The following historical reports illustrate perseverance in seeking knowledge.
Abū Masʿūd ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm al-Ḥājī said:
سمعت ابن طاهر يقول: بلت الدم في طلب الحديث مرتين، مرة ببغداد، وأخرى بمكة، كنت أمشي حافيا في الحر، فلحقني ذلك، وما ركبت دابة قط في طلب الحديث، وكنت أحمل كتبي على ظهري، وما سألت في حال الطلب أحدا، كنت أعيش على ما يأتي.
I heard Ibn Ṭāhir say, “I urinated blood twice whilst seeking knowledge. Once in Baghdad and another time in Makkah. I used to walk barefoot in the heat, as a result I was afflicted with that [urinating blood]; and I never rode an animal in pursuit of knowledge. I used to carry my books on my back, and I never asked anyone for a thing whilst I was seeking knowledge. I used to live on whatever came to me.” (Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 19:363–364.)
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal ؒ (d. 241 AH / 855 CE) said:
أقام شعبة على الحكم بن عتيبة ثمانية عشر شهرا حتى باع جذوع بيته.
“Shuʿbah sought knowledge from al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah for 18 months. He remained with him until he sold the beams of his house.” (Al-ʿIlal wa-Maʿrifat ar-Rijāl, report 2515)
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ar-Rāzī ؒ (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, d. 327 AH / 938 CE) said:
كنا بمصر سبعة أشهر لم نأكل فيها مرقة، نهارنا ندور على الشيوخ، وبالليل ننسخ ونقابل، فأتينا يوما أنا ورفيق لي شيخا فقالوا: هو عليل، فرأيت سمكة أعجبتنا فاشتريناها، فلما صرنا إلى البيت حضر وقت مجلس بعض الشيوخ فمضينا، فلم تزل السمكة ثلاثة أيام، وكادت أن تنتن فأكلناها نيئة، لم نتفرغ نشويها، ثم قال: لا يستطاع العلم براحة الجسد.
“We were in Egypt for 7 months, and we did not [even] eat broth whilst we were there. Our day was apportioned for the scholars’ assemblies and at night we would copy and collate. Once, I and a companion came to a shaykh [to study], but they said ‘he is ill’. I saw a fish that I liked, so we bought it. When we arrived home, it was time to attend a gathering, so we did not have time to prepare it. We left it and proceeded to the lesson. We remained [busy in seeking knowledge] until 3 days passed over it and it almost went bad, so we ate it raw. We did not have time to roast it. Then he said, ‘Knowledge is not attained through bodily comfort.’” (Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, biography of Ibn Abī Ḥātim)
The great scholar of Arabic grammar, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Abū Bakr al-Khayyat al-Baghdadī, used to study all the time, even on the road. He would often fall into a hole or be trampled by an animal! (Al-Mushawwiq ilā al-Qirāʾah wa-Ṭalab al-ʿIlm, p. 62. Parallel biography in Qīmat az-Zaman ʿinda al-ʿUlamāʾ, PDF pp. 26–27.)
Abū al-Wafāʾ ʿAlī ibn ʿAqīl al-Baghdādī ؒ (d. 513 AH / 1119 CE) said:
وأنا أقصر بغاية جهدي أوقات أكلي، حتى أختار سف الكعك وتحسيه بالماء على الخبز، لأجل ما بينهما من تفاوت المضغ، توفرا على مطالعة، أو تسطير فائدة لم أدركها فيه، وإن أجل تحصيل عند العقلاء بإجماع العلماء هو الوقت.
“I try my very best to limit the time I spend eating, to such an extent that I choose crumbled biscuit moistened with water over eating bread, because of the difference in chewing [time] between the two, so as to save my time for reading or writing down some useful ideas. The most valuable thing for wise people to gain is time.” (Ibn Rajab, Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, biography of Ibn ʿAqīl)
وكان داود الطائي يستف الفتيت، ويقول: بين سف الفتيت وأكل الخبز قراءة خمسين آية.
Dāwūd aṭ-Ṭāʾī used to swallow finely crumbled bread instead of eating bread. When that was mentioned to him he replied, “The difference between chewing bread and swallowing finely crumbled bread is [enough time for] the reciting of 50 verses.” ( Al-Mujālasah wa-Jawāhir al-ʿIlm, 1:346)
Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said I heard Shuʿbah say;
من طلب الحديث أفلس، بعت طست أمي بسبعة دنانير.
“Whoever seeks ḥadīth will go bankrupt! I sold my mother’s washing basin for seven dinars.” (Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, 1:195, Siyar, 10:578.)
ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim said, I heard my father say,
“I stayed in Basra in 214 AH for eight months. I wanted to remain for a year, but my money ran out. I began selling the clothes I was wearing until that money also ran out. I used to attend the scholars’ lessons with a friend until nightfall. He would leave, and I would return home with nothing, so I drank water to assuage my hunger. The next morning, he came early and I went with him to hear ḥadīth, although I was severely hungry. He then left, and I returned home hungry. The following morning he came early and said, ‘Come with us to the scholars.’ I replied, ‘I am too weak.’ He asked, ‘What has weakened you?’ I said, ‘I will not conceal my condition from you. I have eaten nothing for two days.’ He said, ‘I have one dinār left. I will share half with you and use the other half for hire costs.’ We left Basra, and I took half a dinār from him.” (introduction to Al-Jarḥ wa-t-Taʿdīl, p. 363)
Jaʿfar ibn Darastawayh said:
“We used to go to the gathering of ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī at the time of ʿaṣr, today, for the gathering of tomorrow. We would sit all night for fear that we would not find a place from which to hear the lesson the next day. I saw an old man in the gathering urinating in his ṭaylasān (a type of garment worn on the head) whilst folding the ṭaylasān until he finished urinating, all because he feared losing his seat if he left to urinate.” ( Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:38)
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl aṣ-Ṣāʾigh said:
“In one of our journeys to Baghdad, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal passed by us whilst he was running with his shoes in his hands. So my father took hold of his thobe and said, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allah, have you no shame? Until when will you race with these youngsters?’ He replied, ‘Until death.’” (Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 3:362)
Abū Hurayrah ؓ said:
لَقَدْ رَأَيْتُنِي وَإِنِّي لَأَخِرُّ فِيمَا بَيْنَ مِنْبَرِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم إِلَى حُجْرَةِ عَائِشَةَ مَغْشِيًّا عَلَيَّ … وَيُرَى أَنِّي مَجْنُونٌ، وَمَا بِي مِنْ جُنُونٍ، مَا بِي إِلَّا الْجُوعُ
“I remember falling unconscious between the minbar of the Messenger of Allah and ʿĀʾishah’s room … people thought I was mad, but I was not mad. I suffered only from hunger.” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, hadith 7324; excerpt.)
Ibn Kathīr said:
“al-Bukhārī would wake up at night from his sleep, light the lantern, and then write a beneficial thought that crossed his mind. He would then put out the lantern, and then wake up again and again, until the number of times he did that would be close to twenty times.” ( Al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah, 11:3)
Abū Aḥmad Naṣr ibn Aḥmad al-ʿIyāḍī as-Samarqandī said:
لا ينال هذا العلم إلا من عطل دكانه، وخرب بستانه، وهجر إخوانه، ومات أقرب أهله إليه، فلم يشهد جنازته.
“No one can obtain this knowledge except one who closes down his shop, ruins his farm, abandons his brothers and who, when the closest of his family dies, does not attend his funeral.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174, report 1524.)
Ibn al-Qāsim said:
“Seeking knowledge caused Mālik ibn Anas to demolish the roof of his house and sell its wood.” (Tārīkh Baghdād, 2:13)
Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān said whilst mentioning studying ḥadīth,
“I used to leave my house in the morning and not return until it was dark.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174)
Ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī said:
اختلفت من الحجاز إلى الشام خمسا وأربعين سنة، فما استطرفت حديثا واحدا.
“I stayed for forty-five years going between ash-Shām and al-Ḥijāz, and I did not find a ḥadīth new to me.” (Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 5:335. Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 3:362)
Abū Muḥammad ʿUbayd ibn Yaʿīsh al-Kūfī ؒ (d. 229 AH / 844 CE) said:
أقمت ثلاثين سنة ما أكلت بيدي، يعني بالليل، كانت أختي تلقمني وأنا أكتب.
“I lived thirty years not eating with my hands, I mean at night my sister would feed me while I wrote.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:179, report 1542)
Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yūsuf ibn Khirāsh said:
شربت بولي في طلب هذا الشأن خمس مرات.
“I drank my urine in this affair [of seeking ḥadīth] five times.” Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī said, “I presume he was compelled to do so during journeys due to the absence of water, and Allah knows best.” ( Al-ʿIbar and Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl. Tārīkh Baghdād, 10:280)
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq said:
“I was with ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubārak in the masjid one cold winter night. We stood to leave and when we were at the door, he narrated some ḥadīth to me or I narrated to him. He did not cease to narrate to me or I did not cease to narrate to him until the man who calls to prayer came and called to the Fajr prayer.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174; Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, biography of Ibn al-Mubārak.)
Abū Muḥammad Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār ؒ (d. 229 AH / 844 CE) said:
أشكل علي باب من النحو، فأنفقت ثمانين ألف درهم حتى حذقته.
