Salamah Ibn Dinar
Encyclopedia
Salamah Ibn Dinar al-Madani (d.ca.757
or 781
), also known as Abu Hazim Al-A'raj, was a Muslim
ascetic, jurist and narrator of hadith from the taba'een generation who became an important figure for the early Sufis. He is often mentioned in works dealing with spirituality and the Islamic practice of zuhd, or rejection of material comforts to pursue personal contemplation and meditation.
on the authority of a group of people which included Sahl ibn Sa'd al-Sā'idi, Abi 'Umāma ibn Sahl, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, Ibn 'Amrū, and others.
, (the caliph) Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik
sent Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri
to summon him, but he said to al-Zuhri: 'As he (Sulaymān) has a need with me, let him come to me. As for me, I have no need with him.'"
, Zayn al-'Ābidin.
757
Year 757 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 757 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.-Africa:* Foundation of the city of Sijilmasa by the...
or 781
781
Year 781 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 781 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Asia :* July 31 – The oldest recorded eruption...
), also known as Abu Hazim Al-A'raj, was a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
ascetic, jurist and narrator of hadith from the taba'een generation who became an important figure for the early Sufis. He is often mentioned in works dealing with spirituality and the Islamic practice of zuhd, or rejection of material comforts to pursue personal contemplation and meditation.
Biography
It is said that he narrated ahadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
on the authority of a group of people which included Sahl ibn Sa'd al-Sā'idi, Abi 'Umāma ibn Sahl, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, Ibn 'Amrū, and others.
Quotes
Many of Salamah ibn Dinar's words of wisdom and advice for spiritual development have been recorded and contemplated by later generations of Muslims. For example, he is recorded as saying:- Everything which does not bring you to AllahAllahAllah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
can only bring you to destruction.
- If you are satisfied from the life of this world (dunyaDunyaDunyā is a word in Arabic which means, in Islamic terminology, the temporal world—and its earthly concerns and possessions—as opposed to the eternal spiritual realm, or the hereafter . Dunyā literally means 'closer' or 'lower'...
) with what is sufficient for you, then the minimum is sufficient, But if you are not satisfied with what is sufficient, then nothing can satisfy you.
- The goods of the Hereafter are a dead stock now, you should buy as much as you can of them because on the day when they are saleable you can't have anything of them.
- Indeed, the servant does good that gladdens him when he does it, and nothing Allāh creates for him of ill is more harmful for him than that. And the servant does ill that ails him when he does it, and nothing Allāh creates for him of good is more beneficial for him than that. That is because the servant, when he does the good that gladdens him, has high expectations through it, and he sees that he has abundance beyond others apart from him; and it may be that Allāh will pull it down, and pull down many actions along with it. And indeed, the servant does an act of ill that ails him when he does it, and Allāh may bring about in him a dread and shame (wajal) until he meets Allāh most high, all the while the fear of it is in his awe, down in his very gut.
Sunni view
Ahmed, Abū Hātam, al-'Ajali and, al-Nisā'i regarded him as trustworthy. Ibn Khuzayma said: "He (Salamah) was reliable and none in his time was like him." Ibn Sa'd said: "While he (Salamah) was giving legal decisions in the Mosque of MedinaMedina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
, (the caliph) Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik
Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik
Sulayman bin Abd al-Malik was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 715 until 717. His father was Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and he was a younger brother of the previous caliph, al-Walid I.-Early years:...
sent Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri
Al-Zuhri
For the hadith scholar Al-Zuhri see Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri.Mohammed Ibn Abu Bakr al-Zuhri of Granada was a geographer. He was the writer of a notable work, Kitab al-Jaghrafiyya . Al-Zuhri was able to use the writings of the geographers of the reign of Caliph Al-Ma'mun of Baghdad For the hadith...
to summon him, but he said to al-Zuhri: 'As he (Sulaymān) has a need with me, let him come to me. As for me, I have no need with him.'"
Shi'a view
Shaykh al-Tūsi numbered him as one of the companions of the fourth Shia ImamImam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
, Zayn al-'Ābidin.