I have never said to a muhaddith ‘repeat it to me’ and nor have my ears ever heard anything except that it has settled upon my heart (i.e. I have memorised it).
Category: Words of Wisdom
I have divided the night into three
Twice I travelled to [visit] at-Toosee in Toos, and I asked him when he would be free from compiling these many fataawa?
This would affirm his deceit
If I saw a man leaving his home without an inkwell or pen to seek [knowledge of] hadeeth, [then] this would affirm his deceit.
A pen for a deenaar
Muhammad ibn Salaam al-Baykandee’s pen broke whilst in the gathering of a Shaykh, so he announced a pen for a deenaar, whereby pens began to fall upon him [from all directions].
I did not make a single mistake
I was ill for 2 years, and when I got better, I read the Qur.aan [from memory] and I did not make a single mistake.
All of the children of Aadam make mistakes
All of the children of Aadam make mistakes, and the best of them are those who repent.
Taking delight in the lapse of the scholar his mistake
As for taking delight in the lapse of the scholar and his mistake so as to circulate this amongst the people to cause division, then this is certainly not from the way of the Pious Predecessors.
I know which book it is in
I have in my house [something] I wrote 50 years [ago] and have not read it since I [first] wrote it. Certainly, I know which book it is in, [and] which page it is on [and] which line it is on
He would memorise 500 hadeeth in a single sitting
None of our companions were better at memorising hadeeth than him (Yahyaa ibn Yamaan); He would memorise 500 hadeeth in a single sitting.
There is nothing I have except that I recall its isnaad
I have written [ahaadeeth] from more than 1,000 Shaykhs, and from each one I have [taken] 10,000 ahaadeeth; There is nothing I have except that I recall its isnaad.