In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
The Life of the Salaf (Early Generations) Between Speech and Action:
Hiding and Concealing Righteous Deeds,
And the Eagerness for Obscurity and Avoiding Prominence and Fame.
On the authority of Buraydah ibn al-Husayb (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:
"I was present at Khaybar, and I was among those who climbed through the breach in the fortress,
and I fought until my position was clearly seen,
while wearing a red garment.
And I do not know of any sin I committed in Islam that felt graver to me than that—"
meaning, seeking fame.
And 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him),
whenever the reinforcement contingents from the people of Yemen came to him,
would ask them,
"Is Uways ibn 'Amir among you?"
until he came upon Uways and asked,
"Are you Uways ibn 'Amir?"
He replied, "Yes."
'Umar asked,
"From Murad, and then from Qaran?"
He replied, "Yes."
'Umar asked,
"Were you afflicted with leprosy and then cured of it, except for the space of a dirham?"
He replied, "Yes."
'Umar asked,
"Do you have a mother?"
He replied, "Yes."
'Umar said:
"I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say,
'There will come to you Uways ibn 'Amir
with the reinforcement contingents from the people of Yemen,
from Murad, and then from Qaran.
He had leprosy and was cured of it, except for the space of a dirham.
He has a mother to whom he is devotedly dutiful;
if he were to swear an oath by Allah, Allah would fulfill it.
So if you can have him seek forgiveness for you, do so.'
Therefore, pray for forgiveness for me."
So Uways prayed for forgiveness for him.
Then 'Umar asked him,
"Where do you intend to go?"
He replied,
"To Kufa."
'Umar said,
"Shall I not write on your behalf to its governor?"
He replied,
"To be among the obscure, common folk is dearer to me."
Bishr ibn Mansur (may Allah have mercy on him) was praying one day,
and he prolonged his prayer.
Then he noticed a man looking at him,
and Bishr realized what was happening.
So he said to the man,
"Do not be impressed by what you have seen of me,
for indeed Iblis worshiped Allah alongside the angels for such-and-such an amount of time."
And it was mentioned to Muslim ibn Yasar (may Allah have mercy on him)
how little he glanced around during prayer,
to which he replied,
"And what makes you know where my heart was?"
And on the authority of al-A'mash, who said:
"Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him) used to avoid fame;
he would not sit beside the pillar,
and whenever he was asked about an issue,
he would not add anything beyond answering that specific question.
So I would say to him regarding the matter he was asked about,
'Does it not also entail such-and-such?'
And he would reply,
'He did not ask me about that.'"
Jawab al-Taymi used to tremble whenever Allah was remembered,
so Ibrahim al-Nakha'i said to him,
"If you can control it, then I do not care not to consider you of any account;
and if you cannot control it,
then you have differed from those who were better than you."
Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him) also said:
"They used not to dislike, whenever they gathered,
that a man should bring forth the finest knowledge he possessed."
Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I have been mentioned, and I do not love to be mentioned."
And on the authority of Ibrahim ibn Adham
and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani (may Allah have mercy on them), who said:
"A servant who loves fame has not been true to Allah."
Al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"The mark of a sincere person,
who might unconsciously harbor a love for fame,
is that whenever he is rebuked regarding it,
he does not become enraged nor vindicate himself;
rather, he admits it and says,
'May Allah have mercy on the one who points out my faults to me.'
He must not be conceited, oblivious to his own flaws;
indeed, he should not be oblivious to the fact that he is oblivious,
for that is a chronic disease."
Sufyan al-Thawri (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I love to know people without them knowing me."
Al-Hasan said:
"I was with 'Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak
(may Allah have mercy on him) one day,
and we came upon a public watering place
where people were drinking.
So he drew near it to drink,
but the people did not recognize him,
so they crowded him and pushed him aside.
When he came out, he said to me,
'Life is truly nothing other than this'—
meaning, where we are neither recognized nor revered."
'Abdah ibn Sulayman al-Marwazi said:
"We were on an expedition with Ibn al-Mubarak
(may Allah have mercy on him) in Byzantine territory,
and we encountered the enemy.
When the two battle lines met,
a man from the enemy stepped forward
and challenged us to single combat.
A Muslim fighter went out to him, and the enemy killed him;
then another went out, and he killed him too;
then yet another went out, and he killed him as well.
Then the enemy called out again for single combat,
so a man went out to face him,
skirmished with him for an hour,
and then struck him and killed him.
The people rushed toward this Muslim champion,
and when I looked,
there he was: 'Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak,
covering his face with his sleeve.
So I took the edge of his sleeve and pulled it back,
and behold, it was indeed him!
Thereupon he said,
'Are even you, O Abu 'Amr,
among those who expose us?'"
Al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyad
(may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"If you are able to remain unknown, then do so.
What harm is it to you if you are not praised?
And what harm is it to you to be blameworthy
in the eyes of people,
as long as you are praiseworthy in the sight of Allah?"
And on the authority of Sahnun (may Allah have mercy on him),
who said:
"Some of those who came before
would wish to utter a beneficial word,
and had they uttered it,
a vast multitude of people would have benefited from it,
yet they would withhold it and not speak it,
out of fear of ostentation."
And Abu al-'Aliyah (may Allah have mercy on him),
whenever more than four people sat around him,
would stand up and leave them.
Bishr ibn al-Harith (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"A man who loves to be recognized by people
will never taste the sweetness of the Hereafter."
And on the authority of al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him),
who said:
"A man might be deeply versed in fiqh,
sitting among a gathering of people,
such that some of them would think he was tongue-tied,
yet he had no impediment in speech at all;
it was only his aversion to becoming famous."