“I found some parts of Arabic grammar difficult. So I spent 80,000 dirhams until I mastered it.” (Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 10:578.)
Farqad as-Sabakhī said:
“I entered upon Sufyān ath-Thawrī when he was in the state of illness that caused his death. So a man narrated a ḥadīth to him that surprised him. So he thrust his hand beneath his bed and withdrew some [writing] tablets of his and he wrote that ḥadīth. It was asked of him, ‘[Do you do such a thing] in the state you are in?’ to which he replied, ‘Indeed it is good and I have heard [something] good, and if I die, then indeed I have written goodness.’” (Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 7:64; Arabic wording, the narrator’s identification as Farqad as-Sabakhī)
Muḥammad ibn Yūnus said:
“I wrote (ḥadīth) in Basra from one thousand, one hundred and eighty-six men.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174. The statement is also transmitted in Tārīkh Baghdād, biography of Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī.)
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-Aṣbahānī ؒ (Ibn al-Muqriʾ, d. 381 AH / 991 CE) said:
مشيت بسبب نسخة المفضل بن فضالة سبعين مرحلة، ولو عرضت على خباز برغيف لم يقبلها.
“I walked seventy stages to obtain a copy of the ḥadīth collection transmitted by Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah. If I offered it to a baker in exchange for a loaf of bread, he would not accept it.” (Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, biography of Ibn al-Muqriʾ, cited as 3:973)
Az-Zuhrī said:
“I followed Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib for three days in seeking knowledge.” (Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 3:362)
ʿIkrimah said:
“Ibn ʿAbbās used to fetter my leg and teach me the Qurʾān and Sunnah.” (Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 3:362)
Abū al-ʿĀliyah said:
“We used to listen to the narrations of the companions of the Messenger of Allah in Baṣra, but we were not satisfied until we travelled to Madīnah and heard them from their mouths.” (Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174)
Imām Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī said whilst mentioning the travels of his father, the Imām Abū Ḥātim in the pursuit of ḥadīth,
سمعت أبي يقول: أول ما خرجت في طلب الحديث أقمت سبع سنين، أحصيت ما مشيت على قدمي زيادة على ألف فرسخ، ولم أزل أحصي حتى لما زاد على ألف فرسخ تركته. وأما ما كنت سرت أنا من الكوفة إلى بغداد فما لا أحصي كم مرة، ومن مكة إلى المدينة مرات كثيرة، وخرجت من البحر من قرب مدينة سلا إلى مصر ماشيا، ومن مصر إلى الرملة ماشيا، ومن الرملة إلى بيت المقدس، ومن الرملة إلى عسقلان، ومن الرملة إلى طبرية، ومن طبرية إلى دمشق، ومن دمشق إلى حمص، ومن حمص إلى أنطاكية، ومن أنطاكية إلى طرسوس. ثم رجعت من طرسوس إلى حمص، وكان بقي علي شيء من حديث أبي اليمان فسمعته، ثم خرجت من حمص إلى بيسان، ومن بيسان إلى الرقة، ومن الرقة ركبت الفرات إلى بغداد، وخرجت قبل خروجي إلى الشام من واسط إلى النيل، ومن النيل إلى الكوفة، كل ذلك ماشيا، كل ذلك ماشيا، هذا في سفري الأول وأنا ابن عشرين سنة، أحول سبع سنين، خرجت من الري سنة 213 في شهر رمضان، ورجعت سنة 221.
“I heard my father say, ‘The first time I travelled to study ḥadīth, I spent seven years travelling. I counted the distance I walked until it exceeded a thousand farasakh, then stopped counting. As for travelling from Kūfah to Baghdad, they were of countless times. From Makkah to Madīnah [I travelled] many times. I came ashore near the city of Salā, then walked to Egypt, then by foot from Egypt to Ramlah. I then walked from Ramlah to Bayt al-Maqdis and then from ar-Ramlah to ʿAsqalān. I then travelled from Ramlah to Tiberias and from Tiberias to Damascus. Thereafter, I travelled from Damascus to Ḥimṣ, from Ḥimṣ to Antioch and then to Ṭarsūs. I then returned from Ṭarsūs and went back to Ḥimṣ. I had some ḥadīth left to hear from Abū al-Yamān, so I heard from him. I then left Ḥimṣ to Baysān and thereafter to Raqqah. I then travelled along the Euphrates from ar-Raqqah to Baghdad, before I departed for Shām. I went to Wāsit and then to an-Nīl. From an-Nīl I went to Kūfah. All of that was by foot on my first journey [in pursuit of knowledge] for seven years, whilst I was twenty years of age. I departed Rayy in the year 213 AH in the month of Ramaḍān, and returned in the year 221 AH.’” (Al-Jarḥ wa-t-Taʿdīl, introductory biography of Abū Ḥātim, 1:359)
Source Note: A farsakh is a unit of distance; the explanatory note in Ṣafaḥāt min Ṣabr al-ʿUlamāʾ approximates it as an hour and a half of walking. Its identification of Salā with a Moroccan city has not been independently checked. Abū Ḥātim’s river journey is retained alongside his statement that the other stages were on foot.
