In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The life of the salaf between speech and action.
Condemning ignorance.
'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"How will you be when a trial envelops you,
In which the elderly grow decrepit,
The young grow up,
And people adopt it as a Sunnah?
If it is ever changed, they will say,
'The Sunnah has been changed!'"
They asked,
"When will that be, O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman?"
He replied,
"When your reciters become many,
Your scholars of fiqh become few,
Your leaders become many,
Your trustworthy ones become few,
And the world is sought through the deeds of the Hereafter."
'Urwah Ibn al-Zubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"O my sons, seek knowledge,
For if you are the juniors of a people today,
You may become their seniors tomorrow."
How wretched,
What is more unsightly than an ignorant old man?
The poet spoke the truth:
"What use are the days when you count them,
If you have gained neither knowledge nor virtue in them?"
It was said to Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him,
"A man has 500 dirhams;
Do you think he should spend it on military expeditions and jihad,
Or on seeking knowledge?"
He replied,
"If he is ignorant, seeking knowledge is more beloved to me."
He also said, may Allah have mercy on him,
"I am amazed at those who hold back from seeking knowledge,
And they use al-Fudayl, may Allah have mercy on him, as an excuse,
Yet perhaps al-Fudayl had already attained sufficiency.
No one holds back from seeking knowledge except an ignorant person."
Some have said:
"In ignorance, before death, there is death for its people,
And their bodies are graves before they reach the grave.
Their souls are in desolation within their bodies,
And they shall have no resurrection even after the Resurrection."
Condemning blind imitation and forbidding it.
And what has been said regarding partisanship.
On the authority of 'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:
"Let no one among you blindly follow a man in his religion;
For if he believes, he believes,
And if he disbelieves, he disbelieves.
But if you must follow someone,
Then follow one who has already passed away,
For the living are not safe from trial."
Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"I am but a human; I err and I am correct.
So examine my opinions;
Whatever agrees with the Book and the Sunnah, take it,
And whatever does not agree with the Book and the Sunnah, leave it."
It was said to Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him,
"There is a man in Tarsus who has heard the opinion of 'Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak, may Allah have mercy on him,
And he issues fatwas based on it."
He said,
"This is due to the man's limited knowledge;
He blindly follows in his religion a man who is not broad in knowledge."
Condemning boasting about lineage.
A man said to Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him,
"O Abu 'Abd Allah,
It has reached me that you are a man from the Arabs,
So from which of the Arabs are you?"
He replied,
"We are a humble people,
And what benefit is there in this?"
Ibn al-Rumi, may Allah have mercy on him, spoke well when he said:
"Do not boast except of what you yourself have done,
And do not think that glory is inherited through lineage.
A man does not attain nobility except through his own actions,
Even if he counts noble ancestors of high status.
If a branch does not bear fruit, even if it is a shoot
From a fruit-bearing tree, people count it as firewood."
Among what is considered excellent in this regard is the saying of the poet:
"The true youth is he who says, 'Here I am,'
Not the youth who says, 'My father was.'"