And certainly, when I drunk [it] I asked Allaah for beneficial knowledge.
Category: Knowledge
Adhere to the Ahlul-Hadeeth
I heard ash-Shaafi’ee say: Adhere to the Ahlul-Hadeeth, for certainly they are the most correct people.
I found a particular aspect of Arabic grammar difficult
I found a particular aspect of Arabic grammar difficult, so I spent 80,000 dirhams in order to become proficient in it.
I left having benefited with knowledge
Never did I meet Hamzah ibn Muhammad, except that I left [his presence] having benefited with knowledge
A means to all excellence
Knowledge is a means to all excellence.
The most amazing of those who memorised in our time
From amongst the most amazing of those who memorised [knowledge] in our time was Ibn Taymiyyah; He would read a book only once and it would be etched in his mind (i.e. he would have memorised it).
Out of fear that it may rest upon my heart
Whilst I would walk through the market of Baghdad, I could hear the sound of female singers from the rooms, so I would put my fingers in my ears.
Nothing I have ever memorised
There is nothing I have [ever] memorised and then [later] forgotten.
I have never revised a hadeeth
I have never revised a hadeeth, and nor have I ever had any doubt in [the memorisation of] a hadeeth, except one hadeeth; and when I questioned my colleague about it, [I found] it was [exactly] as I had memorised [it].
When his house burnt down
Abu ‘Amr al-‘Alaa’s home was full of books. So when his house burnt down, all that we took from him (in terms of knowledge) thereafter until he died was from his memory