Salafi Research Institute SRI
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Sufyān al-Thawri said:
“I do not know an act of worship better than teaching the people knowledge”
[al-Madkhal by al-Bayhaqī 471 with Ḥasan Isnād]
al-Shāfi’ī said
“Seeking knowledge is better than voluntary prayers”
[al-Madkhal by al-Bayhaqī 474 with Ṣaḥīḥ Isnād]
Ibn al-Mubārak said:
“I never saw a person noble like Mālik bin Anas even though he didn’t have a lot of prayer or fasting except that he had secret (good deeds)”
[Ḥilyat al-Awliyā; Ḥasan Isnād]
al-Dhahabī commented:
“What he had from knowledge and spreading it was better than voluntary fasting and praying for whom intends by it (pleasure of) Allah”
[Siyar a’lām al-Nubalā 8/97]
Ishāq al-Kawsaj said:
I asked Aḥmad regarding the one who says ‘revising knowledge part of the night is more beloved to me than staying awake (and praying)’. He said “(It means) the knowledge which the people benefit thereby in their religion.” I asked: Wuḍū, Ṣalāh, Ṣawm, Ḥajj, Ṭalāq and so on? He said: “Yes.” Ishāq (bin Rāhūyah) said: It is as he said
[Masāil al-Kawsaj 3310]
