حياة السلف بين القول والعمل

Defining knowledge, how to acquire it, and explaining its virtue: Malik bin Anas, may God have mercy on him, said: Knowledge is not about the abundance of narrations, but rather it is a light that God places in the heart. [Sifat al-Safwa 2/504].

Defining knowledge, how to acquire it, and explaining its merit: Al-Shafi’i, may God have mercy on him, said: Knowledge is what is beneficial, not what is memorized. [Al-Siyar (its abridgment) 2/853].

Defining knowledge, how to acquire it, and explaining its virtue: Al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It suffices as a virtue of knowledge that one who does not possess it claims it and rejoices when it is attributed to him. It suffices concerning ignorance that one who has it disavows it and grows angry when it is attributed to him. [Hilyah (abridged edition) 3/133].

Defining knowledge, how to acquire it, and explaining its virtue: Al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: No one who sought knowledge through excessive probing and self-importance succeeded. Rather, whoever sought it with limited means, humility of self, and service to the scholar succeeded. [Hilyah (abridged edition) 3/126].

Defining knowledge, how to acquire it, and explaining its virtue: On the authority of Al-Rabi’, he said: I heard Al-Shafi’i, may God have mercy on him, say, mentioning those who carry knowledge haphazardly, he said: This is like a woodcutter who comes to cut a bundle of firewood and carries it, and perhaps there is a snake in it that will bite him without him knowing. Al-Rabi’ said: He means those who do not ask about the source of the evidence. He writes down knowledge without understanding, so he writes from the liar and the truthful, and from the innovator and others, and he carries falsehoods from the liar and the innovator, and that becomes a deficiency in his faith without him knowing. [Al-Hilya (its abridgment) 3/129].