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.

Shaikh ʿAbdur-Razzāq al-Badr said, “From Abul-Aḥwaṣ who said, ‘Abū Isḥāq [whose name is] ʿAmr as-Subaiʿī said:

‘Young men, take advantage [of your youth]: hardly a night will pass by me without me reciting a thousand āyahs. And I read Sūrah al-Baqarah in one rakʿah and I fast the sacred months [Ashurul-Ḥurum] and the three days of every month and Mondays and Thursdays.’ Then he recited, ‘And proclaim the blessings of your Lord.’ [93:11] [Reported by al-Ḥākim in his al-Mustadrak, no. 3947]

When he said he recites one thousand āyahs a day he meant approximately not exactly that number, meaning that he would finish reading the Qurʾān every week. Finishing the Qurʾān every week was the way of the majority of the Salaf.

When ʿAmr bin Maymūn would meet one of his brothers he would say, ‘Last night Allaah blessed me by allowing me to pray such and such a number of Ṣalāh. And He blessed me by allowing me to do such and such good deeds.’

After mentioning the two previous narrations in al-Mustadrak, Abū ʿAbdullah al-Ḥākim said, ‘So may Allaah have mercy on ʿAmr bin ʿUbaidillaah as-Subaiʿi and ʿAmr bin Maymūn al-Awdī because they pointed out things that would encourage the youth to worship.’

The two narrations also emphasise leading by example, because the youth are in need of [seeing people of] such rank so that they [themselves] become active and so that complying [with the truth] becomes easier for them.

But the teacher should draw [their] attention to having pure intentions so that they don’t fall into showing-off and have their deeds nullified.”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 6-7, [post title, ’Seeing Righteous Role-models,’ is not from the book].