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It is reported that Abū Al-Dardā` – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Be a scholar or a learner, or a person who loves [the scholars] or a follower [of the scholars], but do not be the fifth. Ḥumayd (one of the reporters) asked Al-Ḥasan (Al-Baṣri, who reported this from Abū Al-Dardā`), “And who is the fifth?” He replied, “A heretic (mubtadi’, religious innovator}.” Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm 1:142.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm 1:142.
It is reported that Abū Al-‘Āliyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
I would travel for days to a man to hear [knowledge/ḥadīth ] from him, and the first thing I would check about him is his prayer: if he performed it properly I would stay and hear [knowledge] from him, but if he neglected it, I would return without hearing from him, and I would say, ‘He will be even more neglectful of other matters.’ Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Riḥlah fī Ṭalab Al-Ḥadīth article 22; Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 4:209.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Riḥlah fī Ṭalab Al-Ḥadīth article 22; Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 4:209.
It is reported that Imām Al-Shāfi’ī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
When I see a man from the Adherents of Ḥadīth, it is as if I have seen the Prophet – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – alive. Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Sharaf Ashāb Al-Ḥadīth article 85.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Sharaf Ashāb Al-Ḥadīth article 85.
Is knowledge today greater or lesser [in amount]? He replied, “There is more speech today, but there was more knowledge in the past.” Al-Fasawī, Al-Ma’rifah wa Al-Tārīkh 2:136.
Al-Fasawī, Al-Ma’rifah wa Al-Tārīkh 2:136.
It is reported that Imām Al-Awzāʿī (d157H) wrote:
O Muslims, fear Allāh and obey Him, and accept the advice of the sincere advisers and the exhortation of the exhorters, and know that this knowledge is religion, so be careful about what you do [in it] and from whom you take [it] and who you follow and who you trust your religion to. For verily, the followers of Bid’ah are all falsifiers and liars, neither are they careful nor do they fear and protect [against wrongdoing], and nor are they to be trusted to not distort what you hear. They say what they know not when criticizing and decrying or when affirming their lies. But Allāh encompasses what they do. So be on guard against them, suspect them, reject them and distance yourselves from them, for this was what your earlier scholars and the righteous latter ones did and instructed others to do. Beware of rising against Allāh and becoming instruments in the destruction of His religion and undoing its handholds by respecting the innovators, for you know what has come down to us about respecting them. And what stronger respect and veneration can there be than taking your religion from them, following them, believing them, being close to them and helping them in alluring those they allure and attracting those they attract of the weak Muslims towards their ideas and the religion they practice? This is enough to be considered a partnership and contribution to what they do. Ibn ‘Asākir, Tārīkh Dimishq 6:361, 362.
Ibn ‘Asākir, Tārīkh Dimishq 6:361, 362.
Ibn ‘Abbās – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “Address the people once a week, and if you must do so more often, then twice; and if you have to do even more, then three times; and do not make people tired or bored with the Quran. Let me not find you coming to the people to exhort them and tell them stories while they are speaking amongst themselves, thus interrupting their conversation and tiring them. Instead, listen, and when they tell you, address them when they desire to listen to your speech. And beware of making your supplications rhyme, stay away from this, for I found Allāh’s Messenger – peace and praise of Allāh be upon him – and his Companions doing nothing but [staying away from this].”
Al-Bukhārī, Al-Ṣaḥīḥ ‘What is hated about making supplications rhyme.’ Notes In this narration, the illustrious Companion ʿAbdullāh b. ‘Abbās gives some guidelines about being wise and aware of people’s condition when teaching them and calling them to Allāh. He advised that a person should not address the people and give talks to them too often, lest they become bored or fed up of hearing the Quran. This consideration is taken from the Sunnah of the Prophet – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him – as related by Ibn Mas’ūd. This tradition also expresses the dislike of trying to disseminate knowledge in a way that might be detrimental to its purpose. We are discouraged from spreading knowledge to those who do not desire it or those who are not enthusiastic to receive it and interrupting people while they are speaking. We are encouraged to teach knowledge to those who express their desire for it, because all this means it is more likely that the recipient will benefit from this knowledge. The narration also warns against the practice of trying to make du’ā (supplication) rhyme. This is because occupying oneself with putting together rhyming prayers conflicts with the state of being humble and imploring Allāh, which is how a person should be when supplicating. There is no contradiction between this disliked behavior and the fact that some of the Prophetic supplications and statements rhyme, because the Prophet never used to have to try and make them rhyme, but was effortlessly eloquent and at the same time fully humbled in front of Allāh. Adapted from Ibn Ḥajr, Fatḥ Al-Bārī.
Adapted from Ibn Ḥajr, Fatḥ Al-Bārī.
It is reported that there was a young man who was from the people of knowledge who used to put himself forward, speak and behave haughtily with his knowledge in front of those older than him. This angered Sufyān [Al-Thawrī] and he said, “The Salaf were never like this; they never used to claim leadership, or sit at the head of the gathering until they had sought this knowledge for thirty years, and you act haughty in front of those who are older than you. Get up, I never want to see you even come close to my circ le.”
Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Madkhal ilā Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā 2:74.
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Wealth is the disease of this Ummah, and the scholar is the doctor of this Ummah. So if the doctor brings the disease to himself, how will he cure the people?”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 7 p243.
It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “The servant [of Allāh] should not fear except his sins, and should not hope except in his Lord. The ignorant should not be ashamed to ask, and the knowledgeable should not be ashamed to say – if he does not know something – ‘Allāh knows best.’ Patience (al-ṣabr) to faith (Al-Īmān) is like the head to the rest of the body: if the head is cut off, the body will rot. And one who has no patience, has no faith.”
Al-Baihaqī, Shu’ab Al-Īmān, Vol.12 p195.
It is reported that Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “We were the beginning [the heads] of this Ummah, and perhaps a man from the best of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – and the most righteous amongst them could maintain only one chapter of the Qur`ān or thereabouts. For the Qur`ān was weighty upon them, and they were given knowledge of it or action based on it. But the last of this Ummah will find the Qur`ān light [and easy] – the child and the non-Arab will recite it, without possessing any knowledge about it.”
Al-Harawī, Dhamm Al-Kalām wa Ahlihī Vol. 5 p144.