Sayings of the Salaf

The Last Drops of this World

Khālid b. ‘Umayr Al-‘Adawī reports, ‘Utbah b. Ghazwān – Allāh be pleased with him – once gave us a sermon. He praised Allāh, then said:

The life of this world has announced its departure and is quickly turning away, and nothing remains of it save the likes of the last drop of water in a vessel as its possessor tries to catch it. You are moving on to an abode that has no end, so move on with the best [deeds] that you have. For it has been said to us that a rock can be dropped from the edge of Hell and fall for seventy years without reaching the bottom. Yet, by Allāh, it will be filled. Do you not then wonder? And it has been said to us that a single entrance to Paradise is as wide as a journey of forty years, yet there will come a day when it will be crowded.

I have seen myself as the seventh of seven [followers of] Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him; we had no food save the leaves of trees which put sores round our mouths. I once got a cloak which I tore in half to share with Sa’d b. Mālik: I used half as my waist-wrap and he used the other. And yet today, there is not one of us except he has become a governor over some city – and I seek refuge with Allāh that I consider myself great and important when I am small in front of Allāh. Verily there was never prophet-hood except that it gradually changed until it ended up being a kingship, and verily you will see what the governors after us are like.

Sahīh Muslim no. 7624

ʿUtbah b. Ghazwān

Dunyā Good Deeds Paradise The Fire The Hereafter
True Goodness

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Goodness is not in your wealth and offspring being plentiful; true goodness is when your [good] deeds are plenty and you have great understanding and forbearance, and when you compete to worship your Lord. If you do good you praise Allāh and thank Him, and if you sin you beg Allāh’s forgiveness. There is no good in this life except with two types of men: A man who sins but then corrects himself through repentance, and a man who strives and hastens to get [the good] of the hereafter.

Ibn ‘Asākir, Al-Tawbah article 13.

ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib

Character Dunyā Good Deeds Repentance
The Sunnah vs. What People Do

It is reported that:

ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Ḥasan used to often sit with Rabīʿah. One day they were revising and studying various practices from the Sunnah when a man in the gathering said, “[But] this is not what is practiced [by the people].” ʿAbdullah said, “So if the ignorant become so numerous that they become the rulers and judges, will they then be a proof over the Sunnah?” Rabīʿah said, “I bear witness that these are the words of the sons of the Prophets.”

Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Faqīh wa Al-Mutafaqqiharticle 384.

Rabīʿah b. ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān

Fiqh Sunnah
The Complete Man

Imām Al-Buwayṭī – Allāh have mercy on him – reports:

I heard Al-Shāfi’ī say, “A man does not become complete in this life except when he has four [qualities]: religiousness (al-diyānah), trustworthiness (al-amānah), safeguarding [from sin] (al-ṣiyānah) and sobriety (al-razānah).”

Al-Bayhaqī, Manāqib Al-Shāfi’ī 2:189.

Imām Al-Shāfiʿī

Character Good Deeds Sins
Umar b. Abd Al-Aziz on the Way of the Believers
Ibn Shihāb reports:

‘Umar b. ‘Abd Al-‘Azīz – Allah have mercy on him, said, “The Messenger of Allāh – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – and the authorities (leaders of the Muslims, the Caliphs ) after him set certain ways and practices. To follow those ways is to believe in Allāh’s Book and to complete [ones] obedience of Him, and to be strong upon the religion of Allāh. It is not for anyone to alter those ways or change them for something else, and it is not for anyone to consider the views and opinions of those who contradict them. Whoever follows what [the Prophet and his Caliphs] laid down will be guided, whoever seeks enlightenment through it will be enlightened. But whoever contradicts those ways and follows a way other than the way of the Believers, Allāh the Mighty and Majestic will leave him in the path he has chosen and land him in Jahannam (Hell); and what an evil destination that is.'”

Al-Lālakā`ī, Sharḥ Uṣūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah 1:94.

