In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The lives of the salaf: between word and deed.
Stories of the ascetic.
Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported:
I performed the Asr prayer with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him).
Then I returned with him to his home.
He said to his wife, Asma bint Umays,
"Do you have any food?"
She replied, "No, by Allah, there is nothing."
He said, "Look again."
She replied, "No, by Allah, there is nothing."
So he took hold of a sheep that had given birth that very day.
It was a sheep of his.
He milked it.
Then he poured the milk into a cooking pot.
He then ordered his servant girl to cook it.
Then it was brought to us.
He ate, and we ate.
Then he prayed, and we prayed.
He did not perform wudu, nor did we.
Anas Ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
I saw Umar Ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him),
while he was the Commander of the Believers,
with four patches sewn between his shoulders,
one on top of the other.
Al-Hasan said:
I saw Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him)
sleeping in the mosque,
wrapped in a simple cloak, with no one around him,
even though he was the Commander of the Believers.
Harun Ibn Antara reported from his father, who said:
I entered upon Ali Ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him),
and he was shivering under a worn-out velvet garment.
I said, "O Commander of the Believers,
Allah has allocated for you and your household a share of this wealth,
yet you treat yourself in this manner?"
He replied,
"By Allah, I do not take anything from your wealth.
This is the same garment I brought with me from my house."
Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her)
would distribute seventy thousand [dirhams] in a single day,
yet she would be patching her own garment.
When the belongings of Salman (may Allah be pleased with him) were sold,
they amounted to only fourteen dirhams.
Maymun Ibn Mihran said:
I entered the house of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both),
and there was nothing in it worth even this much—[gesturing to a small amount].
Hisham Ibn Abd al-Malik entered the Kaaba,
and there he found Salim Ibn Abd Allah (may Allah have mercy on him).
He said to him,
"O Salim, ask me for a need."
He replied,
"I am too ashamed before Allah to ask for anything in the House of Allah from anyone other than Allah."
When he stepped outside, Hisham followed him
and said,
"Now that you have left,
ask me for a need."
Salim asked him,
"Are you referring to the needs of this world or the needs of the Hereafter?"
He replied,
"The needs of this world, of course."
Salim said to him,
"I have not asked the One who actually possesses them,
so how could I ask one who does not?"
Maslama Ibn Abd al-Malik said:
I visited Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) during his illness,
and he was wearing a dirty shirt.
I said to Fatima bint Abd al-Malik,
"O Fatima,
wash the shirt of the Commander of the Believers."
She said,
"We shall do so, if Allah wills."
Then I returned,
and the shirt was in the same state.
I said,
"O Fatima,
did I not command you to wash the shirt of the Commander of the Believers?
People are coming to visit him."
She said,
"By Allah, he has no other shirt."
Malik Ibn Dinar said:
People say,
"Malik Ibn Dinar is an ascetic."
But the true ascetic is Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz,
to whom the world came, yet he turned away from it.
Sayings and wisdom on contentment.
Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) said to his son Umar,
"My son,
if you seek wealth, seek it through contentment,
for if you do not have contentment,
no amount of wealth will ever suffice you."
A man asked Abd Allah Ibn Amr Ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both), saying,
"Are we not among the poor of the Emigrants?"
Abd Allah asked him,
"Do you have a wife to whom you return?"
He said, "Yes."
He said,
"Do you have a dwelling in which you live?"
He said, "Yes."
He said,
"Then you are among the wealthy."
The man said,
"But I have a servant."
He said,
"Then you are among the kings."
Abu al-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"The wealthy eat, and we eat;
they drink, and we drink;
they dress, and we dress;
they ride, and we ride.
They have surplus wealth that they gaze upon,
and we gaze upon it with them,
but they will be held accountable for it,
while we are free of it."
Ali Ibn Sahl (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I sought comfort,
and I found it in despair [of worldly things]."
Someone else said:
"The soul is greedy if you indulge it,
but if you return it to a little, it becomes content."
Another said:
"If what suffices you does not satisfy you,
then everything on earth will not satisfy you."
Al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"If you possess a contented heart,
then you and the owner of the world are equal."
He also said:
"I saw that contentment is the essence of wealth,
so I held fast to its hem.
Now no one sees me at his door,
nor does anyone see me obsessed with him.
I became wealthy without a single dirham,
walking among people like a king."
Al-Fath Ibn Khaqan (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
I entered upon al-Mutawakkil one day,
and I saw him bowed in deep thought.
I said to him,
"What is this contemplation, O Commander of the Believers?
For by Allah, there is no one on earth with a better life than you,
nor anyone more at peace than you."
He replied,
"A better life than mine?
[It is] a man who has a spacious house,
a righteous wife,
and a sufficient livelihood,
who does not know us so that we might harm him,
and who does not need us so that we might despise him."
The life of peace:
between word and deed.