{"id":2633,"date":"2014-05-31T19:31:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T23:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2014-05-31T19:31:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-31T23:31:46","slug":"virtue-reading-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=2633","title":{"rendered":"The Virtue of Reading Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Virtue of Reading Books\"download\"<\/a> <\/strong>
\nBy Imam Ibn \u2018Abd al-Barr (ra)
\nJami\u2019 Bayan al-\u2019Ilm wa Fadlih
\nIn the Name of All\u00e2h, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
\n2414: Abu \u2018Abdullah Muhammad bin Isma\u2019il al-Bukhari was asked: \u201cWhat is it that strengthens one\u2019s memory?\u201d He replied: \u201cConstantly looking through books.\u201d
\n2415: Ahmad bin Abi \u2018Imran said: \u201cI was with Abu Ayyub Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Shuja\u2019, and he was staying in his house. So, he sent one of his sons to Abu \u2018Abdillah bin al-A\u2019rabi to invite him over. The boy returned, saying: \u201cI asked him this, and he said to me: \u201cI am with a group, and when I am done being taught by them, I will be over,\u201d and I did not see a single person at his house. Rather, he had in front of him books that he was looking through. He would look in this book for some time, and then look in another book for some time.\u201d Shortly thereafter, he arrived. So, Abu Ayyub said to him: \u201cO Abu \u2018Abdillah! Glory be to Allah, the Mighty! You stayed behind and prevented us from your presence, and my son said that he did not see anyone with you, and that you said you were with a group, and that you would come as soon as you were done being taught by them!\u201d
\nSo, Ibn al-A\u2019rabi said: We have company who sit with us and do not bore us * Loyal ones who can be trusted while they are present or away; They benefit us from their knowledge of what happened in the past * And intelligence, manners, and opinions that are correct; With no fear of conflicts or bad companionship * And one does not fear from their tongue or hand; So, if you say that they are dead: nay! You are a liar * And if you say they are alive, you are not far from the truth\u2026
\nTranslator\u2019s note: He did not lie, as he was referring to his books as his companions, and this is from the ma\u2019arid (metaphoric speech) that do not count as lies, as was narrated authentically from \u2018Imran bin Husayn, \u2018Umar bin al-Khattab, and Ibn \u2018Abbas.
\n2416: It was said to Abi al-\u2019Abbas Ahmad bin Yahya (Tha\u2019lab): \u201cThe people have greatly missed you. If only you could leave your house for just a bit and show yourself to the people so that they could benefit from you, and you could benefit from them.\u201d So, he stayed silent for an hour, and said: If we accompanied the kings, they would act arrogantly with us * And would belittle the rights of those they were accompanying; Or if we accompanied the merchants, we would become sorrowful * And would become mere counters of money; So, we remained in our homes, extracting knowledge * And filling with it the stomachs of these pages\u2026
\n2419: From what was memorized in the past: What a great speaker and companion the book is! * You can seclude yourself with it if your friends bore you; It does not reveal your secrets, and is not arrogant * And you can gain from it wisdom and uprightness\u2026
\n2420: Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Ahmad recited to me: And the sweetest that a youth can desire after piety * Is knowledge that is beautified for him to seek it; And for every seeker, there is a pleasure that he desires * And the pleasure of the scholar is his books\u2026
\n2421: And he asked me to add to the above, and I immediately followed up with this in his presence: The book relieves the concerns of its reader * And when he reads, his exhaustion disappears; What a great companion it is if you seclude yourself with it * You do not fear it plotting against you, or causing commotion\u2026
\n2424: Abu \u2018Amr bin al-\u2019Ala\u2019 said: \u201cI never entered upon a man or passed by his door \u2013 seeing him with a book in his hand, and his companion doing nothing \u2013 except that I judged him to be the more intelligent one.\u201d
\n2425: \u2018Abdullah bin \u2018Abd al-\u2019Aziz bin \u2018Umar bin \u2018Abd al-\u2019Aziz said: \u201cI never saw a better admonisher than the grave, or anything more satisfying than a book, or anything safer than lack of socialization.\u201d
\n2426: al-Hasan al-Lu\u2019lu\u2019i said: \u201cForty years of my life have passed in which I never awoke or went to sleep except<\/p>\n

\u00a0that a book was resting on my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Translated by Abu Sabaayaa<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0(Taken from\u00a0http:\/\/www.ilmgate.org\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Virtue of Reading Books By Imam Ibn \u2018Abd al-Barr (ra) Jami\u2019 Bayan al-\u2019Ilm wa Fadlih In the Name of All\u00e2h, the Most Beneficent, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,57,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-motivators","category-tazkiyah","wpcat-33-id","wpcat-57-id","wpcat-24-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}