The life of the predecessors between speech and action 1-2

Authorship: Ahmed bin Nasser Al-Tayyar Part of the introduction - In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Praise be to Allah who favored us and made us the best of nations, and sent to us a Messenger, purifying him with the best morals and greatest values. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, who bestowed upon this nation abundant blessings and the most beautiful bounties. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, whoever follows his guidance reaches the highest peaks, and whoever deviates from his path will taste humiliation, abasement, and regret. May Allah send peace and blessings upon him, his family, and his companions, the masters of Arabs and non-Arabs, and grant them abundant peace until the Day of Judgment. As for what follows: Our noble scholars have left us many sciences in various fields, until they wrote about conduct, morals, politics, logic, medicine, and other beneficial sciences. Thanks to Allah and then to them for documenting these sciences and the effects of those who preceded them. If it weren’t for the compilations of the experiences of the ancients, the efforts of others would have been lost to forgetfulness. And among what they wrote and compiled are books that gather the sayings and states of the righteous predecessors— the Companions, the Followers, and their followers. There is no doubt that the words of the early scholars have a greater impact and benefit than the words of those who came after them, because they are from the most virtuous centuries, which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, testified to their goodness, saying: "The best of people are my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow the latter." If a Muslim frequently reads their books and continually reflects on their words and states, he will gain great benefit, and its effect will appear in his morals and conduct. His stature and acceptance among people will increase. People’s need for role models is very urgent, especially in this time when fitnas, temptations, and doubts are widespread, and Western and Eastern values that deviate from the natural fitrah have spread. No matter how much a Muslim strives to reform himself, his morals, and his heart, he will find difficulty and hardship. Our greatest role models in our religion, morals, and outward and inward righteousness—after the prophets, especially our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—are the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and the Followers who follow them with goodness, especially in the most virtuous centuries. If we cannot see them, sit with them, or mingle with them, we have, thank Allah, access to many of their stories and biographies, as if we are living with them and sitting with them, which has a significant impact on our righteousness and influence from them. The ultimate knowledge of our scholars today is to learn from their knowledge, and the highest good of our doers is to emulate their lives. The best thing a speaker can do when hearing a hadith is to look into their books, so it is as if he is dialoguing with them, and from them he listens. But what we find in their books is the extracted (2) of their opinions and the selected (3) of their hadiths. My aim with this book is to present and highlight what our righteous predecessors, may Allah be pleased with them, were like in their morals and lives; so that a Muslim can live the life of his righteous predecessors, observe their good manners, their great acts of worship, the purity of their hearts, their sincerity, their sound beliefs, and other qualities that increase his motivation and urge him to follow their example and cling to their traces. With time, he will notice a clear change in his condition, heart, conduct, and morals. I have taken care to purify and clear everything falsely attributed to them or any mistakes they committed out of effort and good intention.