A summary of the life of the Salaf between words and deeds | Episode (43)

0:00 In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

0:04 The lives of the salaf: between word and deed.

0:12 Stories of the ascetic.

0:14 Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported:

0:19 I performed the Asr prayer with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him).

0:23 Then I returned with him to his home.

0:26 He said to his wife, Asma bint Umays,

0:30 "Do you have any food?"

0:32 She replied, "No, by Allah, there is nothing."

0:36 He said, "Look again."

0:38 She replied, "No, by Allah, there is nothing."

0:42 So he took hold of a sheep that had given birth that very day.

0:46 It was a sheep of his.

0:49 He milked it.

0:51 Then he poured the milk into a cooking pot.

0:54 He then ordered his servant girl to cook it.

0:57 Then it was brought to us.

0:59 He ate, and we ate.

1:01 Then he prayed, and we prayed.

1:04 He did not perform wudu, nor did we.

1:08 Anas Ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

1:11 I saw Umar Ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him),

1:15 while he was the Commander of the Believers,

1:18 with four patches sewn between his shoulders,

1:22 one on top of the other.

1:25 Al-Hasan said:

1:27 I saw Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him)

1:30 sleeping in the mosque,

1:32 wrapped in a simple cloak, with no one around him,

1:35 even though he was the Commander of the Believers.

1:39 Harun Ibn Antara reported from his father, who said:

1:43 I entered upon Ali Ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him),

1:47 and he was shivering under a worn-out velvet garment.

1:50 I said, "O Commander of the Believers,

1:53 Allah has allocated for you and your household a share of this wealth,

1:59 yet you treat yourself in this manner?"

2:02 He replied,

2:03 "By Allah, I do not take anything from your wealth.

2:07 This is the same garment I brought with me from my house."

2:12 Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her)

2:16 would distribute seventy thousand [dirhams] in a single day,

2:19 yet she would be patching her own garment.

2:22 When the belongings of Salman (may Allah be pleased with him) were sold,

2:27 they amounted to only fourteen dirhams.

2:31 Maymun Ibn Mihran said:

2:34 I entered the house of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both),

2:38 and there was nothing in it worth even this much—[gesturing to a small amount].

2:43 Hisham Ibn Abd al-Malik entered the Kaaba,

2:47 and there he found Salim Ibn Abd Allah (may Allah have mercy on him).

2:51 He said to him,

2:52 "O Salim, ask me for a need."

2:56 He replied,

2:57 "I am too ashamed before Allah to ask for anything in the House of Allah from anyone other than Allah."

3:03 When he stepped outside, Hisham followed him

3:05 and said,

3:07 "Now that you have left,

3:09 ask me for a need."

3:11 Salim asked him,

3:13 "Are you referring to the needs of this world or the needs of the Hereafter?"

3:17 He replied,

3:18 "The needs of this world, of course."

3:21 Salim said to him,

3:23 "I have not asked the One who actually possesses them,

3:26 so how could I ask one who does not?"

3:29 Maslama Ibn Abd al-Malik said:

3:33 I visited Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) during his illness,

3:38 and he was wearing a dirty shirt.

3:41 I said to Fatima bint Abd al-Malik,

3:44 "O Fatima,

3:46 wash the shirt of the Commander of the Believers."

3:49 She said,

3:50 "We shall do so, if Allah wills."

3:53 Then I returned,

3:54 and the shirt was in the same state.

3:57 I said,

3:58 "O Fatima,

4:00 did I not command you to wash the shirt of the Commander of the Believers?

4:04 People are coming to visit him."

4:07 She said,

4:08 "By Allah, he has no other shirt."

4:12 Malik Ibn Dinar said:

4:15 People say,

4:17 "Malik Ibn Dinar is an ascetic."

4:20 But the true ascetic is Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz,

4:23 to whom the world came, yet he turned away from it.

4:26 Sayings and wisdom on contentment.

4:32 Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) said to his son Umar,

4:38 "My son,

4:40 if you seek wealth, seek it through contentment,

4:44 for if you do not have contentment,

4:46 no amount of wealth will ever suffice you."

4:49 A man asked Abd Allah Ibn Amr Ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both), saying,

4:56 "Are we not among the poor of the Emigrants?"

4:59 Abd Allah asked him,

5:01 "Do you have a wife to whom you return?"

5:04 He said, "Yes."

5:06 He said,

5:07 "Do you have a dwelling in which you live?"

5:09 He said, "Yes."

5:11 He said,

5:12 "Then you are among the wealthy."

5:15 The man said,

5:16 "But I have a servant."

5:18 He said,

5:19 "Then you are among the kings."

5:22 Abu al-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

5:25 "The wealthy eat, and we eat;

5:29 they drink, and we drink;

5:31 they dress, and we dress;

5:33 they ride, and we ride.

5:36 They have surplus wealth that they gaze upon,

5:40 and we gaze upon it with them,

5:42 but they will be held accountable for it,

5:44 while we are free of it."

5:47 Ali Ibn Sahl (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

5:51 "I sought comfort,

5:53 and I found it in despair [of worldly things]."

5:55 Someone else said:

5:58 "The soul is greedy if you indulge it,

6:02 but if you return it to a little, it becomes content."

6:06 Another said:

6:08 "If what suffices you does not satisfy you,

6:12 then everything on earth will not satisfy you."

6:16 Al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

6:19 "If you possess a contented heart,

6:22 then you and the owner of the world are equal."

6:26 He also said:

6:28 "I saw that contentment is the essence of wealth,

6:31 so I held fast to its hem.

6:35 Now no one sees me at his door,

6:38 nor does anyone see me obsessed with him.

6:41 I became wealthy without a single dirham,

6:45 walking among people like a king."

6:48 Al-Fath Ibn Khaqan (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

6:51 I entered upon al-Mutawakkil one day,

6:54 and I saw him bowed in deep thought.

6:57 I said to him,

6:59 "What is this contemplation, O Commander of the Believers?

7:03 For by Allah, there is no one on earth with a better life than you,

7:07 nor anyone more at peace than you."

7:09 He replied,

7:11 "A better life than mine?

7:13 [It is] a man who has a spacious house,

7:16 a righteous wife,

7:18 and a sufficient livelihood,

7:20 who does not know us so that we might harm him,

7:23 and who does not need us so that we might despise him."

7:26 The life of peace:

7:29 between word and deed.

A summary of the life of the Salaf between words and deeds | Episode (43) | Stories of ascetics

Transcript