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Posts in this category contain advice and exhortation from the Salaf.
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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.
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
ʿAmr b. Dīnār reports that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them – intended not to marry after the [passing of the] Prophet – ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa salam, so Ḥafṣah (his sister) – Allāh be pleased with her – advised him:
My brother, marry, for if you have a child and it dies, it will precede you into Al-Jannah (and be a cause for you to be admitted), and if it lives, the child will supplicate for good for you.
ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣanʿānī, Al-Muṣannaf #10388
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀs – Allāh be pleased with them – said:
Leave alone what you have nothing to do with, and do not speak about what does not concern you, and secure your tongue like you secure your money.
Ibn Ḥibbān Al-Bustī, Rawḍatu Al-ʿUqalāʾ 1:55.
It is reported that Harim b. Ḥayyān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
“Beware of the sinful scholar (al-ʿālim al-fāsiq).” This reached ʿUmar, so he wrote to him in fear, “Who is the sinful scholar?” He wrote back, “I did not intend but good; this is when there is an imām (leader, taken as an example) who speaks knowledge, but practices sins, confusing the people, and thus they go astray.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:49.
It is reported that ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān – Allāh be pleased with him – once addressed the people in a sermon. He praised Allāh, then said:
O people! Fear Allāh and obey Him, for piety is a valuable prize. Verily the most intelligent person is he who takes account of himself and works for what comes after death, and acquires through the light (guidance) of Allāh a light for the darkness of the grave. The servant of Allāh should fear lest Allāh the Mighty and Sublime resurrects him blind though he used to see. A few comprehensive words can be enough for a wise man, whereas the deaf (who does not listen to guidance) is being called from afar. And know that whoever Allāh the Mighty and Sublime is with has nothing to fear; but whoever Allāh the Mighty and Sublime is against, then in whom can he hope after Allāh?!
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 4:116,117.
Whatever you fool around with, don’t fool around with your dīn (religion).
Al-Lālakāʾī, Sharḥ ʾUṣūl ʾIʿtiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah 1:163
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
Al-Sha’bī once said to me, “When these [people] report to you from Allāh’s Messenger – praise and peace of Allāh be upon him, adhere to it; but when they merely opine, throw it in the trash.” Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan 1:78.
Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan 1:78.
It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – once said during the funeral of a man:
May Allāh have mercy on the man who works for the likes of this day; for today you are able to do what these brothers of yours, the residents of these graves, cannot do. So make full use of your health and free time before the day of distress and accounts comes upon you. Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dhamm Al-Dunyā article 53.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dhamm Al-Dunyā article 53.