A Pearl of Wisdom from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Būrī

Qārī Ṣiddīq al-Bāndawī (Allah have mercy on him) related that his teacher Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Būrī (Allah have mercy on him) said:

“As I prepared to travel from my village to Saharanpur for studies at Maẓāhir al-ʿUlūm, I went to all my teachers and greeted them before I set out. I bid farewell to every one of them except for one. I looked for him but could not find him. He was one of the teachers who I studied the elementary subjects with early on. When I reach Saharanpur, I started to attend classes and study. However, I did not understand anything, even though I was generally considered to be intelligent. I started to reflect on this situation. Then, Allah guided me to writing a letter to the teacher who I did not see before leaving. I wrote to him, apologized for not meeting him, and requested his prayers.

I sent the letter. And soon after, I received one in return. My teacher wrote: ‘I thought that you considered me unimportant and thus did not bother to meet me. However, your letter clarified to me that it is not so.’ And at the end of the letter he included several prayers for me.

Thereafter, Allah made my studies easy and successful. Eventually, I went on to teach Sunan al-Tirmidhī. This was because of the respect that I had for my teachers.”