The Prophet (salalLahu 'alayhi wasalLam) said...

"A Believer does not become motivated except on three occassions: making provision for the Hereafter, seeking livelihood, or pursuing a pleasure which is not prohibited."


"Live for as long as you may, you are a mortal; love whomsoever you may, you shall separate from them; and do whatever you will, you shall be repaid in the same coin and questioned over it." [reported by At-Tabarani and Ash-Shirazi]

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Ahmad Bin Hanbal Raheemahullah said

"A little sufices , but much of it does not suffice."

He also said ; " I cannot compare youth with aught except something that was in my sleeve and then it fell out."

And he said :" whatever is lacking in the life of this world will be less for the Reckoning ."

from Al-Manaqib by ibn Jawzi & Tabakat al Hanabilah

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Abu Hafs al-Nisaburi was sitting with his companions one day at the outskirts of the city. While he was lecturing them - enthralling them with discourse - a wild goat suddenly descended from the mountain and knelt down before him. Al-Nisaburi was visibly shaken and started to weep. His students asked him about his reaction, and he said:

I saw you gathered around me and how enthralled you were. I thought to myself, "If only I had a sheep to slaughter and could invite you all to a feast." As soon as this thought occurred, this goat came and knelt down in front of me. Thus I thought, "Am I like Pharaoh who asked his Lord to make the Nile flow for him, and it was made to do so?" I then said to myself, "What can possibly protect me from Allah giving me every material good in the world, while I remain bankrupt in the Hereafter, possessing nothing?" This is what disturbed me.

- in Ibn Rajab's The Heirs of the Prophets.

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The contemplative believer who remembers God will begin to enjoy solitude and places of seclusion where voices and movements are hushed... There he will find strength of heart and will, and he will no longer be worried or depressed... Then he will begin to taste the sweetness of worship, of which he cannot have enough. In it, he will find abundance of pleasure and comfort - more than what he used to find in diversion and play, or in the satisfaction of wordly desires...When he experiences this state, many of the wordly concerns will disappear, as he is in a completely different world from the rest of humanity.

-Ibn Al Qayyim, Madaarij As_Salikeen

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‘I wish I could live unknown in the mountain-passes of Makkah. I have been tested with fame. indeed I wish for death day and night.' Ahmed ibn Hanbal

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