The salaf fear of hypocrisy

Ibn Sireen said: There is nothing I fear more than this verse (interpretation of the meaning): “And of mankind, there are some (hypocrites) who say: ‘We believe in Allaah and the Last Day,’ while in fact they believe not” [al-Baqarah 2:8].

Ayyoob said: Every verse in the Qur’aan which mentions hypocrisy I fear lest it apply to me.

Mu’aawiyah ibn Qurrah said: ‘Umar used to fear it, so how I can feel safe from it?

Imam Ahmad was asked: What do you say about one who does not fear hypocrisy for himself? He said: Who can feel safe from hypocrisy? 

It was narrated that Hanzalah al-Usaydi said: Abu Bakr met me and said: How are you, O Hanzalah? I said: Hanzalah has become a hypocrite. He said: Subhaan Allaah! What are you saying? I said: When we are with the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) he reminds us of the Fire and the Garden until it is as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but when we depart from the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), we attend to our wives and children and businesses, and we forget a great deal. Abu Bakr said: By Allaah, we experience something similar. Abu Bakr and I went and entered upon the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and I said: Hanzalah has become a hypocrite, O Messenger of Allaah. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Why is that?” I said: O Messenger of Allaah, when we are with you, you remind us of the Fire and the Garden until it is as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but when we depart from you, we attend to our wives and children and businesses, and we forget a great deal. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if you continued as you are when you are with me, and continued to remember (Paradise and Hell), the angels would shake hands with you in your homes and on the streets. But, O Hanzalah, there is a time for this and a time for that” (he said it) three times.

Narrated by Muslim (2750). 

Ibn Abi Mulaykah said: I met thirty of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), all of whom feared being hypocrites, and none of them ever said that he had faith equivalent to that of Jibreel and Mikaa’eel. 

al-Ja’d Abu ‘Uthmaan said: I said to Abu Raja’ al-‘Attaaridi: Did you meet anyone whom I met of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) who feared falling into hypocrisy? He said: Yes. Praise be to Allaah I met some of the prominent ones among them, and they used to fear it a great deal.

He entered Paradise without making a single Prostration

Just prior to the conquest of khaybar, a black, Abyssinian slave who resided in Khaybar, was busy herding sheep for his master. ‎When he  saw the citizens of Khaybar taking their weapons, he ‎asked some of them, “What are you intending to do?” They said, "We are about to fight the one who claims he is a Prophet.”The slave suddenly remembered having heard about a prophet.

Being interested in the prophet's message, the slave secretly ‎steered his herd to the Muslim encampment and asked the ‎Messenger of Allah ( )“What do you say? and to what is the you are inviting (people) to follow?” The Prophet ()replied: “I am inviting ‎‎(people) to Islam, to bear witness that none has the right to be ‎worshiped but Allah, and that I am indeed the Messenger of ‎Allah, and to worship none save Allah.” The slave said, “What ‎will I have if I bear witness and believe in Allah The Possessor of Might and Majesty?” The Prophet ( )said: “If you die upon that (upon Islam), you will have Paradise.” The slave embraced Islam and said, “O Messenger of Allah, verily these sheep ‎are trust with me(i.e, they are not mine,so what should I do with them)". The Messenger of Allah ()said: “Release them from your care and send them off through Al-Hasbaa, verily Allah will then ‎fulfill your trust for you.” He did as he was told, and the ‎sheep returned to their master –  who correctly deduced that his ‎slave had embraced Islam and joined the ranks of Muslim army.

Prior to the commencement of the fighting, the Messenger of Allah( )stood up before the people,  admonished them and ‎encouraged them to perform Jihad. During the course of the fighting, one of the people who died was the black Abyssinian slave. The Muslims carried him to their encampment and he was ‎placed in a large tent. It is related that the Prophet ( ) said to his ‎Companions: “Verily, Allah has honored this slave and steered him to Khaybar (for a purpose); I indeed saw beside his ‎head two of the fair Maidens (Hoor al-Ayn who have wide beautiful eyes) of Paradise , and that despite the fact he ‎never performed a single prostration for Allah in prayer.”1

1: Refer to Zaad Al-Ma'ad (3/323, 324), As Seerah An-Nabawiyyah (3/39) and Ibn Katheer's Al Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah 

Examples of Taqwa in the Lives of Early Muslims

The early Muslim community was par excellence in terms of integrity, nobility of character, and engaging in commendable competition to earn the Satisfaction of Allah The Exalted. Taqwa (consciousness of Allah The Almighty) was a prominent and distinguished feature of the lives of the early Muslim community. This great Muslim generation dominated and subdued the whole world due to their courage and striving in the cause of Allah. Their noble morals and manners and virtues spread in the east and west. The Prophet, , the leader of the pious believers and the epitome of Taqwa, used to pray at night until his feet would crack. He used to cry out of his fear of Allah The Exalted and a sound would come from his breast like the rumbling of a mill owing to weeping, although his past and future sins were forgiven. 

