Seize the opportunity to study at the University [of Madeenah], and don't give anything precedence over it, even if it is jihaad.
Category: Knowledge
Signs of happiness and success
From the signs of happiness and success is the more a worshipper is increased in [beneficial] knowledge, the more he is increased in humility and compassion [towards others].
He would discard it entirely
If [Imaam] Maalik had doubt in a hadeeth, he would discard it entirely.
Did not make a single mistake
Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh dictated 11,000 hadeeth to us from memory. He then read them (what he had dictated) to us and [found he] had not made a single mistake [in what he had dictated to us].
A strong memory
I have never memorised anything and thereafter forgotten it.
He is certainly mad
Indeed, he who issues a ruling on everything a ruling is sought for, [then he] is certainly mad.
The excellence of the scholar
...and like this it is incumbent upon the student to recognise the excellence of the jurist (scholar), and acknowledge the knowledge he (the scholar) possesses is that which he (the student) has...
Good manners and knowledge
...it is with good manners that knowledge is understood.
I shall repeat them all from memory
al-Ameen and al-Ma.moon travelled to 'Abdullaah ibn Idrees who narrated a hundred hadeeth to them. al-Ma.moon then said
Acting in accordance
No hadeeth of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ has ever reached me, except that I have acted according to it - even if only once.