Study Manners!

It is reported that Abû Bakr Al-Matû’î said:

I sat in the circle of Abû ‘Abdillâh Ahmad b. Hanbal for twelve years while he read the Musnad to his children, and I never wrote a single hadîth, I only looked at his behavior, character and etiquette.

Ibn Al-Jawzî, Manâqib Ahmad, article 210