Knowledge (Kitab Al-Ilm)
كتاب العلم
Chapter 9: It is disliked to withhold knowledge
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who is asked something he knows and conceals it will have a bridle of fire put on him on the Day of Resurrection.
Chapter 10: The virtue of spreading knowledge
I swear on Allah, it will be better for you that Allah should give guidance to one man through your agency than that you should acquire the red ones among the camels.
Chapter 13: Regarding telling stories
I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: Only a ruler, or one put in charge, or one who is presumptuous, gives instructions.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: recite Surat al-Nisa’. I asked: Shall I recite to you what was sent down to you? He replied: I like to here it from someone else. So I recited (it) until I reached this verse “How then shall it be when We bring from every people a witness?”. Then I raised my head and saw tears falling from his eyes.
Chapter 2: Narrating the sayings of the people of the book
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) ordered me (to learn the writing of the Jews), so I learnt for him the writing of the Jews. He said: I swear by Allah, I do not trust Jews in respect of writing for me. So I learnt it, and only a fortnight passed before I mastered it. I would write for him when he wrote (to them), and read to him when something was written to him.
Chapter 3: Writing knowledge
I asked Abu `Amr: What are they writing? He said: The sermon which he heard that day.
Chapter 8: Caution in issuing fatwa
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone is given a legal decision ignorantly, the sin rests on the one who gave it. Sulayman al-Mahri added in his version: If anyone advises his brother, knowing that guidance lies in another direction, he has deceived him. These are the wordings of Sulayman.
Chapter 10: The virtue of spreading knowledge
I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: May Allah brighten a man who hears a tradition from us, gets it by heart and passes it on to others. Many a bearer of knowledge conveys it to one who is more versed than he is; and many a bearer of knowledge is not versed in it.
Chapter 13: Regarding telling stories
I was sitting in the company of the poor members of the emigrants. Some of them were sitting together because of lack of clothing while a reader was reciting to us. All of a sudden the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came along and stood beside us. When the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood, the reader stopped and greeted him.
He asked: What were you doing? We said: Messenger of Allah! We had a reader who was reciting to us and we were listening to the Book of Allah, the Exalted.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said: Praise be to Allah Who has put among my people those with whom I have been ordered to stay. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then sat among us so as to be like one of us, and when he had made a sign with his hand they sat in a circle with their faces turned towards him.
The narrator said: I think that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did not recognize any of them except me.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said: Rejoice, you group of poor emigrants, in the announcement that you will have perfect light on the Day of Resurrection. You will enter Paradise half a day before the rich, and that is five hundred years.