Sayings of the Salaf

A Fire in the Mosque

It is reported from Abū Idrīs Al-Khawlānī – Allah have mercy on him – that he used to say:

I would rather hear of a fire in the masjid than hear of a bid’ah in it without there being anyone to do away with it. Never do a people innovate a bid’ah in their religion except that Allah removes a sunnah from them.

Ibn Waddāh, Al-Bida’ p92.

Abū Idrīs Al-Khawlānī was the chief judge of Damascus in his time, its main scholar, renowned for his exhortations. He was born in the year of the Conquest of Makkah and his father is regarded as a Companion. He narrated from a number of the Companions. He died in 80H, Allah have mercy on him.

Abū Idrīs Al-Khawlānī

Bidʿah
Knowledge transforms the student

Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allah have mercy on him – said:

When a man sought knowledge, it would not be long before it could be seen in his humbleness, his sight, upon his tongue and his hands, in his prayer, in his speech and in his disinterest (zuhd) in worldly allurements. And a man would acquire a portion of knowledge and put it into practice, and it would be better for him than the world and all it contains – if he owned it he would give it in exchange for the hereafter.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iq Vol.1 p.156.

Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī

Knowledge The Hereafter Worship Zuhd
Talk is Easy

ʿAbdullah b. Mas’ūd – Allah be please with him – said:

Everyone speaks of good things. It is those whose words and deeds match who have acquired their share. Those whose words and deeds do not match have only reproached themselves.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iq Vol.1 p.153.

ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd

Worship
It’s just a small sin

Bilāl b. Sa’d – Allah have mercy on him – said:

Do not think about how small the sin is, but think about who you have just disobeyed.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iq Vol.1 p150.

Bilāl b. Saʿd

Sins
More towards the end

It is reported that before his death, Abū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī – Allah be please with him – used to exert himself intensely in worship. It was said to him, “If only you would slow down and go easy on yourself.” He replied, “When steeds are let loose and come close to the end of their course they finish by giving it all they have, and what remains of my life is less than that.”

Al-Dhahabī , Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` in his biography of Abū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī.

Abū Mūsā Al-Ashʿarī

Death Worship
Planting Nifāq

ʿAbdullah b. Mas’ūd – Allah be pleased with him – said:

Singing sprouts hypocrisy (nifāq) in the heart as water sprouts greens and herbs.

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā Vol.2 p469, and Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā Vol. 52 p231.

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyah – Allah have mercy on him – said in Madārij Al-Sālikīn, Vol.1 p487:

These are the words of someone who fully understood singing and its effects, for no one regularly sings or listens to song except that his heart falls into nifāq without him realizing. If such a person understood the reality of nifāq and its end he would see it in his own heart. Never do the love of song and the love of Qur`ān come together in a person’s heart except that one expels the other. I and others have witnessed how heavy the Qur`ān feels to singers and song-listeners; how they coil when it is recited and how they get angry with a reciter when he recites too long for them (in prayer etc); and how their hearts do not benefit from what he recites: they are not moved to do anything by it. But when the Qur`ān of Shaytān comes, lā ilāha illallāh! How they lower their voices and settle down! How their hearts feel at peace and how the crying and emotions start, how moved they are inwardly and outwardly and spend on clothing and perfume and staying up hoping for a long night ahead. If this is not nifāq then it is certainly the way to it and its foundation.

ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd

Hypocrisy Sins
Be a King

A man once asked Muhammad b. Wāsi’ for advice. He replied, “I advise you to be a king in this world and the hereafter.” The man enquired, “How?” He replied, “Lose interest in worldly things (practice zuhd).”

Al-Dhahabī , Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` in his biography of Muhammad b. Wāsi’.

Muḥammad b. Wāsiʿ

Dunyā Zuhd
Secret Tears

Muhammad b. Wāsi’ said:

I have lived amongst men who were such that one of them would lie with his wife on the same pillow and his side of the pillow would be soaked with his tears under his cheek without his wife even noticing.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Ikhlās wa Al-Nīyah (Sincerity and Intentions) p34.

Muhammad b. Wāsi’ Al-Azadī Al-Basrī was one of the famous and pious Tābi’īn. He reports from Anas b. Mālik – Allah be pleased with him – and others. He died in 123H, Allah have mercy on him.

Muḥammad b. Wāsiʿ

Family Intentions
Impressive

Imām Ibrāhīm Al-Nakha’ī said about the Salaf:

When in a gathering, they used to dislike a person showing the best of what he has.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Ikhlās wa Al-Nīyah (Sincerity and Intentions) p50.

Ibrāhīm Al-Nakhaʿī The Salaf

Ikhlās Intentions
Until the Heart is sealed

Explanation of the verse:

Nay, but their hearts were covered over by what (sins) they earned. [Al-Mutaffifīn: 14]

Al-Hasan (Al-Basrī) said, “It is because of doing one sin after another, until the heart becomes blind and dies.”

Qatādah also said, “It is because of doing one sin after another, one sin after another, until the heart dies and becomes black.”

Ibn Zayd said, “Their sins overcome their hearts until no good can get through to them.”

Mujāhid explained, “They used to consider the heart like a hand: when a person sins, his heart starts to scrunch up,” and he folded his little finger, “and when he does another sin,” he folded the next finger and continued until he had his fist clenched. “Then a seal is placed over it, and they used to say that this is the ‘covering’.”

Al-Tabarī in his Tafsīr, Sūrah Al-Mutaffifīn.

Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī Mujāhid Qatādah

Sins The Heart