It is reported that Imām Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
We used to sometimes come to a scholar and what we learned of his manners was more beloved to us than the knowledge we took from him.
Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyatu Al-ʾAwliyāʾ #4575
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Try to Meet Allah with This
It is reported that a man once wrote to Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them:
Please write down all knowledge for me.
Ibn ʿUmar replied:Knowledge is vast, but if you can meet Allāh having kept your back light of the burden of people’s blood, your stomach void of people’s wealth and having kept your tongue from [disparaging] their honour, then do so.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 3:222
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Mixing with People of Good Character
It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Do not mix except with those who have good character; for the one who has good character brings nothing but good, whilst the one who has bad character brings nothing but evil.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān, #87044
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Stars on Earth
It is reported that Abū Muslim Al-Khawlānī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
The example of the scholars on earth is that of the stars in the sky: when they appear, the people are guided (they navigate using the stars), but when they disappear, the people get confused and lost.
Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Madkhal ilā Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā #287
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The Humble Elite
It is reported that Imām Al-Shāfʿee – Allāh have mercy on him – said,
The loftiest in status are those who do not know their own status, and the most virtuous of them are those who do not know their own virtue.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 10:99
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Abu Bakr and Umar with The Prophet Today
It is reported from Sufyān b. ʿUyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – that a man once asked ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. ʾAbī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him,
What was the status of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar with Rasūlullāh – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him?
He replied,Their place with him is like their place with him today (i.e. where they are in their graves).
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 4:254
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The Scholar-Messenger and The Roman King
It is reported from Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – that he said:
ʿAbdul-Malik [ibn Marwān, the Khalīfah] once sent me to the king of the Romans, and I stayed with him for a number of days. When I wanted to leave, he asked me,
Are you from the House of [your] king (his family)?
I replied,I am just a man from the Arabs.
He gave me a parchment and said,Deliver this to your companion (the Caliph).
When ʿAbdul-Malik had read it, he said to me,Do you know what it says?
I replied,No.
He said,It says in it, I wonder at a people who have made other than this man king over them.
I said,By Allāh, if I had known I would not have carried it to you. [The Roman king] only said this because he has not seen you.
ʿAbdul-Malik said,Rather, he envied me for having you, and was trying to incite me to kill you.
This reached the Roman king; and when it did, he said,I wanted nothing but this.
Ibn Al-ʿImād, Shadharāt Al-Dhahab 2:26
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Hiding Righteous Tears
It is reported from Ḥammād b. Zayd that he said,
I never saw a man who used to smile more at people than ʾAyyūb.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 5:17
It is reported from Ḥammād b. Zayd that ʾAyyūb [Al-Sakhtiyānī] was once in a gathering when he was effected (moved to tears) by an exhortation, so he began wiping his nose saying,
How severe a cold can be!
Op. cit. 5:20
It is also reported from Ḥammād that ʾAyyūb was once overcome with weeping, so he said,
A shaykh, when he gets very old, dribbles.
Op. cit. 5:22
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Never Give Up Repenting
It is reported that a man came to ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked,
What do you think about a man who committed a sin?
He replied,He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.
[The man] said,He did that, but then sinned again?
[ʿAlī] said,He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.
The man again said,He did that, but returned to sin
. [ʿAlī] said,He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him.
The man said for the fourth time,He did, but then sinned again.
ʿAlī then said,Until when?
Then he said,He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him; and not give up until it is Shayṭān who is defeated [overcome].
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 910
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Filthy Silk
It is reported that a shaykh (older man) once came and greeted ‘Alī – Allāh be pleased with him, wearing a cloak decorated with silk at the front. He said to the man,
What is this filth under your beard?
The man looked around and said,I do not see anything.
Another man said,He means the silk embroidery.
The shaykh said,In that case, we will throw it away and never wear [such a thing] again.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf article 25187