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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

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The life of the salaf between speech and action.

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High aspirations.

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Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) said:

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When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away,

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I said to a man from the Ansar,

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"Shall we go and ask the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)?"

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"For they are many today."

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He replied,

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"How strange of you, O Ibn 'Abbas!

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Do you think people are in need of you,

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while among the people are the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in such numbers?"

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He said:

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So I left that pursuit,

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and I began asking the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) about hadiths.

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If a hadith reached me about a man,

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I would go to his door while he was taking his midday nap,

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and I would lay my cloak on the ground as a pillow.

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He would come out and see me,

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and say,

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"O cousin of the Messenger of Allah, what brings you here?

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Why did you not send for me so I could come to you?"

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I would say, "No,

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I am more deserving to come to you and ask you about the hadith."

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That Ansari youth lived

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until he saw me with people gathered around me asking me questions,

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and he said,

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"This youth was wiser than I."

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Abu al-Zinad said:

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There gathered in the Hijr [of the Ka'bah]

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Mus'ab, 'Urwah, 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr,

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and 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar.

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They said, "Let each of you state his wish."

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'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr said,

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"As for me, I wish for the Caliphate."

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'Urwah said,

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"As for me,

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I wish for knowledge to be taken from me."

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Mus'ab said,

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"As for me,

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I wish for the governorship of Iraq,

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and to be married to 'A'ishah bint Talhah

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and Sukaynah bint al-Husayn."

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'Abdullah ibn 'Umar said,

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"As for me, I wish for forgiveness."

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He said:

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And they all attained what they wished for,

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and perhaps Ibn 'Umar was forgiven.

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Al-Sha'bi said:

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Masruq (may Allah have mercy on him) went out to Basra

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to a man to ask him about a verse,

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but he did not find any knowledge of it with him.

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He was told about a man from the people of Syria,

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so he came to us here.

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Then he traveled to Syria to that man in pursuit of it.

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Sa'id ibn Jubayr (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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I would often go to Ibn 'Abbas

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and write in my notebook until I filled it,

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and I would write on my sandals until I filled them,

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and I would write on my palms.

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Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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I would travel for days and nights

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in pursuit of a single hadith.

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'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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I had a soul that was ever-longing;

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I would not attain anything from it

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but it would long for something greater.

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When my soul reached the ultimate goal,

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it longed for the Hereafter.

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Al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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Whoever among you can be a leader for his family,

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a leader for his neighborhood,

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and a leader for those beyond that,

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then there is nothing taken from you [in terms of knowledge or good]

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but that you will have a share in it.

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Al-Sari al-Saqati (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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Whoever knows what he is seeking,

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finds what he sacrifices easy to bear.

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Abu Muhammad, the nephew of al-Shafi'i, said:

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My mother said:

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We would often bring [the lamp] in one night

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thirty times, or less, or more,

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the lamp to before al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him).

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He would lie down and reflect,

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then call out, "O servant girl,

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bring the lamp."

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She would bring it, and he would write what he needed to write,

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then say, "Take it away."

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I asked Abu Muhammad,

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"What did he intend by asking for the lamp to be removed?"

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He said, "Darkness is clearer for the heart."

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Malik ibn Anas (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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A man would frequent another man

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for thirty years to learn from him.

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Muhammad ibn Yusuf said:

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I was with Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari

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(may Allah have mercy on him) in his house one night,

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and I counted that he got up and lit the lamp

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to review things he was noting down

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eighteen times in one night.

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Qatadah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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O son of Adam,

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if you do not want to pursue goodness

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except when you feel energetic,

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then your soul is inclined toward weariness,

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lethargy, and boredom.

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But the believer is the one who perseveres,

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and the believer is the one who strengthens himself.

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It was said to al-'Attabi,

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[like] Thawm ibn 'Umar (may Allah have mercy on him),

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"So-and-so has low aspirations."

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He said,

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"He cannot have a goal short of Paradise."

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Some of them said:

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"The soul is desirous if you make it desire,

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and if you return it to little, it is content."

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'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim

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(may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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We were in Egypt for seven months,

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during which we did not eat any stew.

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Our entire day was divided among the sittings of the scholars,

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and at night,

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[we were occupied with] copying and collation.

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He said:

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One day, a companion and I went to a scholar,

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and they said,

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"He is ill."

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On our way, we saw a fish that we liked,

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so we bought it.

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When we reached home,

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the time for the sitting of one of the scholars arrived,

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so we could not prepare it.

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We went to the sitting,

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and we remained there until three days had passed.

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We had no spare time to give it to someone to grill it for us.

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Then he said:

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Knowledge cannot be attained with a comfortable body.

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Abu Ja'far al-Tabari (may Allah have mercy on him) said to his students:

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"Are you energetic enough for a history of the world

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from Adam to our time?"

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They said,

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"How large would it be?"

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He mentioned about thirty thousand pages.

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They said,

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"This is something that lifetimes would end before its completion."

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He said,

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"To Allah we belong [and to Him we shall return];

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ambitions have died."

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So he summarized it into about three thousand pages.

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And when he wanted to dictate his Tafsir,

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he said something similar to them,

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then he dictated it in about the same size as the history.

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Ibn Hibban (may Allah have mercy on him) said in the middle of his book *al-Anwa'*:

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"We have perhaps written from more than two thousand scholars."

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Al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

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"Thus should aspirations be."

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This is along with what he possessed of fiqh, Arabic,

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brilliant eloquence, and numerous compositions.

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Abu Hatim al-Razi (may Allah have mercy on him) said to his son 'Abd al-Rahman:

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"In the first year I went out in pursuit of hadith,

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I stayed for seven years; I calculated what I walked on my feet

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to be more than a thousand *farsakhs* [leagues].

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I kept counting,

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until when it exceeded a thousand *farsakhs*,

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I stopped counting."

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Abu Ya'la (may Allah have mercy on him)

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would divide his entire night into sections:

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a portion for sleep,

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a portion for standing in prayer,

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and a portion for classifying the lawful and the prohibited.

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Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) adhered to the scholars for correction and explanation;

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he would read 12 lessons every day with the scholars.

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He was of such asceticism, worship,

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piety, caution, and withdrawal from people,

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to a great extent,

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that no other jurist could match him.

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He would fast perpetually,

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and would not combine two side dishes [at a meal].

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Most of his sustenance was what his father brought him from Nawa.

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He would not waste any of his time.

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He would enjoin good and forbid evil to kings and others.

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Condemning laziness.

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'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

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"I truly hate to see a man idle,

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not engaged in any work of this world nor in any work of the Hereafter."

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Muhammad ibn 'Ali (may Allah have mercy on him) said to his son:

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"O my son,

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beware of laziness and boredom,

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for they are the keys to every evil.

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If you are lazy, you will not fulfill a right,

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and if you are bored, you will not be patient for the sake of a right."

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Among what was said:

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"Your day, O deluded one, is negligence and heedlessness,

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and you tire yourself in what you will eventually hate the consequences of.

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Your night is sleep, and your [lack of] provision is inevitable;

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thus do the beasts live in this world."

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[Someone] passed by a group of people while they were playing,

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and said, "What is the matter with you?"

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He said, "We have finished today, O Abu Umamah."

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He replied, "That is not what the one who has finished is commanded to do."

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Yahya Ibn Abi Kathir, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

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"Knowledge cannot be attained through bodily comfort."

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The lives of the salaf were a bridge between speech and action.