A Day in the Life of a Scholar: Imaam Ibn Baaz

Just compare his day to your average day…subhanAllah. It’s difficult to complain that there is not “enough time,” and we don’t have “enough energy,” when you hear of how scholars like Shaykh ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, and Imam an Nawawi, and Imaam Ibn Baaz, rahimahumullah, spent just one day.

Shaikh Muhammad al-Musaa said, “Once when we were in Makkah, the Shaikh was called to participate in a da’wah gathering in Jeddah by someone dear to him, and he insisted that his eminence be present immediately after maghrib prayer, so the Shaikh said, ‘Good, inshaa Allaah.’

When the Shaikh prayed maghrib he felt it difficult upon himself to leave his established sitting with the people from maghrib to Ishaa, so he said, ‘We won’t go now and leave the people.  I have to sit with them up until Ishaa and tend to their needs and their demands,’ so he remained with them [in his house].

Then the mu’adhhin pronounced the call to prayer for ishaa and he went to the mosque, and delivered his regular [short] lesson before ishaa [i.e., between the iqaamah and the adhaan] and answered some questions.  Then he prayed ishaa and headed to Jeddah, and he was overjoyed and pleased at having sat with the people and not having left them behind.

[When he got to Jeddah] he listened to a detailed explanation of the da’wah project and its activities and then entered the lecture hall which was teeming with people and listened to all of the speeches and poetry that was read.  He then gave a lecture and after that had dinner and returned to Makkah.

On our way to Jeddah and back to Makkah, I, Dr. ash-Shuwai’ir, and the brother Saalih took turns to read to him, with not a single minute wasted.

When we got to his house in Makkah it was midnight and it was from the Shaikh’s habits to stand to pray the night prayer at about three in the morning.  He would always wake me and Shaikh Abdul-Aziz ibn Naasir, wake us for the night prayer so that we could have our share of [prayer during] the night.  So this time [it having been a long day] we were sure that he would not wake up and would leave us to sleep.  Yet the set time for him to stand to pray hadn’t come except that he was there waking us up to stand for the night prayer.

He continued to pray, and supplicate and recite until the call to prayer for fajr and then went to the mosque, the al-Qattaan mosque which was next to us, and this was before the Shaikh’s own mosque was built.

The Imaam was late and so Shaikh Ibn Baaz led us in prayer with a voice more beautiful and more humble than which you will not have heard.  When he gave salaam he turned to face the people and thanked Allaah and extolled Him and then gave them a talk.  Upon finishing he went home and we said, ‘The Shaikh is exhausted and has been up all night, maybe he will not sit after fajr.’

He went to his sitting room, put his scarf and hat to the side, sat down and said, ‘Bismillaah.  What do you have?’  So I started to read the requests/matters he had to deal with to him, and I could see comfort, energy and joy in him that would cause one to wonder in amazement. I carried on reading to him until 7:20 a.m. approximately,  and thought that he would thereafter have a long sleep, when instead he said, ‘Set the alarm clock for 8:20.’

So we woke him up at 8:20 a.m. and took him to Raabita al-Aalam al-Islaamiyyah to attend some lengthy symposiums and meetings.  He got home at his regular time of 2:30 pm.

We were all about to fall on our faces out of exhaustion and fatigue but we didn’t notice any of that on him.  May Allaah, the Most High, have mercy on him.”

Mawaaqif Mudee’ah, p. 149.