ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (118 AH/736 CE – 181/797) was an early, pious Muslim who wore many hats in society: merchant, fighter (mujāhid), scholar, and ḥadīth transmitter. His father Mubārak, who was Turkic from Khurāsān, became a client (mawlá) of an Arab trader in Hamadhān, but settled in Marv, and sources mention that his mother was of Khwārizmian descent. When he was 20 years old, Ibn al-Mubārak moved from Marv to Hamadhān where he married the daughter of his father’s Arab patron. He would often travel to Baghdād in order to preach, but as a merchant he traveled widely to Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Baṣra, and Kūfa. He would also venture to the Byzantine frontier where he would engage in martial pursuits, where he was eventually killed in battle around the locale of Hīt, located near the Euphrates. al-Mubārak studied under scholars such as al-Awzāʿī (d. 177/774), Mālik bin Anas (d. 179/795), and Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/772), all of whom are considered legalists (i.e. individuals who dealt with Islamic jurisprudence), but studied ḥadīth under Maʿmar bin Rāshid (d. 153/770) and Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/777). Apart from his exemplary piety, ibn al-Mubārak was known for writing two works, Kitāb al-Jihād (Book of Striving) and the Kitāb al-Zuhd wa al-Raqā’iq (Book of Zuhd and Subtleties/Things that Soften the Heart), the latter being the first of many books to bear the title Kitāb al-Zuhd written by later authors such as: Wakī’ bin al-Jarrāḥ (d. 197/813), Muʿāfa bin ʿImrān al-Mūṣilī (d. 185/801 or 204/819), Asad bin Mūsá (d. 212/827), Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), and Hannād bin al-Sarrī (d. 243/857).

Feryal Salem’s dissertation on Ibn al-Mubārak provides illuminating biographical information and situates him within the context of 2nd/8th century Syria where there began to form an expression of Islam commonly referred to by contemporary scholars as Proto-Sunnism. She examines the scholarly circles that Ibn al-Mubārak was a part of and elucidates how his work and religiosity, regarding both zuhd and jihād, would serve later manifestations of Islam. Ibn al-Mubārak was so highly regarded for his work in ḥadīth that he was called the Amīr al-Mu’minīn fī al-Ḥadīth (Commander of the Faithful Concerning Prophetic Reports). It is important to keep in mind that ibn al-Mubārak, like Sufyān bin al-Thawrī and Abū Ḥanīfa, was a wealthy merchant, which may seem peculiar given that al-Mubārak and al-Thawrī are known for their scrupulousness regarding the tenets of their faith and their zuhd. Hence we begin to see that translations of zuhd as asceticism, renunciation, or abstention are problematic because they fail to encompass the multiple facets of this expression of piety. I have written (a little) more on this subject in my earlier post about the Kitāb al-Zuhd of Wakīʿ, but hope that the following translations will help shed light on the multifarious manifestations of Early Islamic piety.

The book is comprised of 1,203 reports (akhbār) and sayings of Muḥammad (ḥadīth). I am translating from the following edition: Ibn Al-Mubārak, ʻAbd Allāh. Al-Zuhd Wa-al-raqāʼiq. Edited by Aḥmad Farīd. Al-Ṭabʻah 1. ed. Al-Riyāḍ: Dār Al-Miʻrāj Al-Dawlīyah, 1995.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, ʻAbd Allāh. Al-Zuhd Wa-al-raqāʼiq. Edited by Aḥmad Farīd. Al-Ṭabʻah 1. ed. Al-Riyāḍ: Dār Al-Miʻrāj Al-Dawlīyah, 1995, pp 103-122.

Kitāb al-Zuhd wa al-Raqā’iq

In the Name of God the Beneficent and Merciful

Section

Encouraging the Obedience of God (al-Taḥḍīḍu ʿalá Ṭāʿati Allāhi), the Glorified and Exalted

1. ʿAbd Allāh bin Sa‘īd bin Abū Hind reported to us on the authority of his father, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās, may God be satisfied with them, who said: “The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘There are two deceitful benefits that many people are concerned with: health and leisure (al-ṣiḥḥah wa al-farāgh).’”

