Al-Musayyab ibn Wāḍiḥ said: I heard Ibn al-Mubārak asked, “When a man seeks hadith for Allah’s sake yet insists on having a rigorous chain of transmission, is that acceptable?” He replied, “If he is doing it for Allah, then he is all the more entitled to insist on a rigorous chain.”

From him, too: “When love of this world settles in the heart and sins close in upon it, how will any good ever reach it?”

He also said, “If a man avoids a hundred forbidden matters but neglects to avoid just one, he is not counted among the God-fearing; and if he practices waraʿ (scrupulous caution) in a hundred matters save one, he is not truly scrupulous. Anyone who retains even a single trait of ignorance is classed among the ignorant. Have you not heard Allah’s words to Noah—on account of his son—‘I admonish you lest you be one of the ignorant’ (Hud 11:46)?” Its chain of transmission is not sound. We have already related from Ibn al-Mubārak the opposite view—that the decisive factor is preponderance—and his purpose in mentioning “a trait of ignorance” was persistence in it.

It is reported that Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, “Who are the people?” He answered, “The scholars.” “Who are the kings?” “The ascetics.” “Who are the rabble?” “Khuzaimah and his associates”—meaning certain tyrannical governors. “And who are the lowborn?” “Those who earn their living by trading on their religion.”

He also said, “Let your regular company be the poor, and beware of sitting with a man of bidʿah (religious innovation).”

Ibn al-Mubārak further remarked, “When a man knows his own worth, he considers himself more abased than a dog.”

And he said, “Nothing equals the merit of earning a lawful livelihood for one’s dependants—not even striving in the path of Allah.”