And obey Allah and the Messenger that you may obtain mercy.

(Born- 118 A.H/736CE – Died- 181 A.H/797CE)

The Beginning of his quest

Qadi Abu’l-Fadl said that as-Sadafi mentioned, “When Ibn al-Mubarak came of age, his father sent him 50,000 to use for commerce. He sought after knowledge until he had spent the money. When it was gone, his father met him and said, ‘What have you bought?’ He brought out his books for him and said, ‘This is my trade.’ His father went into the house and gave him 30,000 dirhams more and said, ‘Take this and follow your trade with them,’ and he spent them.”

Ibn al-Mubarak said, “I studied adab {Manners} for thirty years and I studied ‘Ilm (knowledge) for twenty years.”

Ibn Hanbal said, “In the time of Ibn al-Mubarak, there was no one who sought after knowledge more than him. He went to the Yemen, Egypt, Syria, the Hijaz, Basra and Kufa, and whoever related knowledge and was worthy of it. He wrote from young men and old men. He omitted what was rare. He gave hadiths from books.”

Ibn Waddah said, “Ibn al-Mubarak related about 25,000 hadiths.

Ibn al-Mubarak was asked, “Up until when did you study knowledge?”

He said, “I hope that you will find me doing that until I die.”

Some of His Wisdoms, Poetry and WitHe said:
“Fight your tongue. The tongue is quick to kill a man. The tongue is the posting of the heart. It shows man his intellect.”

He said,

“I see that some people are content with the least of the deen,
but I do not see them pleased with meagerness in this life.

Be rich with Allah, independent of the world of the kings as the kings are free of the deen with their worldly things.”

He said:

“People’s enjoyment of worship and taqwa is the sweetest bliss, not the pleasure of the wine.

Their sources enjoy it for all their lives, and they, by Allah,have provision until they reach the graves.

In a moment they obtain might and taqwa.
Does not the enjoyment of life lie in piety and steadfastness?”

He said:

“I see every life as unhappy and miserable except for planting the spear in the shade of the horseAnd standing in the dark nights, vigilant,
guarding the people in the furthest outpost.”

A man came to Ibn al-Mubarak and said to him, “May Allah be pleased with you! Describe for me those who are wild and distracted by love of Allah. He replied, “They are as I will tell you:

Alert, on mounts as if they were a caravan desiring to pass, that is how they are moved.

Their limbs are restrained from every foul action.Truthfulness is their school, as well as Zuhd and fear.“
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Az-Zuhd is, “The opposite of being eager and concerned about the Dunya (the life of this world).”Further, ibn Al-Qayyim said,”Az-Zuhd, in the Arabic language, the language of Islam, entails abandoning a matter while despising it and while belittling its significance, so that one will exchange it for what is more significant.”The Muslim ancestors who set good examples in the application of Islam have various opinions with regards to the meaning of Az-Zuhd. Ibn Al-Qayyim for example said,”I heard Shaikh Al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah say, ‘Az-Zuhd entails abandoning what does not bring about benefit in the Hereafter. Al-Wara’ (abandoning a part of the permissible for fear of falling into the impermissible) entails abandoning what you fear its consequences in the Hereafter.

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Another person asked him to describe the fearful. He said:

“When the night is darkest, they endure it,
and it travels from them while they are still bowing.

Fear dispelled their sleep, so they stood alert while the people of security
in this world were sleeping peacefully.

While they are prostrating under the cloak the darkness,
their groan pierces their ribs.

They are mute in the day by the length of their silence.
They have tranquillity from their humility.”

He also composed:

“Seize the two rak’ats of nearness if you are free and at rest.

When you desire to speak about the false, put glorification in its place.

Seizing silence is better than plunging,
even if you are eloquent in speech.”

One of the men who kept the company of Ibn al-Mubarak, inclined to this world and also kept the Sultan’s company.

Abullah Ibn al-Mubarak met him one day and greeted him and said to him,”My brother! All is from rice, wheat and barley bread, And it crushes.

O person! Allah has guided you from the amir’s abode, So do not visit it!Avoid it it!

They are false sparks.

It takes away the deen and brings you near to great wrong action.”

The man was ashamed and left the Sultan’s company and returned to Abullah Ibn al-Mubarak’s company.Ibn al-Mubarak used to say, “The beginning of knowledge is the intention, then listening, then understanding, then action, then preservation, and then spreading it.”

It was said, “He went on hajj one year and raiding the next year. Whenever he came to Madina, he said to its shaykhs among the people of knowledge and decrease. Whoever wants to go on hajj, come out with me. Their provision is enough for them. He did the same when he went on raids.”

Al-Fasawi the worshipper said, “I was with Ibn al-Mubarak raiding on a cold, rainy night. He wept and I said, ‘Are you weeping for the like of this?’He said, “I am weeping for the previous nights which did not have the like of this hardship so that we could be rewarded for them.”

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~http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/ibnal-mubarak.htm~http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/purification/0067.htm