To what extent will we go to seek knowledge?! Look at how our salaf was dedicated to seeking ilm, many of which whom travelled on foot. Yet nowadays, many of us complain about the difficulty of distance or travel in general, even with having the convenience of a car and other modes of transportation. SubhanAllaah. Imam Ibn Abi Hatim Ar-Razi said while mentioning the travels of his father, the Imaam Abu Hatim in the pursuit of hadith, “I heard my father say, „The first time I travelled to seek hadith, I spent seven years in which I counted the steps I walked which exceeded a thousand leagues - a league is the distance of 1 hour and a half - and then I stopped counting. As for travelling from al-Kufah to Baghdad, that was countless times. From Makkah to Madinah [I travelled] many times. I slipped out from the sea near Madinah [all the way] to Egypt walking, then by foot from Egypt to ar-Ramlah. I then walked from ar- Ramlah to Bayt al-Maqdis and then from ar-Ramlah to Asqalan. I then travelled from Ramlah to Tiberias and from Tiberias to Damascus. Thereafter, I travelled from Damascus to Homs, from Homs to Antakya and then to Tarsus. I then returned from Tarsus and went to Homs. I had some hadith left to hear from Abee Al-Yamaani, so I heard from him. I then left Homs to Bayt Shean and thereafter to Raqqah. I then rode from Raqqah to the Euphrates to Baghdad. Before I departed for Sham, I went to Wasit and then to the Nile. From the Nile I went to al- Kufah. All of that was by foot on my first journey [in pursuit of knowledge] for seven years whilst I was twenty years of age. I departed Rayy in the year 213H in the month of Ramadan, and returned in the year 221H. [Ibn Abi Hatim Ar-Razi, al-Jarh wal-Ta’dil (1/359).]
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 14:34:53 +0000
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