2. Jaʿfar bin al-Burqān reported to us on the authority of Ziyād bin al-Jarrāḥ on the authority of ʿAmr bin Maymūn al-Awdá, who said: “The prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said to a man while he was preaching: ‘Take advantage of these five things, before five [other things]: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your leisure before your preoccupation, and your life before your death.’”

3. Kahmas bin al-Ḥasan reported to us on the authority of Abū al-Salīl on the authority of ʿAnīm bin Qays, who said: “We preached in the beginning of Islam four things. We would say: ‘Put to use your youth for the sake of your old age, your leisure for the sake of your preoccupation, your health for the sake your sickness, and your life for the sake of your death.’”

4. Shuʿbah reported to us on the authority of Saʿīd bin Abū Burda on the authority of his father on the authority of Abū Mūsá al-Ashʿarī, who said: “We do not await anything from the world except either grief or trial, [both of] which are expected.”

5. Ḥanẓalah bin Abū Sufyān reported to us on the authority of Aṭṭā’ bin Abū Ribbāḥ who said: ʿAbd allah bin Masʿūd said: “There is nothing more uncertain in the world, than the world itself.”

6. Maʿmar bin Rāshid reported to us on the authority of [someone] who heard al-Maqbrá speak on the authority of Abū Hurayrah on the authority of the prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “None of you should expect anything except a misleading wealth, or a neglected poverty, or a corrupting sickness, or a doubt-ridden senility, or a ready death, or the impostor (al-dajjāl), for he is a hidden evil that awaits, or the hour of judgment, [for] ‘the hour is more disastrous and more bitter.’ Q 54:46”

7. ʿAbd al-Wārith bin Saʿīd Abū ʿUbayd reported to us on the authority of a man on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that he used to say: “Oh son of Adam! Beware of procrastination (al-taswīf)! Verily, today is upon you, so do not concern yourself with tomorrow. [After today], if you have a tomorrow, then be wise then just as you were wise today. For if you do not have a tomorrow, then you will not regret what you neglected today.” There reported to me others, regarding al-Ḥasan, who said that he used to say: “I knew people, one of whom was more cautious in regards to his life than with his dirhams and dinars.”

8. Misʿar bin Kudām reported to us. He said: ʿAwn bin ʿAbd Allāh reported to me. He said: Abū al-Dardā’ said: “Whoever searchers will fail to find, and whoever does not maintain patience for the tragedy of the affairs [of this life] is weak.”

9. Misʿar reported to me on the authority of Maʿn on the authority of ʿAwn bin ʿAbd Allāh that he used to say: “How many are they who confront a day they have yet to complete while waiting for tomorrow, which has not reached them. Were you to [rightly] wait for your appointed time of death and its departure, then you would despise hope and its deceptions.”

10. On the authority of Shuʿba bin al-Ḥajāj on the authority of Abū Isḥaq, who said: It was said by a man from ʿAbd al-Qays during his sickness, he prescribed to us: “I caution you against the future.”

11. On the authority of Sufyān on the authority of Layth on the authority of Mujāhid on the authority of Ibn ʿAmr, who said: “The messenger [of God] seized my body and he said: ‘Be as though you were estranged from the world or transient when moving through it, and commit yourself to the people of the sepulchers.’ He said, and Ibn ʿUmar said: ‘If you enter into the morning, then do not preoccupy yourself with the evening, and if you enter into the evening, then do not preoccupy yourself with the morning. And take from your health before you become ill, and from your life before your death. For you do not know, oh servant of God, what will befall you tomorrow.’”

12. Jarīr bin Ḥāzim reported to us: He said I heard al-Ḥasan say: “If you so desire, then behold someone who has sagacity [concerning religious matters], then [you will see] someone who has no patience, and if you see someone who is in possession of patience, then he is over yonder.” {The meaning here is that one who has a keen perception of religious tenets does not necessarily maintain a tolerance for the miseries of the world. This is a critique against those who are only concerned with mastering religious knowledge.}

13. Jaʿfar bin Hiyān reported to us on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning the speech of God, the powerful and almighty: “And those who give what they give” Q 23:70. He said “They give what they give [then he quoted more of the verse] “while their hearts are fearful” Q 23:70.” He said: “These [people] commit actions that are pious works, however they fear that these works will not save them from the torment of their lord, the powerful and almighty.”

