A Book From the Age of the Great Imams
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Welcome. Long before the great libraries of Baghdad were full, when Islam was only two centuries old, a scholar sat down to write about one thing. Love for the Qur’an.
His name was Abu Ubayd, al-Qasim ibn Sallam. He was born in Herat, in what is now Afghanistan, the son of a slave. And he rose to become one of the greatest scholars of his age. A master of the Arabic language, of hadith, of law, and of the Qur’an.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal spoke of him with great respect. He was a judge, a teacher, and a man of worship. It is said that he divided his nights into three parts. One third for prayer, one third for sleep, and one third for writing.
Among his many books is one of the very earliest works on the virtues of the Qur’an that has survived. In it, he gathered what the Prophet ﷺ, his companions, and the generation after them said about the Book of Allah.
Reading it is like being invited into the homes and mosques of the first Muslims, and hearing how they spoke about the Qur’an.
Not as a book on a shelf, but as the most precious thing in their lives.
