حياة السلف بين القول والعمل

On the authority of Amr ibn Muhajir, he said: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, may God have mercy on him, said to me: If you see me deviating from the truth, put your hand on my collar, then shake me, then say: O Umar, what are you doing? [Sifat al-Safwa 2/467].

Malik ibn Dinar, may God have mercy on him, said: There was a scholar among the scholars of the Children of Israel. He said: One day he saw one of his sons winking at women, so he said: “Hold on, my son.” He said: So he fell from his bed, and his spinal cord was severed, and his wife miscarried, and his sons were killed in the army, and God Almighty revealed to their prophet to tell so-and-so the scholar that I will never bring forth from your loins a steadfastly truthful person. Your anger for My sake amounted only to your saying: “Hold on, my son, hold on.” [Sifat al-Safwa 3/195].

On the authority of Sufyan al-Thawri, may God have mercy on him, he said: “I see something that I should speak about, but I do not, and I urinate blood.” [Al-Siyar (its abridgment) 2/696]

Shuja’ ibn al-Walid said: I used to perform Hajj with Sufyan al-Thawri, may God have mercy on him, and his tongue would hardly tire of enjoining good and forbidding evil, going and returning. [Al-Siyar (its abridgment) 2/696].

On the authority of Musa bin Ibrahim, he said: I was present with Ma’ruf al-Karkhi, may God have mercy on him, and there was a man with him who was mentioning a man and he was backbiting about him, and Ma’ruf kept saying to him: Remember the cotton when they put it on your eyes. [Al-Hilya (its abridgment) 3/103].