And he (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"A man might have memorized the entirety of the Qur'an
without his neighbor ever realizing it;
and a man might have acquired vast knowledge of fiqh
without the people being aware of it;
and a man would perform
long prayers in his home
while having guests who did not even notice him.
Indeed, we met generations of people
for whom there was no deed upon the face of the earth
that they were able to perform in secret
which they would ever perform openly.
The Muslims used to strive diligently in supplication,
yet not a sound would be heard from them;
it was nothing but a whisper between them and their Lord, Mighty and Majestic.
That is because Allah the Exalted says:
'Call upon your Lord in humility and in secret.'
And it is because Allah the Exalted mentioned a righteous servant,
pleased with his speech, saying:
'When he called upon his Lord, a call in secret.'"
Al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I would love for mankind to learn this knowledge from me
without any part of it being attributed to me."
And on the authority of Hassan ibn 'Atiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him),
who said: "A man's prayer in the presence of his family is among secret deeds."
Ibn al-Mubarrid (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I was informed on the authority of Judge 'Ala' al-Din ibn al-Lahham,
that he said (may Allah have mercy on him):
'The Shaykh—
meaning al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him)—once discussed
an issue with us and elaborated on it at great length,
and I was amazed by that and by his masterful grasp of it.
Later, that very issue came up in a gathering of leading scholars of the legal schools and others,
yet he did not utter a single word regarding it.
So when he stood up to leave, I said to him,
"Did you not speak on that very topic with such profound words before?"
He replied, "I only speak where I hope for Allah's reward,
and I feared speaking in this assembly."'"
Concealing Righteous Deeds:
Al-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"Whoever among you is able to have a hidden stash of righteous deeds,
let him do so."
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) wept during his prayer,
and when he finished, he turned around and saw a man behind him,
so he said: "Do not inform anyone of this."
And 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"When it is the day of fasting for one of you,
let him awaken in the morning with his hair oiled and combed."
And on the authority of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:
"We went out with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on an expedition,
and we were a group of six men,
sharing a single camel that we took turns riding.
Eventually, our feet became blistered and worn,
and my own feet became ulcerated,
and my toenails fell off,
so we would wrap rags around our feet;
and thus it was named the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa' (the Expedition of the Rags),
because of the strips of cloth we bound around our feet."
Abu Burdah said:
"Abu Musa narrated this hadith,
but then he disliked having done so,
and said:
'Why did I ever mention it?!'
as though he hated that any of his deeds should be disclosed."
And Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) came upon
a man in the mosque
who was prostrating and weeping profusely in his prostration
while supplicating to his Lord.
Thereupon, Abu Umamah said:
"What a wonderful thing this would be—if only it were done in your home!"
And whenever 'Umar ibn Qays (may Allah have mercy on him)
was overcome with weeping and emotional softness, he would turn his face toward the wall
and say to his companions:
"How terrible is this cold!"
And Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani (may Allah have mercy on him) used to pray throughout the night in secret;
then, shortly before dawn, he would raise his voice,
as if he had only just awakened at that very moment.
And Ibn al-Mubarak (may Allah have mercy on him),
whenever he felt deeply moved and feared that it would show,
would stand up and leave,
or he might deliberately start narrating another hadith.
And Hassan ibn Abi Sinan (may Allah have mercy on him)
used to attend the gatherings at the mosque of Malik ibn Dinar (may Allah have mercy on him),
and whenever Malik spoke,
Hassan would weep until he soaked the ground before him,
yet not a single sound could be heard from him.
And Muhammad ibn Wasi' (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I have known men
whose heads would rest alongside their wives' heads on the very same pillow,
soaking whatever was beneath their cheeks with tears,
without their wives even realizing it!
And I have indeed known men
who would stand in the prayer row,
with tears flowing down their cheeks,
while the person standing right next to them noticed nothing at all."
And a man entered upon Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him)
while he was reciting from the mushaf,
so Ibrahim covered it up and said:
"Let this person not think that I am reading from it at all hours."
And on the authority of Abu Hazim and Bishr ibn al-Harith (may Allah have mercy on them), who said:
"Conceal your good deeds just as you conceal your evil deeds."
And on the authority of 'Abdullah ibn Dawud al-Khuraybi (may Allah have mercy on him), who said:
"They used to love for a man to have a hidden reservoir of righteous deeds
known neither to his wife nor to anyone else."
And on the authority of al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him), who said:
"A man would be sitting in a gathering,
and tears would well up in him, but he would hold them back;
and if he feared that they would overpower him, he would stand up and leave."
He (may Allah have mercy on him) also said:
"O son of Adam, you possess both words and actions,
as well as a private inner state and a public outward state;
and your actions are more defining of you than your words,
just as your secret life is more defining of you than your public life."
Beware of feigning asceticism, obscurity, and righteous deeds.
On the authority of 'Alqamah (may Allah have mercy on him), who said:
"We were in the presence of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him),
when a drink was brought to him,
so he said: 'Serve the people.'
They said: 'We are fasting.'
Thereupon, he said:
'As for me, I am not fasting,'
and then he drank."
“Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned;” (24:37)
And 'Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Be fond of obscurity out of a genuine aversion to fame,
but do not display to others that you love obscurity,
for you would thereby be exalting yourself;
indeed, claiming asceticism stems from your ego,
because you are subtly drawing praise and adulation to yourself."
And Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Let a man fear Allah;
and if he chooses asceticism, let him not make his asceticism a torment for the people,
for a man concealing his asceticism is far better than publicly proclaiming it."