[21] Some Extraordinary Personalities of The First Three Generations

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Al-A’mash (reported) from Mas’ud Ibn Malik who said: Ali Ibnul Husain said to me: ”Are you able to make me meet with Saeed Ibn Jubayr?” I said: ”What need do you have of him?” He said: ”I want to ask him about some issues. Indeed, the people commend us for that which we do not possess.” (1)

Abdur-Rahman Ibn Yazeed said: It was said to Alqama: ”Why not sit in the masjid so that (the people) gather around you, ask you (questions) and we sit with you. Indeed, they ask those below you (in knowledge)” He said: ”Indeed, I hate that (they) march behind me, saying: ”This is Alqamah! This is Alqamah!” (2) [Footnote a]

Abu Ad-Duhaa from Masrooq, (who) said: ”Once we were sitting with Abdullah (Ibn Mas’ud) while he was reclining; then a man came to him and said: ”O Abu Abdir-Rahman! Verily there is a story teller at the doors of Kinda claiming that the portent of the Smoke will come along and snatch the breaths of the disbelievers (i.e. take their souls away) and the believers will get something like a cold from it.” So Abdullah said while sitting up and he was angry: ”O people fear Allah! Whoever amongst you has knowledge of something, then he should speak based on what he knows, and whoever does not know, then he should say, ”Allah knows best” because it is the best of knowledge for one of you to say, ”Allah knows best” with regards to things he has no knowledge of. Indeed, Allah, The Most High, said to His Prophet:

قُلْ مَآ أَسْـَٔلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُتَكَلِّفِينَ

”Say (O Muhammad): No wage do I ask of you for this (the Qur’an), not am I one of the Mutakallifun (those who pretend and fabricate things which do not exist)” [Sad. Ayah: 86] [3]

Footnote a: NB: This would not always be the case if people need the knowledge of this person and there was none else available. Read in this link about the unnoticed person and what Imam Muḥammad Ibn Salih Al-Uthaymin, may Allah have mercy upon him, said:

Allah loves a slave who is pious, self-sufficient and unnoticed

(1) Kitaab Al-Ilm by Abu Khaythama with the checking of Imaam Aal Albaanee, page:18.  narration number: 64

(2) Kitaab Al-Ilm with the checking of Imaam Al Albaanee: page: 10. Number 24

(3) Kitaab Al-Ilm with the checking of Imaam Al Albaanee, page 19. Narration number 67