About the author

Abū Yāsir Muhammad bin Matr bin Uthmān Āli Matr az-Zahrānī (1370-1427H, 1951-2006M)

He is the Shaykh, the Muhaddith, Dr. Muhammad bin Matr az-Zahrānī, former teacher of Hadīth at the Islamic University of al-Madīnah al-Munawarah, and teacher at the University of Umm al-Qurā before his passing, may Allah have mercy on him.

He was born in the district of Qalwah in Tihāmat Zahrān, next the region of Al-Bāhah.

His Bachelor’s Degree was from the School of Sharī’ah at the Islamic University of al-Madīnah in 1397, followed by his Master’s Degree and Doctorate in the Sunnah. His Master’s Degree and Doctorate were done on two books by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī.

First he was a teacher’s assistant in the School of Hadīth (1397H); then a lecturer in Sciences of Hadīth (1402H); Assistant Professor (1407H); Associate Professor (1412H) and then Professor (1419H).

The most important of his teachers at the university were:

Shaykh Abd Allah bin Muhammad al-Ghunaymān, Shaykh Muhammad Mukhtār ash-Shanqītī, Shaykh Abd al-Latīf bin Ibrāhīm Āl-Abd al-Latīf, Shaykh Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbād al-Badr, Dr. Muhammad al-Wā’ilī, Shaykh Hasan Abd al-Ghaffār al-Bākistānī, Shaykh Muhammad Amān al-Jāmī, Shaykh Abd al-Qādir Shaybat al-Hamd, Shaykh Hammād bin Muhammad al-Ansārī, Dr. Akram al-Umarī, Dr. Muhammad Sayyid al-Hakīm

His important scholarly works

Editing

As-Sābiq wal-Lāhiq by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī; Al-Fasl li-Wasl il-Mudraj fīl-Naql by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī; Associate editor in the first volume of Sunan an-Nasā’ī Magazine at the Sunnah and Sīrah Centre in the Islamic University of al-Madīnah.

Authored Works

Tadwīn as-Sunnat in-Nabawiyyah: Nasha’atuhu wa Tatawwuruhu, Ilm ar-Rijāl: Nasha’atuhu wa Tatawwuruhu, Abd Allah bin al-Mubārak: al-Ālim, al-Mujāhid, Sufyān bin Sa’īd ath-Thawrī: al-Ālim, ar-Rabbānī, Mawqif Ashāb al-Ahwā’ min as-Sunnat in-Nabawiyyah wa Ruwātihā, Mā Lahu Hukm ar-Raf’i min Aqwāl is-Sahābah wa Af’āluhum, Min Hady is-Salaf fī Talab il-Ilm

He passed away in Makkah al-Mukarramah on Monday the 7^th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah in 1427 after suffering from sickness and was prayed over after Maghrib prayer in al-Masjid al-Harām.

A large number of Mashayikh and seekers of knowledge learned through him. He supervised numerous scholarly treatises and edited several others. He was known for his Zuhd and piety, his capacity for knowledge, concern for Aqīdah and the Sunnah, excellent manners with opponents, and support for the cause of Muslims everywhere. He was famous for the strength of his memory, precision in relating narrations, and verification of Ahadīth and reports. [1]

About the book

The Shaykh begins the book with some basic advice regarding seeking knowledge. He says: “During the course of my reading and researching the books of the Salaf, may Allah have mercy on them, and especially the earlier texts, I found that the Salaf had a scientific methodology, guidance, and an actionable path in seeking knowledge. Perhaps among the most important milestones are:

1- Sincerity in intending to seek knowledge for the Face of Allah, glorified and exalted is He

Thus one does not seek through [knowledge] status or honor from anyone whatsoever, nor to accumulate wealth. Serving as a refutation of doing any of that is the statement of the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him: “Whoever learns knowledge whereof in it is sought the Face of Allah, however a person does not learn it except to obtain wares of the world- he will not find the smell of Paradise on the Day of Resurrection”. [2]

2- Gradual advanced in seeking knowledge in accordance with a knowledge-based and action-based curriculum.

The Salaf would begin with learning etiquette (Ādab) and worship first, while memorizing the Majestic Book of Allah; then after that they would begin seeking knowledge from people who are well-known for it.

Sufyān bin Sa’īd ath-Thawrī (d. 161H) said: “There is no action after the obligatory deeds more virtuous than seeking knowledge; and a person does not seek knowledge until he engages in etiquette and worship for 20 years before that”. [3]

Abd Allah bin al-Mubārak (d. 181H) said: “[The Salaf] would seek etiquette then knowledge”. [4]

The first thing a student begins with is learning that which is obligated upon each individual until he is familiar with the knowledge and actions in it. Then he advances to that which is obligated on the community and the sections of knowledge. Indeed he should begin with key sciences like Aqīdah and Fiqh, both based upon the proofs of the Book and Sunnah and the understanding of the Salaf as-Sālih. Secondly, the sciences of means, like the principles of exegesis, sciences of the Qur’ān, sciences of Hadīth, principles of Fiqh, and similar to that. It is not allowed to precede the sciences of means with the sciences of objective.