Abu Bakr the successor and best friend of the Prophet, , used to say, “I wish I were a tree that is eaten from and then truncated!"

Once, a servant of Abu Bakr, , came to him with some food, and he, , ate some of it. Abu Bakr, , used to ask the servant each time about the origin of the food before eating, but this time he forgot to do so. The servant then asked him, "Why did you not ask me where this food came from?" Abu Bakr, , returned, "From where?" The servant responded, "I practiced fortune telling in the times of Jaahiliyyah (the Period of Ignorance before Islam) for some people and they paid me for it (today)." On hearing this, Abu Bakr, , put his finger into his mouth and forced himself to vomit up the food, until there was nothing left in his stomach. Then, he said, “By Allah, if getting this piece of bread out of my body meant my death, I would have got it out.”

This reflects his Taqwa and fear of Allah The Exalted. ‘Umar, , feared Allah The Almighty and his heart abounded with Taqwa beyond words. He once heard someone reciting the verse that reads (what means): {The Day they are thrust toward the fire of Hell with a [violent] thrust…} [Quran 52:13] On pondering over this verse, ‘Umar, , fell ill for three days and people visited him. Moreover, he once read the verse that reads (what means): {And stop them; indeed, they are to be questioned.} [Quran 37:24] This time he fell ill for a whole month and people visited him.

‘Ali, , used to grab his beard in the darkness of the night and say, “O, vicious world! Do you want to allure me? Go and try your allurements on somebody else. I do not desire to own you and do not want to have you. I have divorced you thrice, an irrevocable divorce. The life of pleasures that you offer is of a very little duration.”

Ibn Mas‘ood, , once went out with some people. He asked them, “Do you need anything from me?” They said, “No, but we love walking with you.” Ibn Mas‘ood, , said, “Go away! This is a humiliation for the follower and a trial for the one who is being followed.”

The great Abbasid Caliph Haaroon Ar-Rasheed, was a great Muslim Caliph who subdued the emperors of the Roman and Persian empires and whose kingdom reached the furthest countries east and west. He went out one day in his luxurious procession. A Jew said to him, “O Commander of the Believers, fear Allah!" Haaroon Ar-Rasheed descended from his mount and prostrated to Allah The Exalted in utter modesty and humility. Then, he talked to the Jew and commanded his men to fulfill his need. Haaroon Ar-Rasheed was then asked about his reaction, he said, “When I heard his words, I remembered the verse that reads (what means): {And when it is said to him, "Fear Allah," pride in the sin takes hold of him. Sufficient for him is Hellfire, and how wretched is the resting place.} [Quran 2:206] I feared that I would be meant by this verse.”

These days many people when they are told to fear Allah The Almighty would feel proud and angry, their eyes would become red with anger and their veins would pop out of their forehead! Ibn Mas‘ood, , said, “Enough is the sin of a man to whom people say, 'Fear Allah', and he would reply, 'Mind your own business, how can a man like you advise a man like me!’”

When the hearts of our predecessors were filled with Taqwa, Allah The Exalted united them, granted them glory and might after being humiliated, and enabled them to conquer countries in the course of fulfilling His promise to them. Allah The Exalted Says (what means): {And if only the people of the cities had believed and feared Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth; but they denied [the messengers], so We seized them for what they were earning.} [Quran 7:96]

Source 

A loaf of bread is sufficient for him

There are numerous stories related concerning Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal's piety, which confirm each other. He would not accept money from governor or ruler due to his piety and when Al-Mutawakkil sent him ten thousand dirhams with one of his chamberlains, the chamberlain said to him: " He send salutations of peace to you and he says to you spend this." But he refused to accept it. The chamberlain said to him: "Oh, Abu 'Abdullah! I fear that your refusal will cause enmity between you and him, so it is in your interest to accept it." And he left it with him and departed. 

Then at the end of the night, Imam Ahmad called his family, his nephews and his dependents and said: "I have not slept this night because of this money." So they sat with him and they wrote the names of those in need among the followers of Hadeeth and others among the inhabitants of Baghdad and Al-Bashrah, then in the morning, he distributed it among the people in fifty, a hundred, and two hundred, leaving not even a dirham. Among those to whom he gave were Abu Kuraib and Abu Sa'red Al-Ashajj. He gave away the bag in which it came and did not give anything of it to his family even though they were in direst o straits and the most urged need. Then his son, Salih came and took a piece of it for his son, and Imam Ahmad- may Allah have mercy on him- said nothing.

The Caliph was informed that he had given the whole of this gift in charity, until nothing remained of it and that he had given the bag in charity. 'Ali bin Jhm said: "Oh, Commander of the faithful! He accepted it from you and gave it in charity on your behalf. What does Ahmad want with money? A loaf of bread is sufficient for him." Upon which, the Caliph replied: "That is true." 

Source: The biography of Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal by Salahuddin Ali Abdul Mawjood