“Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise.”
Saʿīd b. Jubayr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Tawakkul (reliance and trust in Allah) comprehends all of Īmān.
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd #534.
It is reported that Abū Bakr Al-Ṣiddīq – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Beware of lying, for lying is far removed from īmān.
Abū Bakr Al-Ḵallāl, Al-Sunnah no. 1467, 1470; Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān no. 4463.
It is reported that Imām Mālik – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whatever you fool around with, don’t fool around with your dīn (religion).
Al-Lālakāʾī, Sharḥ ʾUṣūl ʾIʿtiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah 1:163
Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal [Quran, Ghāfir (40):19]
يَعْلَمُ خَآئِنَةَ ٱلْأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِى ٱلصُّدُورُ
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd article 1428.
It is reported that Imām Al-Awzāʿī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Learn what is not to be taken, like you learn what is to be taken.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿu Bayyān Al-ʿIlm article 435.
It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Adham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
A person has not been true to Allāh, the mighty and sublime, if he loves recognition (fame).
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Al-Zuhd article 2240.
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It is reported from the Companion Jubayr b. Muṭʿim – Allāh be pleased with him – that he said:
I once travelled to Shām for trade. When I reached lower Shām a man from the People of the Book met me and asked me, “Is there amongst you a man who is a Prophet?” I replied, “Yes.” He then asked, Would you recognise his image if you saw it?” I replied, “Yes.” He then admitted me into a house in which there were images, but I did not see an image of the Prophet ﷺ. While I was there, another man from them entered upon us and asked us “What are you doing?” So we informed him. He then took us to his home, and as soon as I entered I saw the image of the Prophet ﷺ and it showed a man holding on to the heel of the Prophet ﷺ. I asked, “Who is this man holding his heel?” He replied, “There was no prophet except that after him came another prophet, except this prophet, for there is no prophet after him. And this is the khalīfah after him.” And I saw that it looked like Abū Bakr – Allāh be pleased with him.
Ibn Kathīr, Al-Tafsīr, in the commentary of 7:157
Samurah b. Jundub – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
I was young during the time of Allāh’s Messenger ﷺ and I had memorised things he had said; nothing stopped me from speaking except for the fact that there were amongst us men who were older than me.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb Al-Janāʾiz #964.
It is reported that Saʿīd b. Jubayr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Verily, fear (al-khashyah) is that you fear Allāh such that your fear comes between you and your disobedience (of Allāh). That is khashyah. And dhikr (remembrance) is obedience to Allāh: whoever obeys Allāh has remembered Him; and whoever does not obey Him is not a rememberer of Him, even if he says a lot of tasbīḥ and recites a lot of Qurān.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:326.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī has mentioned this heading and quotes the following general aḥādīth. He then reports narrations from some of the Salaf about letting elders enter first.
Blessings are with your seniors.
Ibn Ḥibbān et al. Graded ṣaḥīh by Al-Albānī and others. See Al-Ṣaḥīḥah no. 1778.
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whoever takes leadership quickly (too early) will harm a lot of [his] knowledge (will not learn what he needs); and whoever does not take leadership can continue to seek knowledge until he reaches [where he needs to be].
Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan #554.
It is reported from Ḥabīb Al-Jallāb that he asked ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him:
“What is the best thing a person is ever given?” He replied, “Innate intelligence.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “Good conduct.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “A compassionate brother to consult.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “Long silence.” He asked, “And if not that?” Ibn Al-Mubārak replied, “Then an early death.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 8:397.
ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them – said:
A man from [the tribe of] the Anṣār once came to me during the caliphate of ʿUthmān. He spoke to me and I realised he wanted me to fault ʿUthmān; he spoke at length and he had some heaviness in his speech and could not finish speaking quickly. When he had finished, I said to him, “We used to say, while the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ was still alive, the best of the Ummah of the Messenger of Allāh after him is Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān. And by Allāh, we do not know that ʿUthmān has ever killed anyone without right or committed any major sin; but it is an issue of this wealth [with you people]: if he gives you, you are happy, and if he gives to his kin, you are angry. You only want to be like the Persians and Romans, who leave no leader of theirs without killing him.” Then his eyes filled with tears and he said, “O Allāh, we do not want this.”
Imām Aḥmad, Faḍāʾil Al-Ṣaḥābah, article 64, except for the last sentence. Shaykh Waṣīyullāh ʿAbbās graded its chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ in his study of the work.
Ayyūb Al-Sakhtiyānī reports that Abū Qilābah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
O Ayyūb, when Allāh brings about knowledge for you, bring about worship of him, and do not let your [sole] concern be to narrate it.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm, article 1279.
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-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.