Fath al-Rabbani

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Talhah bin Ubaidullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The members of this household—Abdullah, Abu Abdullah, and Umm Abdullah—are all good people.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: My father married me to a Qurayshi woman. When I entered upon her, I did not pay her any attention nor gave her any time, because I had been given great strength to worship in the form of fasting and prayer. When Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) came to his daughter-in-law and asked her: How did you find your husband? She said: He is the best man, or he is the best husband; he neither sought my company nor recognized my bed (meaning, due to being occupied in worship, he did not even come near his wife). Hearing this, my father turned to me, reproached me greatly, and spoke harshly, saying: I married you to a Qurayshi woman of noble lineage, and you have separated yourself from her and have done such and such. Then he went to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and complained about me to him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called me, and I came to him. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Do you fast during the day? I said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And do you stand in prayer at night? I said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: But I fast and I break my fast, I pray and I sleep, and I fulfill the rights of my wives. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not from me.

Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Complete the recitation of the Qur’an in a month. I said: I find myself stronger than that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then complete it in ten days. I said: I consider myself stronger than that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then complete it in three days. In another narration: Complete the recitation in seven days and do not do more than that. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Fast three days in every month. I said: I am stronger than that. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) kept increasing for me until he said: Fast one day and break your fast the next day; these are the best fasts, and these are the fasts of my brother Dawud (peace be upon him).

Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Every worshipper has zeal and eagerness, then after every eagerness comes slackness and deficiency. Its end is either towards the Sunnah or towards innovation. So, whoever’s end is towards the Sunnah, he will be guided, and whoever’s end is in another form, he will be destroyed.

Imam Mujahid says: When Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) became weak and old, he would fast according to that amount; sometimes he would fast several days consecutively, then break his fast for the same number of days consecutively, and his purpose in this was to gain strength. Similarly, he would do with his Qur’anic portion; some nights he would recite more, and some nights less, but the total amount would be the same, either completing the Qur’an in seven days or in three days.

And Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say later: If I had accepted the concession of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), it would have been more beloved to me than anything in the world that could be compared to it. But now, I dislike to oppose the routine of action upon which I parted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) says: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: I have been informed that you stand in prayer all night and fast every day. I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah! He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Fast sometimes and leave it sometimes, and stand in prayer at night and also sleep, because your body has a right over you, your wife has a right over you, and your guest has a right over you. Fast three days in a month, that is sufficient for you. But I was strict, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was also strict with me. I said: O Messenger of Allah! I have strength for more than that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then fast three days every week. But I was strict, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was also strict with me, and I said: O Messenger of Allah! I have the strength to fast more than that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then fast like the Prophet Dawud (peace be upon him) and do not increase upon that. I said: O Messenger of Allah! How did Dawud (peace be upon him) fast? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He would fast one day and leave fasting the next day.

Yahya bin Hakim bin Safwan narrates that Abdullah bin Amr bin As said: I memorized the entire Qur’an and then recited it in one night. So the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: I fear that time will become prolonged for you and you will become weary, so complete the Qur’an in one month. He says, I said: O Messenger of Allah! Grant me permission, let me benefit from my strength and youth. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Complete the Qur’an in twenty days. I said: O Messenger of Allah! Grant me permission, let me benefit from my strength and youth. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Complete it in ten days. I said: O Messenger of Allah! Grant me permission, let me benefit from my strength and youth. He said: Complete the Qur’an in seven days. I said: O Messenger of Allah! Grant me permission that I may benefit from my strength and youth, so the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, refused to grant permission to complete the Qur’an in less than that period.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: Whatever I heard from the Messenger of Allah, I used to write it down with the intention of memorizing it. But the Quraysh forbade me from this and said: You write down whatever you hear from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), even though the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a human being; sometimes he speaks in a state of anger and sometimes in a normal state. So I stopped writing down his words, but when I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: You should write, by the One in whose hand is my soul, nothing comes out of my mouth except the truth.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: No companion had more knowledge of the hadiths of the Messenger than me except Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him), and the reason for this was that he used to write down the hadiths and memorize them, while I only memorized them orally and did not write them. He sought permission from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to write down the hadiths, so he granted him permission.

(Second chain) It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: No man had more knowledge of hadith than me except Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him), and the reason for this was that he used to write down the hadith, and I did not write.

It is narrated from Hanzala bin Khuwailid Anbari, he says: I was present with Sayyiduna Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) when two men came to him and started arguing about the head of Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him), each claiming that he had killed him. Upon hearing their words, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Each of you may take pride in this deed of his, but I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say that the rebellious group will kill him. After hearing this hadith from him, Sayyiduna Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: If this is the case, then why do you support us? He replied: My father had complained about me to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: As long as your father is alive, continue to obey him. Because of this hadith, I am with you people, but still, I do not take part in the fighting.

It is narrated from Abdullah bin Abi Hazil, who narrates from a Sheikh of the tribe of Nakha’, who says: I entered the mosque of Ilya (i.e., Bayt al-Maqdis) and performed two rak‘ahs of prayer behind a pillar. Another man also came and prayed near me. People flocked towards him. He was Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him). The envoy of Yazid bin Muawiyah came to summon him, so he said: He forbids me from narrating hadith, just as his father used to forbid me. I heard your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicating with these words: “I seek refuge in You from a soul that is never satisfied, from a heart that does not humble, from a supplication that is not heard, and from knowledge that does not benefit.”