Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Salaf saw themselves…

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Some thoughtful quotes I came across whilst readingShaykh al-'Affani's
book on Ikhlas (sincerity). The humbleness of the Salaf is truly
admirable, this is just an insight into how they used to see
themselves…
Khalaf ibn Tamim: 'I heard Sufyan al-Thawri saying in Makkah when the
people had gathered around him, "Lost is the Ummah when the like of me
is taken as an example!"'
And whenever he was asked a question, he wouldsay "I am not fit to
answer it." They said, "Then who shall we ask?" He said, "Askthe
scholars and ask Allah for tawfiq (guidance)." - this was despite him
being of the major scholars in his time.
Dawud al-Ta'i: "Sins have left us, but we're shy of much of the
people's gathering." He also said, "The worshippers have surpassed me
and I have been cut off and left behind, O' what ruins!"
Al-Sirri al-Saqti: "I wouldn't like to die in a land in which I am
well-known." Itwas said to him, "Why is that, Abu al-Hasan?" He said,
"I fear that my grave will not accept me and I would in turn be
exposed and humiliated."
Al-Hasan al-Basri: "I have accompanied people who when compared to
them I was like a criminal thief !" (i.e. due to their virtue)
Some righteous people were once mentioned in the presence of Mukhallad
ibn Husayn and he began to recite the poem…
"Do not mention them along with us and thus mixthe two
Indeed the healthy one when he walks is not like the crippled."
Qatada: 'Isa ibn Maryam said, "Ask me, for truly my heart is soft and
I see myself to be small and humbled ."
Al-A'raj (one of Madinah's scholars who studied under Abu Hurayrah)
said: "Examine your soul and see what evil it is upon because tomorrow
every single person will be gathered with his like , sowhoever falls
into many sins will be gathered alongwith the people of those sins."
He (rahimahullah) used to rebuke himself often and lower it, saying:
"A caller shall call on the Day of Judgement, 'O people of
such-and-such sin, rise up!' And you will rise up with them O A'raj.
Then he will call, 'O people of such-and-such sin, rise up!' And you
shall rise up them also. Then he will call, 'O people of such-and-such
sin, rise up!' And again you shall rise up with them as well. O A'raj,
I see you rising up with every sinful group…"
Ibrahim al-Nakha'i: "I have spoken but if I could find a way, I would
never have spoken . Indeed, the era in which I become the scholarof
Kufa is an evil era."
Muhammad ibn Aslam al-Tusi: "I have travelled in the land far and wide
and by the One besides Whom there is no other God, I have not seen a
soul praying towards the Qiblahthat was worse in my sightthan my own
soul ."
Ibrahim al-Taymi: "I have never put my deeds side by side with my
speech except that I feared becoming a liar ."
Ja'far ibn Barqan: "News reached me of the virtue and righteousness of
Yunus ibn 'Ubayd, so I wrote to him saying, "O brother, write to me
and tell me of your state and what you are upon (of goodness)." So he
wrote back to him saying, "Your letter has reached me asking me to
inform you ofmy state. Let me tell you that I approached my soul and
told it to love for the people what it loves for itself, and to hate
for the people what it hates for itself, but I found it to be far from
that. I then came to it again and told it to abandon mentioning people
except that which was good, but I have foundthat fasting in the
mid-day heat of an extremely hot day in the land of Basra to be
easierthan abandoning the mention of people . This, O dear brother, is
my state.Wasalam."/- - -