And we want to become scholars overnight …

Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab

In the biography of the Imaam Ghaalib ibn Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Ghaalib ibn Tamaam ibn Atiyyah al-Muhaaribi (d. 517) [which is mentioned] in the book Al-Ghunyah of al-Qaadi Iyaad, and in As-Silah of Ibn Bashkuwaal there occurs that he said:

“I read what one of my companions had written in his own handwriting [where he said] that he heard Abu Bakr [Ghaalib ibn Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Ghaalib ibn Tamaam] ibn Atiyyah mention that he had read Sahih Bukhaari seven hundred times.”

And in [the book] Inbaa’ul-Ghamr in the biography of Sulaimaan ibn Ibrahim ibn Umar Nafeesud-Deen al-Alawi (d. 825) [there occurs]:

“So he mentioned to me that he went over Sahih Bukhaari one hundred and fifty times, [whether that was] by reading it himself, listening to his Shaikh read it, reading it himself to his Shaikh [or someone else] or comparing it against a manuscript.”

And in Fahrisul-Fahaaris quoting from Tabaqaatul-Khawaas of as-Sharji that he went over The Sahih [of Bukhaari] two hundred and eighty times, reading it himself, listening to others read it to him or reading it himself to his Shaikh [or someone else].”

And in the biography of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullaah ibn Muqbil al-Qaahiri al-Hanafi, well-known as ‘At-Taajir [The Trader]’ (d. 805) [which is mentioned] in [the book] Ad-Daw al-Laami’, [there occurs]:

“Al-Buhraan al-Halabi, his student, said that he [i.e., his teacher Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad] informed him that up until the year 780ah he had read Sahih Bukhaari ninety-five times, and he read it after that many times [too].”

And in the biography of Al-Burhaan al-Halabi [d. 840] [which is mentioned] in Ad-Daw al-Laami’, [it is stated that]:

“He read [Sahih] Bukhaari more than sixty times and [Sahih] Muslim about twenty times, this is not including the times he read it when he was a student [of knowledge and not yet a Shaikh] or the times other people read the two collections to him as he listened on.”

ِAnd Abul-Arab at-Tamimi mentioned in Tabaqaat Ulemaa Ifriqiyyah wa Tunis in the biography of Abbaad ibn al-Walid al-Faarisi [d. 218] that at the end of one of his books [there was written]:

“I studied it a thousand times.”

Al-Mushawwiq ilaa Qiraa’ah wa Talabil-Ilm, pp. 90-95.
Taken from : http://giftsofknowledge.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/and-we-want-to-become-scholars-overnight/