Abū Dāwūd as-Sijistānī used to tailor one sleeve of his garment wider than the other. When he was asked about it he said, “The wider sleeve is for books and the other is not in need of it.” (Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 13:217)
Ibn ʿAqīl said:
إني لا يحل لي أن أضيع ساعة من عمري، حتى إذا تعطل لساني عن مذاكرة أو مناظرة، وبصري عن مطالعة، أعملت فكري في حال راحتي وأنا منطرح، فلا أنهض إلا وقد خطر لي ما أسطره، وإني لأجد من حرصي على العلم وأنا في عشر الثمانين أشد مما كنت أجده وأنا ابن عشرين سنة.
“I am not allowed to waste an hour of my life. Even when my tongue is not engaged in discussion or debate and my eyes are not reading, I use my mind whilst resting and lying down, and I will not get up until I find something useful to write. I still find zeal in my search for knowledge whilst [I am] in the eighth decade of my life more than when I was in my twenties.” (Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, 1:142–162, and Al-Muntaẓam, 9:209–215. Al-Muntaẓam, 9:214, not)
Sulaym ibn Ayyūb used to give much importance to his time. He never wasted it without doing something beneficial. He wrote books, taught lessons or read. (Tabyīn Kadhib al-Muftarī; Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 17:646)
References
Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ar-Rāzī is Abū Ḥātim, whose journeys are recounted by his son ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān Ibn Abī Ḥātim in the introduction to Al-Jarḥ wa-t-Taʿdīl pp. 359 and 363.
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī ؒ (d. 795 AH / 1393 CE), Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, biography of Ibn ʿAqīl.
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī Ibn al-Jawzī ؒ (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE), Al-Muntaẓam fī Tārīkh al-Mulūk wa-l-Umam, 9:214 and 215 for Ibn ʿAqīl’s discussion of time.
Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr ؒ (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE), Al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah, 11:3 for Al-Bukhārī’s nocturnal writing.
Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn ʿAsākir ؒ (d. 571 AH / 1176 CE), Tabyīn Kadhib al-Muftarī fīmā Nusiba ilā al-Imām Abī al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, for Sulaym ar-Rāzī.
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī ؒ (d. 463 AH / 1071 CE), Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq ar-Rāwī wa-Ādāb as-Sāmiʿ, 2:174, report 1524 for Naṣr al-ʿIyāḍī; 2:179, report 1542 for ʿUbayd ibn Yaʿīsh. 2:38 for Jaʿfar ibn Darastawayh, and 2:174 for Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Ibn al-Mubārak, Muḥammad ibn Yūnus and Abū al-ʿĀliyah.
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Marwān ad-Dīnawarī, Al-Mujālasah wa-Jawāhir al-ʿIlm, 1:346 for Dāwūd aṭ-Ṭāʾī.
Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Aṣbahānī ؒ (d. 430 AH / 1038 CE), Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ wa-Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyāʾ.
Adh-Dhahabī, Al-ʿIbar fī Khabar Man Ghabar and Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, 2:600.
Adh-Dhahabī, Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, 3:38 for Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s fish account, compilation cites 1:195 for Shuʿbah’s washing basin and 3:973 for Ibn al-Muqriʾ’s journey.
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal ؒ (d. 241 AH / 855 CE), Al-ʿIlal wa-Maʿrifat ar-Rijāl, narrated by his son ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, report 2515, Shuʿbah’s eighteen months with Al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah.
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād, 2:13 for Mālik and 10:280 for Ibn Khirāsh.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī ؒ (d. 256 AH / 870 CE), Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, hadith 7324 for Abū Hurayrah’s hunger. The omitted passerby placing his foot on his neck is marked by an ellipsis; the excerpt does not identify a medical seizure.
Al-Mushawwiq ilā al-Qirāʾah wa-Ṭalab al-ʿIlm, p. 62 for Al-Khayyāṭ; its exact edition has not been identified.
Shams ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad adh-Dhahabī ؒ (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE), Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, 19:363–364 for Ibn Ṭāhir; 10:578 for Khalaf ibn Hishām; 5:335 for Az-Zuhrī’s forty-five years. 13:217 for Abū Dāwūd and 17:646.