Notes

In this statement, Caliph ‘Umar b. ‘Abd Al-Azīz affirms a number of important points related to the creed and methodology of Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā’ah – orthodox Islam:
1. The path of guidance, the Sunnah, is what was laid down by the Prophet, as understood and implemented by the Rightly Guided Caliphs and Companions.
2. For a person to truly believe in the Quran, and to be guided, he must adhere to this Sunnah and to it alone.
3. A Muslim is not allowed to innovate in the religion or exchange any part of it for foreign beliefs and ideologies.
4. True enlightenment and insight lies in adhering to this way.
5. A Muslim is not supposed to be interested in and expose himself to the views and opinions of people who go against the Sunnah and way of the Salaf.
6. Going against this way is to follow ‘a way other than the way of the Believers’ and take a path to Hell; a reference to Al-Quran 4:115 where this principle is evidenced.
This narration is recorded with variant wordings in numerous other sources. In a version recorded on the authority of Muttarrif b. ‘Abdillāh by Al-Qāḍī Abū Ya’lā (d458H) in Ibṭāl Al-Ta’wīl 1:52, it is stated that when those who ‘deflected the narrations speaking of the Ṣifāt’ (divine attributes of Allāh) were mentioned in the presence of Imām Mālik, he would quote this saying of Caliph ‘Umar b. ‘Abd Al-‘Azīz. In yet another report of this statement, the heretics being referred to are described as ‘the deviants in the religion.’
Imām Mālik ʿUmar b. ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz

Bidʿah Names and Attributes of Allāh Sunnah ʿAqīdah
Don’t be the Fifth

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.

Abū Al-Dardāʾ

Bidʿah Knowledge Love
Dead Hearts and Empty Supplications

It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Adham (d162H) – Allāh have mercy on him – once passed through the market of Baṣrah. People gathered around him and asked:

O Abū Isḥāq, Allāh the Exalted says in his Book. ‘Call on me, I will answer your prayers’, but we have been calling on Him for a long time and He does not answer our prayers. [Ibrāhīm] replied, “O people of Baṣrah, your hearts have died in respect to ten things: First, you know Allāh but you do not give Him His rights; second, you have read Allāh’s Book but you do not act by it; third, you claim to love Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – yet you abandon his Sunnah; fourth, you claim to be enemies to Shayṭān but you conform to [his ways]; fifth, you say you love Paradise yet you do not work for it; sixth, you say you fear The Fire yet you put yourselves closer to it [by sinning]; seventh, you say death is true but you do not prepare for it; eighth, you busy yourselves with the faults of others and disregard your own; ninth, you consume the favors of your Lord but are not grateful for them; and tenth, you bury your dead but take no lesson from them.”

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā’ 8: 15, 16.

Ibrāhīm b. Adham

Death Gratitude Paradise Qurān Sins Supplication The Fire
Sleeping during the day [best and worst times]

Khawāt b. Jubayr – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Sleeping in the first part of the day is ignorance, and in the middle of the day [good] character, and in the last part of the day stupidity.

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ. See Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad hadith #947.

Khawāt b. Jubayr

Manners and Conduct
Deviation is in Leaving the Sunnah

Abū Bakr Al-Ṣiddīq – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

I will not leave anything Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – did, except that I will also do it; for I fear that if I were to leave any of his commands and ways I would deviate.

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Ṣaḥīḥ 2:386 ḥadīth no. 3093; Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah article 77, and others.

Notes

After recording this narration, Ibn Battah states:

This, my brothers, is the greatest Ṣiddīq (true believer i.e. Abū Bakr), fearing that he would fall into deviation if he were to leave any of the commandments of his Prophet – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him. What then is to happen in a time in which people deride their Prophet and his commandments, and compete with each other and show off in contradicting him and mock his Sunnah? We ask Allāh to protect us from slipping and to save us from evil deeds.

Abū Bakr Al-Ṣiddīq

Bidʿah Sins Sunnah
Heresy and Hypocrisy [the company you keep]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, Allāh has angels who seek out the circles of remembrance [of Allāh], so be careful who you sit with; make sure it is not with an adherent of bid’ah, for Allāh does not look at them. And the sign of nifāq (hypocrisy in faith) is that a man mingles with an adherent of bid’ah.

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā 1:460

Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ

Bidʿah Hypocrisy Remembrance of Allāh ʿAqīdah