibn al-Qayyim in ad-Dâ' wad-Dawâ Fasl 49]
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.
True knowledge is not mentioned in relation to how much you memorise and then narrate, but rather, true knowledge is an expression of piety. - Ibn Mas'ud (radhiyallahu 'anhu)
It is reported that ʿAlī b. Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b.ʾAbī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
No man speaks well about another while not knowing it to be true except that he is also likely to speak badly about him without knowing it to be true. And two people do not accompany each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh except that it is likely they will part from each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 5:274 article 2118.
It is reported that Maymūn b. Mihrān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
There are three things that must be given to both the righteous and the sinful: the ties of the womb (relatives) must be kept connected, whether they are righteous or sinful; trust must be fulfilled, for the righteous and the sinful; and promises must be kept, to the righteous as well as the sinful.
The Mad Mufti
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…
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.
“Allah gave you a gift of 86,000 seconds today, have you used one to say ‘Alhamdulilah"
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
The insightful and wise do not trust that they are safe from four things: a past sin about which it is not known what the Lord Almighty will do, the remaining lifespan wherein it is not known what destruction lies, some (apparent) advantage a person is given but which could be a lure (from Allāh) in recompense for his wrongdoing, a misguidance that has been beautified – so that he thinks it is guidance – and a momentary deviation of the heart, for a person can be stripped of his religion without realizing it.
It is reported that ʿAlī b. Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b.ʾAbī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
No man speaks well about another while not knowing it to be true except that he is also likely to speak badly about him without knowing it to be true. And two people do not accompany each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh except that it is likely they will part from each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 5:274 article 2118.
A man once came to Ibn ʿAbbās and said, “I proposed to a woman and she refused to marry me, then someone else proposed to her and she wanted to marry him; so I became jealous and killed her. Can I repent from this?” [Ibn ʿAbbās] asked, “Is your mother alive?” He replied, “No.” So he said, “Repent (tawbah) to Allāh the mighty and majestic, and worship him as much as you can.”
ʿAṭāʾ said, “So I went and asked Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘Why did you ask him if his mother was alive?’ He replied, ‘I do not know of any action that brings one closer to Allāh than dutifulness to the mother.'”
Soft Poison
It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Tālib wrote to Salmām Al-Farsī – Allāh be pleased with them both – saying:
The likeness of this worldly life (dunyā) is that of a snake: soft to the touch, it will kill you with its poison. So turn away from what impresses you of it, since what stays with you is so little. And do not be concerned about it, since you are certain about its parting. And be most happy in it when you are most heedful of it; for every time its companion takes solace in one of its delights, it gives way to one of its woes.
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.
“Allah gave you a gift of 86,000 seconds today, have you used one to say ‘Alhamdulilah"
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.
“Allah gave you a gift of 86,000 seconds today, have you used one to say ‘Alhamdulilah"
It is reported that on the first night of Ramaḍān, ‘Umar – Allāh be pleased with him – would pray Maghrib, then say (to the people):
Sit down. Then he would give a small address: Verily the fasting of this month has been made a duty upon you, and standing in night prayer has not been made a duty upon you, but those amongst you who can stand in prayer should do so, for it is from the extra good deeds about which Allāh told us: so whoever cannot stand in prayer, let him sleep on his bed.
And beware of saying: I will fast if so and so fasts and I will stand in night prayer if so and so stands in prayer. Whoever fasts or stands in night prayer, he must make this for Allāh. And you should know that you are in prayer as long as you are waiting for a prayer.
Minimize any vain or false speech in the houses of Allāh (mosques; he said this two or three times). Let none of you fast a few days before the month (in order to avoid missing the beginning of the month; he said this three times). And do not fast until you see [the crescent of the new month] unless it is overcast. If it is overcast, count [the previous month] as 30 days. Then do not break your fasts until you see the night upon the mountain (i.e. you are sure the sun has set).
Imām Al-Bukhārī reports in his Ṣaḥīḥ, in the chapter entitled The virtue of one who prays [at night] in Ramaḍān, from ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbdin Al-Qārī:
I went out to the mosque with ʿUmar b. Al-Khattāb one night in Ramaḍān, and we found people in separate groups: some men praying by themselves and others praying with a small group behind them. ʿUmar said, “I think if I gathered them behind one reciter it would be better.” Later, he made up his mind and gathered them behind Ubay b. Ka’b. On another night, I went out with him again and the people were praying behind their reciter [Ubay]. ʿUmar said, “What a good innovation (bid’ah) this is, but what they are missing by sleeping is better than what they are staying up to pray.” He meant the last part of the night, for the people used to pray in the early part.
This is further clarified by the more detailed report in Ibn Sa’d’s Al-Ṭabaqāt Al-Kubrā Vol.5 p42 from Nawfal b. Iyās Al-Hudhalī:
During the time of ʿUmar b. Al-Khattāb, we used to pray in Ramaḍān in groups – here and there – in the mosque. People would incline to pray behind those who had the best voices. ʿUmar said, “Do I not see that they are treating the Qurān like song? By Allāh, if I can, I will change this.” Only three nights later, he told Ubay b. Ka’b to lead them in prayer, then stood behind the rows and said, “If this is a bid’ah, then what a good bid’ah it is.”
Al-‘Allāmah Al-Mu’allimī Al-Yamānī graded this narration’s chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ in his treatise Qiyāmu Ramaḍān p51.
Points to note
We are reminded through this narration to avoid falling into the same problems that ʿUmar sought to solve by appointing a single imām during his Caliphate:
The appearance of splitting and schism, which Islam disapproves of
Distracting each other by reciting audibly at the same time in the mosque, reciting over each other
Preferring imāms and reciters for having nice voices even though others may know more Qurān and be more qualified to lead
Scholars point out that the statement ‘what a good bid’ah this is’ does not affirm that there is any such thing as a good bid’ah in a religious sense, because innovation in religion is unconditionally and unequivocally blameworthy in the texts of ḥadīth and countless statements of the Salaf. This statement is therefore taken to mean that ʿUmar meant that what he saw was a good development – a bid’ah in the linguistic sense of something new – relative to the situation before he appointed a single imām. This meaning is also clear from the fact that night prayer in congregation in Ramaḍān already has a precedent from Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him.
Having said that, the report in Ibn Sa’d, ‘if this is a bid’ah, then what a good bid’ah it is’ evidences that ʿUmar never called it a bid’ah in the first place, but was being rhetorical, as suggested by Shaykh Al-Mu’allimī in Qiyām Ramaḍān, in the same way as intended in Sūrah Al-Zukhruf, verse 81, “Say, if Al-Raḥmān has a son, then I am the first of the worshippers.’”
It is reported that:ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn – Allāh have mercy on him – would sometimes ride to Makkah and return without entering it (meeting anyone there), and he used to sit with Aslam the freedman of ʿUmar (himself a scholar), so it was said to him, “You leave Quraysh, and instead sit with the slave of Banī ʿAdī!” So he replied, “A man [should] sit where he benefits.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:388.
It is reported that:ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn – Allāh have mercy on him – would enter the masjid and cut his way through the people until he would sit in the circle of Zayd b. Aslam. Nāfiʿ b. Jubayr said to him, “Allāh forgive you, you are the sayyid of the people, yet you come traversing the people to sit with this slave.” So ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn replied, “Knowledge is to be sought and come to and looked for wherever it is.”Ibid.
So and so spoke ill of you’Whereupon Wahb rahimahullaah replied:‘Did Shaytaan not find anyone better than you to deliver this news?’[Minhaaj al-Qaasideen p. 183]
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