14. ʿAbd al-Raḥman bin Yazīd bin Jābir reported to us that ʿUmar bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wrote to Yazīd bin ʿAbd al-Malik: “Beware of time along with heedlessness, for a false step is not announced, and it is not possible to revert it, and whoever follows you [after your death] will not praise you for what you left [behind], and he will not excuse you for what you occupied yourself with while healthy.”

15. Sufyān reported to us on the Authority of al-ʿAlā’ bin al-Masīb on the authority of Ibrāhīm that ʿAbd Allāh bin Masʿūd said: “There is no leisure for the believers outside of meeting God, the powerful and almighty, and whoever’s leisure is in encountering God, then it is as if he already [is encountering him].”

16. Jarīr bin Ḥāzim reported to us, he said: I heard al-Ḥasan say: “Oh people! Endurance is endurance, and verily God did not grant, regarding the actions of man, a duration without death.”

17. Al-Mubārak bin Faḍāla reported to us on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning the speech of God, the powerful and almighty “And worship your lord until there arrives to you, certainty” Q 15:99, he said: “[The certainty] of death.”

18. On the authority of al-Ḥasan that he said: “If Shayṭān looks at you, and so he sees you persisting in obedience of God, then he covets you. Thus, if he sees you persisting he becomes weary of you and he dismisses you. And if he sees you doing this time and time again, then covets you.”

19. Shuʿba reported to us on the authority of Zabīd on the authority of Murrah who said: ʿAbd Allāh said: “When the servant is in his prayer, then he is knocking on the door of the king and if he persists in knocking on the door of the king, then he will hurry to open it for him.”

20a. He said, and Murrah said ʿAbd Allāh said concerning this verse [from the Qur’ān] “Fear god as he should be feared” Q 3:102. He said “The truth of his fear is to obey and not to disobey, to be thankful and not to disbelieve, and to remember and not to forget.”

20b. And Murrah said ʿAbd Allāh said: “The night prayer is preferable to the afternoon, just as a gift [given in] secrecy is preferable than [in] openness.”

20c. And Murrah said: ʿAbd Allāh, [concerning the verse] “He gives his property despite his love for it” Q 2:177, he said: “You, who are eager towards niggardliness, hope for wealth and fear poverty.”

21. Muʿammar reported to us on the authority of ibn Ṭāwūs on the authority of his father on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās that he passed by some people and his sight fell upon them gazing at stone [idols]. And he said: “For what were these created?” They said: “For gazing at stones.” And he said: “The works of God are more powerful than these.”

22. Yaḥyá bin ʿUbayd Allāh reported to us. He said: I heard my father say: I heard Abā Hurayrah say: I heard the messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, say: “I have not seen anything like the fire [of hell], yet its fugitives sleep, and likewise I have not seen anything like the gardens of paradise, yet also its seekers sleep.”

23. Ismāʿīl bin Muslim reported to us on the authority of al-Ḥasan. He said Harim bin Hiyān said: “I have not seen anything like the fire [of hell], yet its fugitives sleep, and likewise I have not seen anything like the gardens of paradise, yet also its seekers sleep.”

24. ʿĪsá bin ʿUmar reported to us. He said: ʿAmr bin ʿAtbah bin Farqad was riding on his horse and he spent the night in the graveyard. Then he said: “Oh people of the sepulchers, I had rolled up the pages of the manuscript and I had removed [from myself my] concerns.” First, he cried, then he stood on his feet until morning, [after which] he withdrew and attended the Morning Prayer.”

25. Ibrāhīm bin Nashīṭ al-Waʿlānī reported to us. He said: I heard Qays bin Rāfiʿ or someone else, on the authority of the Mawwalī of ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAmr bin al-ʿĀṣ that ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAmr looked at cemetery and while he looked at it he got down then he prayed two Rakaʿ, then it was said to him: “Is this something which you fabricated?” He said: then he said: “I remembered the people of the graves and what had happened among them, for I endeavor to increase my proximity to God through them.”