"After the passing away ofthe Prophet (peace be upon him), I said to
an Ansari friend of mine: 'The Prophet is not now with us. But a large
number of Sahabah are still among us. Let us go to them and get
knowledge of the Islamic practices.' He said: 'Who is going to
approach you for learning a regulation in the presence of these
eminent Sahabah?' I was not discouraged. I kept up my quest for
knowledge and approached every person who was supposed to have heard
something from the Prophet. I managed to gather substantial
information from the Ansar. If on my visit to someone of the Sahabah,
I found him asleep, I spread my shawl at the gate and sat waiting.
Sometimes my face and body would get covered with dust, but I kept
sitting till they woke and I was able to contact them. Some of them
said: 'Abdullah you are the cousin of the Prophet; youcould have sent
for us. Why did you take the trouble of coming to our places?' I said
to them: 'I must come to you, for I am a student and you are my
teachers.' Some peoplefor whom I had waited said: 'Since when have
youbeen waiting for us?' I informed them that I had been sitting there
for a pretty long time. They said: 'What a pity! You could have
awakened us from our sleep.' I said: 'I did not like to disturb you
for my own sake.' I thus carried on my pursuits, till there came a
time when people began to flock to me for learning. My Ansari friend
realized this at that time and remarked: 'This boy has surely proved
himself more sensible than us.'"
Source: From the book"Stories of the Sahabah" by Shaikh Muhammad
Zakariyya Kaandhlawi.
Besides our quest for knowledge to earn a livelihood in this world, we
must as well gain sufficient knowledge of Islam. No matter what
agegroup we belong to at thismoment, we should atleast have that much
Islamic knowledge with which we can turn our 24 hours life into
worship. Those with knowledge and practice will be exalted in this
world and in the hereafter.
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