It is reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
We only used to own a single ram’s skin (leather mat), we used to sleep on one end of it and Fāṭimah used to knead dough on the other end.
Wakīʿ b. Al-Jarrāḥ, Al-Zuhd article 114.
It is reported that:
ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn – Allāh have mercy on him – would sometimes ride to Makkah and return without entering it (meeting anyone there), and he used to sit with Aslam the freedman of ʿUmar (himself a scholar), so it was said to him, “You leave Quraysh, and instead sit with the slave of Banī ʿAdī!” So he replied, “A man [should] sit where he benefits.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:388.
It is reported that:
ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn – Allāh have mercy on him – would enter the masjid and cut his way through the people until he would sit in the circle of Zayd b. Aslam. Nāfiʿ b. Jubayr said to him, “Allāh forgive you, you are the sayyid of the people, yet you come traversing the people to sit with this slave.” So ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn replied, “Knowledge is to be sought and come to and looked for wherever it is.”
Ibid.
It is reported that Muʿāwiyah b. Qurrah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Do not sit with the foolish using your knowledge, and do not sit with the knowledgeable (scholars) using your foolishness.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 5:154.
It is reported that a man once came to Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – and asked him about something, so he replied:
“Ibn Masʿūd used to say such-and-such [about this issue].” The man asked, “But tell me your opinion.” He replied, “Are you not all astonished by this man? I inform him of what Ibn Masʿūd [said] and he asks me my opinion. My religion is more important to me than that. By Allāh, I would rather sing a song than inform you of my opinion.”
Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan ḥadīth 108.
It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Safety lies in not wanting to be known.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:258.
It is reported that Qatādah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Verily the Qurān guides you to your disease and your treatment: as for your disease, it is your sins; and as for your treatment, it is to seek the forgiveness of Allāh.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 9:347 no. 6745.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
The seeking of knowledge cannot truly be achieved except with four things: time (al-farāgh, being free to study), sufficient wealth (al-māl, to avoid preoccupation with seeking a living), preservation (al-ḥifẓ, memorization) and piety (al-waraʿ, religious cautiousness).
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 3:243, article 1602.
It is reported that Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
You cannot be a scholar unless you have three traits: you do not transgress against those above you, you do not look down on those lesser than you, and you do not take any dunyā in return for your knowledge.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 3:282, article 1655.
It is reported that ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said to a young man while exhorting him:
A man might have ten qualities, nine of them good and one bad, but the nine good ones can be spoiled by the one bad quality. Beware of the slips and faults of youth.
ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣanʿānī, Al-Muṣannaf 8240.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
The insightful and wise do not trust that they are safe from four things: a past sin about which it is not known what the Lord Almighty will do, the remaining lifespan wherein it is not known what destruction lies, some (apparent) advantage a person is given but which could be a lure (from Allāh) in recompense for his wrongdoing, a misguidance that has been beautified – so that he thinks it is guidance – and a momentary deviation of the heart, for a person can be stripped of his religion without realizing it.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 8:406.