3- Adhere to the authentic understanding

A great number of Salaf have stipulated that the student of knowledge should be grounded with excellence in understanding. Al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī said: “Knowledge is understanding and awareness, and not abundance and extensiveness in transmission”. [5]

Ibn Abd il-Barr said: “The majority of the jurists and scholars of the Muslims disparaged an abundance (of learning) without comprehension and reflection”. [6]

4- Persistence in establishing knowledge

The most important means for establishing knowledge according to the Salaf were:

A) Obtainment of it from a Shaykh who has sound beliefs and methodology

Muhammad bin Sirīn (d. 110H) said: “They did not used to ask about the chain of narration, but when the tribulations occurred, they said: ‘List your narrators for us’, and if it was determined they were from Ahl us-Sunnah, then their Hadīth would be accepted, or if it was determined they were from the people of innovation, then there Hadīth would not be accepted”. He also said: “This knowledge is the Dīn, so look to who you take your Dīn from”. [7]

B) Distinguishing the authentic from the weak narration, and the trustworthy from other narrators

Abd ur-Rahman bin Mahdī (d. 198H) said: “It is not allowed for a man to be the Imām until he knows what is sound from what is not sound, until he does not rely on everything [he hears], and until he knows who are the sources of knowledge”. [8]

C) Excellence in comprehension

In order to achieve this, knowledge should be memorized and acted upon. Āmir bin Sharāhīl ash-Sha’bī, the Tabi’ī (d. 103H) said: “We would seek aid for our memorization of Hadīth by acting upon them, and we would seek aid in our search for them through fasting”. [9]

D) Revision alongside Shuyūkh and peers

This helps establish knowledge. Anas bin Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We would be with the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, and we would listen to Hadīth from him, then when we left we would revise what we had heard until we memorized it”. [10]

E) Patience, diligence, persistence in studying

The journeys that the Salaf would undertake just for a single Hadīth or two is evidence of that. Sa’īd bin al-Musayyib (d. 94H) said: “Indeed I would walk distances that stretched nights and days in search of a single Hadīth”. [11]

Az-Zuhrī (d. 125H) said: “Whoever searches for knowledge at once, it will slip from him at once, and indeed knowledge is obtained only one or two Hadīth at a time”. [12]

5- Piety when devoted to spreading knowledge and hiding the act

Abd ur-Rahman bin Abī Laylā said: “I saw 120 Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, from the Ansār, and there was not one of them who was asked about something except he preferred that his brother sufficed him of that , and he was not asked to narrate a Hadīth except he preferred that his brother sufficed him[narrate it instead]”. [13]

Mutarrif bin Abd Allah bin ash-Shakhīr, the Tabi’ī, said: “The virtue of knowledge is more preferred to me than that of worship; and the best of your Dīn is piety”. [14]

In the chapter of ‘How knowledge will be taken away’ from the Book of Knowledge in Sahīh al-Bukhārī is: “Umar bin Abd al-Azīz wrote to Abu Bakr bin Hazm: ‘Investigate the Hadīth of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, and write it down; for indeed I am afraid of the extinction of knowledge and the departing of the scholars; spread knowledge and convene audiences until those who do not know are instructed for indeed knowledge will not be destroyed until it is a secret”. [15]

6- Another of these milestones is to avoid dispute and argumentation involving knowledge, and keep away from the places frequented by those who dispute and the assemblies of the people of whims and desires

A great number of the Salaf would: censure people of whims and desires; warn others about their assemblies or against debating with them; or becoming preoccupied with refuting them.

Abū Abd Allah bin Battah al-Ukbarī (d. 387) related in his book al-Ibānat al-Kubrā more than 340 narratives regarding avoiding disputation and whimsical people and then ended by saying: “Thus know, Oh my brother, that I do not believe disputation, clashing, opposition, arguments, whims, discord, and innovated thinking to be from the laws of the noble ones, or from the manners of the scholars, or from the ways of the people of chivalry; nor have they been related to us from the righteous of this Ummah, or from the lives of the Salaf, or from the customs of those who were approved of from the later generations; it is only an amusement learned and studied to cause division; it is a delight and a pastime; a provocation of the mind and impudent speech through eradication of beliefs; ferocity in the struggle and it is used for pleasure by establishing the proof of the disputant; the intent of subduing the debater, showing the fallacy of analogy, and error of statement; denial of reports, stubbornness in the face of the revealed text, neglect for what the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said, breach of the ties of consensus; it splits harmony, divides the people of the faith, [through it] doubts enter the Ummah; voracity, insolence and spite for the heart; and it is a generator for burdens in the souls; may Allah safeguard us, and we seek refuge from the assembly of its people”. [16]

References

[1] This biography and selections from the book are translated from:

az-Zahrānī, Muhammad bin Matr. Al-Maktabat ash-Shamelah, "من هدي السلف في طلب العلم." Last modified November 14, 2010. Accessed November 15, 2011. http://shamela.ws/index.php/book/12088.

[2] On authority of Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him; Its chain is Hasan according to Shaykh al-Arna’ūt

[3] Hilyat al-Awliyā by Abū Nu’aym al-Asbahānī 6/363

[4] Ghāyah an-Nihāyah fī Tabaqāt al-Qurā’ by Abūl-Khayr al-Jazarī 1/446

[5] Al-Jāmi lil-Akhlāq ir-Rāwī by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī 2/174

[6] Jāmi’ Bayān al-Ilm by Ibn Abd al-Barr 2/124

[7]Introduction to Sahīh Muslim 1/15, 16

[8] Al-Jāmi lil-Akhlāq ir-Rāwī by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī 2/90

[9] Jāmi’ Bayān al-Ilm Ibn Abd al-Barr 2/11

[10] Al-Jāmi lil-Akhlāq ir-Rāwī by al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī 1/236

[11] Tabaqāt al-Kubrā Ibn Sa’d 5/120

[12] Al-Jāmi lil-Akhlāq ir-Rāwī 1/232

[13] Kitāb al-Ilm by Abī Khaythamah 10:21

[14] Kitāb al-Ilm by Abī Khaythamah 8:13; this has also come on authority of the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, through Ibn Umar and Hudhayfah- al-Mundhirī declared it Hasan; al-Hākim and adh-Dhahabī declared it Sahīh.

[15] Sahīh al-Bukhārī 1/31