Sayings of the Scholars

[Yusuf]

قال ابن الجوزي في الحث على حفظ العلم

وحكى لنا الحسن – يعني ابن أبي بكر النيسابوري- أن فقيها أعاد الدرس في بيته مراراً كثيرة ، فقالت له عجوز في بيته: قد والله حفظته أنا ،فقال : أعيديه فأعادته، فلما كان بعد أيام ، قال : يا عجوز أعيدي ذلك الدرس ، فقالت: ما احفظه ، قال : أنا اكرر لئلا يصيبني ما أصابك

Ibn al-Jawzi said: Hasan ibn Abi Bakr al-Naysaburi, related to us that a Jurist would repeat his lessons at home many times, so an old woman who lived there said: 'By Allah, I've even memorised it!' So he said: 'Repeat it to me', and she did.

After a few days had passed he said to her: Repeat the same lesson again. She said, 'I dont have it memorised.'

So he replied: 'This is why I constantly repeat my dars, so that I am not effected with what you were.'

و قال أبو هلال العسكري : الحفظ لا يكون إلا مع شدة العناية وكثرة الدرس

Abu Hilal al-Askari said: Memory is not attained except through paying excessive attention[to it] and much study.

و الزهري يقول : إنما يذهب العلم النسيان وترك المذاكرة

al-Zuhri said: Knowledge leaves through forgetfullness and abdandoning revision.

وقال بعض السلف : القلوب ترب والعلم غرسها والمذاكرة ماؤها فإذا انقطع عن الترب ماؤها جف غرسها

Some of our pious predecessors would say: The heart is like soil, knowledge is its plant and revision is its water; if the soil is cut off from its water the plants desiccate.

قال الشافعي رحمه الله: علمي معي حيثما يممت يتبعني قلبي وعاء له لا جوف صندوق
إن كنت في البيت كان العلم فيه أو كنت في السوق كان العلم معي في السوق

Imam Shafi'i said:

My knowledge is with me, where ever I turn, it follows me
My heart is a vessel for it, not a box, stored at home

If I'm at home, it is with me
Or in the market, the knowledge is there with me

[cotton]

JazakAllah khair

wonderful stuff......do you have more sayings like this?

[illuminate]

JZK - great quotes

wonderful if there are more quotes...

[Yusuf]

Wa iyyakum.

قال النووي رحمه الله: وَأَوَّلُ مَا يَبْتَدِئُ بِهِ حِفْظُ الْقُرْآنِ الْعَزِيزِ فَهُوَ أَهَمُّ الْعُلُومِ ، وَكَانَ السَّلَفُ لَا يُعَلِّمُونَ الْحَدِيثَ وَالْفِقْهَ إلَّا لِمَنْ يَحْفَظُ الْقُرْآنَ ، وَإِذَا حَفِظَهُ فَلْيَحْذَرْ مِنْ الِاشْتِغَالِ عَنْهُ بِالْحَدِيثِ وَالْفِقْهِ...وَبَعْدَ حِفْظِ الْقُرْآنِ يَحْفَظُ مِنْ كُلِّ فَنٍّ مُخْتَصَرًا ، وَيَبْدَأُ بِالْأَهَمِّ ، وَمِنْ أَهَمِّهَا الْفِقْهُ وَالنَّحْوُ ، ثُمَّ الْحَدِيثُ وَالْأُصُولُ ، ثُمَّ الْبَاقِي

Imam al-Nawawi says in his introduction to sharh al-Muhadhhab, in the chapter, 'Manners of the student':

"He should first start with memorising the Glorius Quran because it is the most important of sciences and our pious predecessors would not teach hadith and fiqh to one who hadn't memorised the Quran.. after memorising the Quran he should memorise an abridged text in each discipline, starting with the most important and that is: Fiqh and nahw then hadith and usul and then the rest.."

قال إبن حزم رحمه الله: فإن يحرقوا القرطاس لا يحرقوا الذي تضمنه القرطاس بل هو في صدري
يسير معي حيث استقلت ركائبي ويمكث إن أمكث ويدفن في قبري

Imam Ibn Hazm said: Were they to burn the books, they would not burn that which it contains, for it is stored in my breast

it moves with me where ever I begin a journey
and it will remain with me when I am buried in my grave

قال الشافعي رحمه الله: شكوت الى وكيع سوء حفظي فأرشدني الى ترك المعاصي
فإن الحفظ فضل من إلهي و فضل الله لا يهدى لعاصي

Imam Shafi'i said: I complained to Waki' about my bad memory

'Abandon sins', he instructed me

For memory is a bounty from Allah

and a bounty of Allah is not bestowed upon the sinner.

و قد ذكر الذهبي في "السير" : قال علي بن خشرم: ما رأيت بيد وكيع كتابا قط إنما هو الحفظ! فسألته عن أدوية الحفظ فقال: إن علمتك الدواء استعملته؟ قلت: إي والله! فقال: ترك المعاصي ما جربت مثله لالحفظ

Imam Dhahabi narrates that Ali ibn Kashram said, "I have never seen a book in Waki's hands. It is all but in his memory! So I asked him about the key to memory. He said, 'If I teach you the cure will you use it? I said: By Allah, I will! He said: Leaving sins, I have tried nothing like it for [good] memory."

قال الشيخ نجم الدين عمر بن محمد النسفي: سلام على من تيمتني بظرفها و لمعة خديها و لمحة طرفها
سبتني و أصبتني فتاة مليحة تحيرت الأوهام في كنه وصفها
فقلت: ذريني واعذرني فإنني شغفت بتحصيل العلوم و كشفها
و لي في طلاب العلم و الفضل والتقى غنى عن غناء الغانيات و عرفها

Imam Najm al-Din Umar ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi said:

Peace upon the one who approached me with her elegance
with her radiant cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes

a most beautiful girl who tied me up and imprisoned me
the mind boggles in grasping the reality of her beauty

Yet I said: Leave me and excuse me for indeed
I have become infatuated with the attainment of knowledge and its uncoverings

and in my quest for knowledge, virtue and righteousness
I am free and independant of the singing of those girls and their fragrance

[Mukarram]

jazakallah brother.

Wassalaam wr wb

[Abdullah Ibn Adam]

Barakallahu Feekum brother, for the great sayings of our great 'Ulama.

May Allah have mercy upon them.