In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The life of the salaf between speech and action.
Hastening to perform good deeds.
Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
used to spend the night conversing with Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him,
regarding the affairs of the Muslims.
One night, he was conversing with him while I was with them.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, went out,
and we went out with him.
Suddenly, there was a man standing in the mosque praying.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, stood
to listen to his recitation.
When we recognized him,
the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:
"Whoever wishes to recite the Qur'an fresh as it was revealed,
let him recite it according to the recitation of Ibn Umm 'Abd."
He said:
Then the man sat down to supplicate.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, began
saying to him, "Ask, and you shall be given."
Umar said:
I said, "By Allah, I will go to him early in the morning
to give him the good news."
He said:
So I went to him early and gave him the good news,
only to find that Abu Bakr had already preceded me and given him the good news.
By Allah, I have never raced him to a good deed
but that he has beaten me to it.
He also said, may Allah be pleased with him:
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, commanded us
to give charity.
This coincided with me having some wealth,
so I said:
"Today I will surpass Abu Bakr,
if I am ever to surpass him."
Then I brought half of my wealth.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to me:
"What have you left for your family?"
I said, "The same amount."
Then Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, came with everything he had.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to him:
"What have you left for your family?"
He said:
"I have left them Allah and His Messenger."
I said:
"I will never compete with you in anything again."
Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say:
"When you reach the evening, do not wait for the morning,
and when you reach the morning, do not wait for the evening.
Take from your health for your illness,
and from your life for your death."
Sa'id ibn Marjanah said,
a companion of Ali ibn Husayn, may Allah have mercy on him:
I heard his father, Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, say:
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:
"Any Muslim who frees a Muslim slave,
Allah will ransom every limb of his with a limb of his from the Fire."
He said:
I left as soon as I heard the hadith from Abu Hurayrah,
and I mentioned it to Ali ibn Husayn,
so he freed a slave of his
for whom Ibn Ja'far had offered him ten thousand dirhams,
or a thousand dinars.
Khalid ibn Ma'dan, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"If one of you opens a door to good, let him hasten to it,
for he does not know when it will be closed to him."
A poet said:
"If you do not sow and you see a harvester,
you will regret your negligence during the time of sowing."
It was said to a man from 'Abd al-Qays:
"Give us some advice."
He said:
"I warn you against 'later'."
Some of them said:
"Whoever delays an opportunity beyond its time,
let him be certain of its loss."
Some poets said:
"When the winds of your fortune blow, seize them,
for every gust is followed by a calm.
Do not be heedless of doing good during them,
for you do not know when the calm will come."
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Everything of good should be hastened into."
A man consulted him about going to the frontier,
and he said to him, "Hasten, hasten."
A poet said:
"The best of good for people is the most immediate,
and there is no benefit in good that is delayed."
The state of the salaf regarding food and drink.
Eating less and the encouragement to do so.
Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"O people,
beware of overeating,
for it causes lethargy in prayer,
corrupts the body,
and breeds illness.
Rather, you must be moderate in your sustenance,
for it is closer to righteousness,
further from extravagance,
and stronger for the worship of Allah.
No servant will perish
until he prefers his desires over his religion."
Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him,
used to prepare the food of princes for the people,
while he would enter his house and eat vinegar and oil.
Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"Two hollow things destroy the son of Adam:
the stomach and the private parts."
Sa'id ibn Jubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
I prepared for Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both,
and his companions various types of food and khabis (a sweet dish).
He said to me:
"O Sa'id,
we are an Arab people;
prepare for us instead of these dishes, tharid (bread and broth),
and instead of these sweets, hais (a date and ghee dish).
Were it not that you are one of us, the people of the house,
I would not have said this to you."
'Ubadah ibn al-Samit, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"The stomach is insatiable;
let what suffices you be enough."
Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, was brought a digestive aid.
He asked, "What is this?"
They said, "This helps digest food."
He replied, "A month passes by me in which I do not eat my fill;
what would I do with this?"
Abu Ja'far, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"When the stomach is full, the body becomes rebellious."
Malik ibn Dinar, may Allah have mercy on him, said to a man:
"Do not sleep while you are full."
"Leave food while you still desire it."
The man said:
"This is the prescription of the physicians of this world."
Muhammad ibn Wasi', may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Yes, and the prescription of the physicians of the path to the Hereafter."
Malik said, "It is a medicine for both religion and the world."
Some of them said:
"Whatever you give your stomach of its demands,
and your private parts, you will attain the ultimate blame."
Al-A'mash, may Allah have mercy on him, said to a man:
"Do you see this stomach?
If you humiliate it, it will honor you,
and if you honor it, it will humiliate you."
Umar ibn Qays al-Mula'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Beware of overeating, for it hardens the heart."
Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him,
consumed little food and drink,
and would often recite:
"She has hadiths from your remembrance that occupy her,
away from drink, and distract her from food."
Eating the lawful and caution against eating the unlawful.
Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"If you stood in prayer as long as this pillar,
it would not benefit you until you look at what enters your stomach:
is it lawful or unlawful?"
Avoiding affectation and showing off in hosting people.
A man invited Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, to a meal.
He said, "I will come to you on the condition that you do not go to trouble for what you do not have,
and do not withhold from us what you do have."
Shu'ayb ibn al-Habhab said:
Abu al-'Aliyah, may Allah have mercy on him, came to our house one day,
and we wanted to go to trouble for him.
He said, "Feed us from the food of the house,
and do not go to trouble."