Kathir ibn Qays said: I was sitting with AbudDarda' in
the mosque of Damascus.
A man came to him and said: AbudDarda, I have come to
you from the town of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
for a tradition that I have heard you relate from the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). I have come for no
other purpose.
He said: I heard the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
say: If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge,
Allah will cause him to travel on one of the roads of
Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great
pleasure with one who seeks knowledge, the inhabitants of
the heavens and the Earth and the fish in the deep waters
will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority
of the learned man over the devout is like that of the
moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the
stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the
Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving only
knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion.
When he was sitting with the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
and a Jew was also with him, a funeral passed by him. He
(the Jew) asked (Him): Muhammad, does this funeral speak?
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Allah has more
knowledge. The Jew said: It speaks.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: Whatever
the people of the Book tell you, do not verify them, nor
falsify them, but say: We believe in Allah and His
Apostle. If it is false, do not confirm it, and if it is
right, do not falsify it.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) ordered me (to
learn the writing of the Jews), so I learnt for him the
writing of the Jews. He said: I swear by Allah, I do not
trust Jews in respect of writing for me. So I learnt it,
and only a fortnight passed that . I mastered it. I would
write for him when he wrote (to them), and read to him
when something was written to him.
I used to write everything which I heard from the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). I intended (by it)
to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me saying: Do you
write everything that you hear from him while the Apostle
of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) is a human being: he speaks
in anger and pleasure? So I stopped writing, and mentioned
it to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). He
signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by
Him in Whose hand my soul lies, only right comes out from
it.
Al-Muttalib ibn Abdullah ibn Hantab said: Zayd ibn
Thabit entered upon Mu'awiyah and asked him about a
tradition. He ordered a man to write it. Zayd said: The
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) ordered us not to
write any of his traditions. So he erased it.
Are you not surprised at AbuHurayrah? He came and sat
beside my apartment, and began to narrate traditions from
the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) making me hear
them. I am saying supererogatory prayer. He got up (and
went away) before I finished my prayer. Had I found him, I
would have replied to him. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
did not narrate traditions quickly one after another as
you narrate quickly.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If anyone is
given a legal decision ignorantly, the sin rests on the
one who gave it. Sulayman al-Mahri added in his version:
If anyone advises his brother, knowing that guidance lies
in another direction, he has deceived him. These are the
wordings of Sulayman.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: He who is asked
something he knows and conceals it will have a bridle of
fire put on him on the Day of Resurrection.
I heard the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say:
May Allah brighten a man who hears a tradition from us,
gets it by heart and passes it on to others. Many a bearer
of knowledge conveys it to one who is more versed than he
is; and many a bearer of knowledge is not versed in it.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) used to relate to us
traditions from the children of Isra'il till morning came;
he would not get up except for obligatory prayer.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If anyone
acquires knowledge of things by which Allah's good
pleasure is sought, but acquires it only to get some
worldly advantage, he will not experience the arf, i.e.
the odour, of Paradise.
I was sitting in the company of the poor members of the
emigrants. Some of them were sitting together because of
lack of clothing while a reader was reciting to us. All of
a sudden the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) came
along and stood beside us. When the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
stood, the reader stopped and greeted him.
He asked: What were you doing? We said: Apostle of
Allah! We had a reader who was reciting to us and we were
listening to the Book of Allah, the Exalted.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) then said:
Praise be to Allah Who has put among my people those with
whom I have been ordered to stay. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
then sat among us so as to be like one of us, and when he
had made a sign with his hand they sat in a circle with
their faces turned towards him.
The narrator said: I think that the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
did not recognize any of them except me.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) then said:
Rejoice, you group of poor emigrants, in the announcement
that you will have perfect light on the Day of
Resurrection. You will enter Paradise half a day before
the rich, and that is five hundred years.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: That I sit in the
company of the people who remember Allah the Exalted from
morning prayer till the sun rises is clearer to me than
that I emancipate four slaves from the children of Isra'il,
and that I sit with the people who remember Allah from
afternoon prayer till the sun sets is dearer to me than
that I emancipate four slaves.