: He memorized the entire Qur'an by age 7. At age 10, he borrowed the famous book Al-Muwatta from a friend and memorized all 1,720 hadiths in just nine nights. The Story of the Invisible Ink
A famous account of his dedication occurred when he traveled to Madinah to study under the great :
: He scavenged for flat shoulder-bones of camels and pieces of clay to use as tablets for writing.
: He would sit outside classrooms he couldn't afford to enter, memorizing everything the teacher said to the paying students.
Imam ash-Shafi’i was born an orphan in Gaza and raised in Makkah in extreme poverty. His mother could not afford to buy him paper or pay for his formal schooling. To ensure he could still study, the young Shafi’i would:
The story of Imam ash-Shafi’i (767–820 AD) is fundamentally a story of despite a life of intense poverty. While "skachat knigi" (downloading books) is a modern convenience, the Imam's life shows the incredible value of the knowledge contained within them. The Boy Who Wrote on Bones
