Gifts of Knowledge

Al-Badr said:

“From Ḥammād ibn Zaid who said, ‘We visited Anas ibn Sīrīn when he was sick, so he said, ‘Young men, fear Allaah. Look carefully at who you are taking these ḥadīths from because they are from your religion.’’

This is a great will [and piece of advice], i.e., that the youth who is going ahead and seeking knowledge and learning ḥadīth should be learning at the hands of the trustworthy people of knowledge and those grounded in it, the people of insight and expertise, those senior in knowledge, he should not be taking knowledge from everyone, but from the people of the Sunnah whose expertise in it is established.

From Ibn Shawdhab who said, ‘One of Allaah’s Blessings on a young person is that when he begins to follow the Sunnah he gets together with a person of the Sunnah who carries him along on it.’

From ʿAmr ibn Qais al-Mulāʾī who said, ‘If you see a youth with Ahlus-Sunnah from the onset then have hope for him, and if you see him with the people of innovation then despair of him, for a young person will follow what he was first raised on.’

From ʿAmr ibn Qais who said, ‘The young person grows, if he favours sitting with the people of knowledge then he is on the verge of being saved, but if he inclines to other people then he is on the verge of being destroyed.’”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 8-9.

Tagged: al-Badr