priceless that they valued it above all else in the world. For its sake they had given up their business, their homes and their kinsfolk; to defend it they had laid down their lives. To carry this blessing, this greatest gift of God, to other people had become the supreme object of their lives; hence a dissemination of its knowledge was their first and fore-most concern. In addition to this, the great Master had laid on those who were present, on those who saw him and listened to his words, the duty of carrying what they saw and heard, to those who were absent, to those who came after him. “Let him who is present carry this to him who is absent”, was the phrase which on account of the frequency of its repetition rang continually in their ears. And they were faithful to the great charge which was laid on them. They travelled eastward and westward, northward and southward, and in whichever direction they went, and whichever country they reached, they carried with them the Holy Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth. Everyone of them who had but the knowledge of one incident relating to the Holy Prophet’s life deemed it his duty to deliver it to another. And individuals like ‘Ā’ishah, Abū Hurairah, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Amr, Anas ibn Mālik and many others who had made the preservation of the Sayings and Practice of the Holy Prophet the first object of their lives, became, as it were, centres to whom people resorted from different quarters of the kingdom of Islām to gain knowledge of Islām and its Holy Prophet. Their places of residence became in fact so many colleges for the dissemination of the knowledge of Ḥadīth. Abū Hurairah alone had eight hundred disciples. ‘Ā’ishah’s house, too, was resorted to by hundreds of ardent pupils. The reputation of ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās was equally great and, notwithstanding his youth, he was one of the foremost among the counsellors of ‘Umar, on account of his knowledge of the Holy Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth. The zeal of the new generation for the acquisition of knowledge was so great that students were wont to travel from one place to another to complete their religious studies, and some would journey long distances to obtain first-hand information about one ḥadīth only. 17
17 It is reported that Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh travelled from Madīnah to Syria for the sake of a single ḥadīth (FB. I, p. 158). It was a month’s journey as Jābir himself states (Bu. 3:19). Bukhārī’s famous commentary, ‘Fatḥ al-Bārī, relates several incidents of the same type. Abū Ayyūb Anṣārī, for instance, is related to have undertaken a long journey to hear a saying of the Holy Prophet from ‘Aqabāh ibn ‘Āmir. Sa‘īd ibn Musayyab is reported to have said that he used to travel for days and nights in search of a single saying. Another Companion of the Holy Prophet is said to have undertaken a journey to Egypt for the sake of one ḥadīth. The zeal of the next generation was equally great. Abul ‘Āliyāh is reported to have said: “We heard of a saying of the Holy Prophet but we were not satisfied until we went to the Companion concerned in person and heard it from him direct” (FB. I, p. 159). AD. reports that Abū al-Dardā’ was sitting in a mosque in Damascus when a man came to him and questioned him about a ḥadīth, saying at the same time that he had come for no other object but the verification of a ḥadīth which he (Abū al-Dardā’) related (AD. 24:1).