It is reported that Yūnus b. ʿUbayd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
There is no one who is mindful of what he says except that you will see the good of it in the rest of his actions.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Ṣamt wa Ādāb Al-Lisān article 60.
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Changing Colours
It is reported that Ḥudhayfah b. Al-Yamān – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
True misguidance is that you approve now what you used to repudiate before (because it was wrong) and repudiate now what you used to approve before; and be aware of changing colours in the religion, for the religion of Allāh is one.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānatu Al-Kubrā ḥadīth 25, and others.
It is reported that ʿAdī b. Ḥātim – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
You will remain upon good as long as you do not start approving of what you used to repudiate and as long as you do not repudiate what you used to know (to be right), and as long as your scholar can speak amongst you without fear.
Op. cit. ḥadīth 26.
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The Companions did Qunut in Witr before the Ruku
ʿAlqamah reports:
Ibn Masʿūd and [the rest of] the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ used to say the qunūt supplication before bowing in the witr prayer.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf ḥadīth 6911, and others.
Al-Albānī states, commenting on the chain of transmission of the narration in Al-Maṣannaf:
This is a good (jayyid) chain of transmission, and it comforms to the conditions stipulated by Muslim (for his Ṣaḥīḥ) … in summary: that which is authentic and established from the Companions is qunūt before bowing in the witr prayer.
Irwāʾ Al-Ghalīl 2:166.
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Four Rewarding Exhortations about People
Al-Muzanī reports:
I heard Al-Shāfiʿī say:A man once asked Ubay b. Kaʿb – Allāh be pleased with him, “Exhort me with something I can benefit by and by which I will be rewarded.” He replied, “Be brotherly with brothers according to how righteous they are, do not expend your speech on those who are not interested in it, do not seek anyone to meet your need who does not care if he does not fulfil it, and do not envy the living except for something you would envy the dead.”
Al-Ājurrī, Juz fīhi Ḥikāyāt ʿan Al-Shāfiʿī article 24.
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Sinning in the Time of Calamities
It is reported that Al-Nuʿmān b. Bashīr – Allāh be pleased with him – said during a sermon he was delivering in Homs:
Total destruction lies in doing bad deeds during a time of calamity and tribulation.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUqūbāt article 327.
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Worship in the Time of Plague
It is reported from Anas b. Sīrīn that he said:
It once reached us in Kūfā that Masrūq used to flee from the plague. Muḥammad denied this and said, “Let us go to his wife and ask her.” So we entered upon her and asked her about this, and she replied, “No, by Allāh, he never used to flee, but he would say, ‘These are days of preoccupation, so I like to be alone during them to worship.’ So he used to go aside and be alone to do worship. Sometimes, I would sit behind him and cry because of what I saw him doing to himself; he would pray so much that his feet would swell. I heard him say, ‘the plague, abdominal disease, postpartum bleeding and drowning: whoever dies during any of them will have it in his credit as martyrdom.'”
Ibn Saʿd, Al-Ṭabaqāt Al-Kubrā 8:202 (Al-Khānji)
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Four Corruptions
It is reported that Muʿādh b. Jabal – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
“O people, there are four characteristics to come, whoever can avoid reaching them should do so.” [People] asked, “And what are they?” He replied, “There will come a time in which falsehood will rise, and a time will come in which a man will say, ‘By Allāh, I do not know what I am’, he will neither live nor die upon insight (knowledge of what he should be). And a time will come in which a man will start his day on one religion and end it on another. And a time will come when a man will be given wealth from the wealth Allāh provides, in return for saying what is wrong and false and for which Allāh will be angry with him.”
Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimishq 58:442
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Fast Times
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How fast these days are in doing away with our lifespans, and how fast this year is in doing away with its months, and how fast this month is in doing away with its days.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUmr was Al-Shayb article 25.
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Do Not Hook People to Bid’ah
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whoever hears of a bidʿah, let him not tell it to those who are with him, lest he cast it into their hearts.
Commenting, Al-Dhahabī states, “The majority of the Imāms of the Salaf are upon this; they see that the hearts are weak, and specious arguments ensnare.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:261.
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Do Not Beautify Yourself with Knowledge
It is reported that Ḥabīb b. ʿUbayd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Learn knowledge, understand it and benefit from it (live by it); and do not study it in order to decorate yourself with it, for if you live long you will likely see a time when knowledge will be used for beautification like a man beautifies himself with his garments.
Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq no. 1056.