Category: Knowledge

I drank some [Zam Zam water] once, whilst I was [just] beginning my studies in hadeeth, and asked Allaah to bless me with [strength of memory of] the calibre of ath-Thahabee in memorising hadeeth.

I have never seen Wakee’ with a book in his hands, rather, he memorised. So I asked him about the remedy for memorising.

Any knowledge which cannot accompany its possessor to the toilet is not considered knowledge

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).

Twice I travelled to [visit] at-Toosee in Toos, and I asked him when he would be free from compiling these many fataawa?

If I saw a man leaving his home without an inkwell or pen to seek [knowledge of] hadeeth, [then] this would affirm his deceit.

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 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.

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

None of our companions were better at memorising hadeeth than him (Yahyaa ibn Yamaan); He would memorise 500 hadeeth in a single sitting.