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 Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
You cannot be a scholar unless you have three traits: you do not transgress against those above you, you do not look down on those lesser than you, and you do not take any dunyā in return for your knowledge.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 3:282, article 1655.
It is reported that ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said to a young man while exhorting him:
A man might have ten qualities, nine of them good and one bad, but the nine good ones can be spoiled by the one bad quality. Beware of the slips and faults of youth.
ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣanʿānī, Al-Muṣannaf 8240.
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.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 8:406.
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 Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
I have not seen less zuhd (abstinence) in anything than leadership; you can see a man renouncing food, drink, wealth and clothing, but if his leadership is contested, he vehemently defends and has enmity over it.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:262.
Nāfiʿ reports:
ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar once sacrificed an uḍḥiyah in Al-Madīnah. He told me to buy a horned ram for him, and then to slaughter it on the Day of Aḍḥā at the people’s prayer place (muṣallā), so I did that. Then it was taken to ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar, and he shaved his head once the ram was slaughtered. He was ill at the time and had not witnessed the ʿEid with the people.
Al-Imām Mālik, Al-Muwaṭṭā, Book of Sacrificial Slaughters, Chapter on What is Recommended of the Sacrifices.
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whoever is happy (satisfied) with what Allāh has apportioned for him, it will suffice him and Allāh will bless it for him, but whoever is not satisfied, then [what is apportioned for him] will not suffice him and it will not be blessed.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Riḍā ʿan Allāh bi Qaḍāʾihi article 95.
It is reported from Sālim b. Abī Ḥafṣah:
I asked Abū Jaʿfar and his son Jaʿfar (Al-Ṣādiq) about Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, so he replied, “O Sālim, love and ally yourself with them, and dissociate yourself from their enemy, for they were imāms of guidance.” Then he said, “O Sālim, would a man revile his own grandfather? Abū Bakr is a grandfather of mine. May the intercession of Muḥammad ﷺ not reach me on the Day of Resurrection if I do not love and ally myself with them and disassociate from their enemy.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 6:258.
Saʿīd b. Abī ʿArūbah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whoever has not heard the differences of opinion, then do not consider him a scholar.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihī no. 1521.