Ibn Hazm says:

125. Anyone who is forced to mix with men should on no account tell his companion everything that passes through his mind. When he leaves him, he must always behave as if he were a desperate enemy. When he wakes up each morning he should always expect his friends to betray him and do evil, expect them to behave exactly like his sworn enemies. If nothing of the sort happens, he should praise God; if it does, then at least he will prepared and the shock will be less. For myself, I tell you I had a friend who had sworn friendship, sincere pure friendship, for bad times or good, for richer or poorer, in anger and in satisfaction. This friend changed his attitude towards me, in a most hateful way, after twelve years of perfect friendship, and for an absolutely futile reason which I would never have believed could influence such a man. He has never been reconciled with me since, and this has made me very sad for many years.

However, one should not do bad things and follow the example of wicked men and traitors.

Notes:

• The first thing to note is that, despite these words, contempt for humankind is not what is necessitated. Hatred for humankind is the same as love for them, both being a stark weakness, both exposing oneself to be controlled and altered by the actions of others.
• What is necessary is apathy and indifference. And the perception that more often than not, people will harm you. They will betray you, they will decieve you, they will backbite you, they will disregard your honour. Loyalty in man is one of the rarest characteristics, and in my humble opinion, one of the greatest characteristics in the companions of the Prophet.
• Holding the expectation that people will harm you, and having an indifference towards people will allow you to act in any way you want - an essential disposition Muslims need in these times of strangeness - and at the same time minimize the effect of the inevitable evil humans will throw your way.
• The greatest walked lonely roads.

Ibn Hazm says:

26. “Never lose your temper,” as Allâh’s Prophet (peace be upon him) said to a man asking advice, and, as he also said commanding him, “Do as you would be done by”, together encapsulate the whole of virtue. Indeed, the fact that the Prophet forbade all anger implies that although the soul has been given the ability to be angry, it should refrain from this passion, and the [Prophet’s] commandment to do as you would be done implies that the souls should turn away from the strong force of greed and lust and should uphold the authority or the means of justice which springs from the rationality which is part of the reasonable soul.

Notes:

• Generally speaking, anger is an emotion through which greed, lust, and injustice is usually carried. Rarely do you find a man oppressing others, and himself, except that he is in a state of anger - save of course, those who are maliciously evil (think: world 'leaders' who plot and plan the deaths of thousands through war for selfish gain).
• This said, anger is not necessarily totally prohibited. In fact, the Prophet himself would be angry at certain times, and almost all of these instances were recorded, since it was not in the Prophet's customary disposition to be angry. Rather he, upon him be peace, was known to be cheerful, and would constantly smile. So when he did get angry, the companions would always know, and take record of it. Therefore you'll come across some narrations stating "we found the Prophet angry" or "his face turned red from anger".
• There is something interesting, in fact great, in the anger of the Prophet. It was never for his own selfish sake. Hind (ra) says: "No one would stand against his anger when matters of the Lord’s truth were opposed, until he had triumphed, but he would never get angry for his own sake, nor would he ever seek to win such an argument."
  
  Aisha (ra) also narrates a hadith in which she states: "Allah's Apostle never took revenge (over anybody) for his own sake but (he did) only when Allah's Legal Bindings were outraged in which case he would take revenge for Allah's Sake."
• His anger was never for his own sake. It was not due to people harming or annoying him. Ibn Hazm's words apply to this type of anger. An anger of selfishness. Rather the Prophet only let himself (i.e. he controlled his anger, rather than his anger control him) get angry for the sake of God...when the right's of God had been transgressed.
• But why anger, you ask? Anger is a great motivator. When you see evil, and simply get upset, or pity "the state of the ummah", as we hear often today, then you are encouraging a certain lethargy. When people are depressed and fall into self-pity, they do not act nor work towards changing an evil. This is weak faith. But when you are angry, you are motivated into swift and decisive action which usually, by the Permission of Allah, brings about favourable results.

Ibn Hazm says:

95. In times of civil war, the blossom does not set fruit.

Notes:

• I tried to understand exactly what Ibn Hazm meant by this line for a while now. As poetic as it is, it remains vague. But recently, I think I know what he was aiming at.
• Often we see brothers or sisters who are deeply involved in Islamic activites. They may be often at your local masjid, they may be running your MSA, they may be the best recitors of the Qur'an, they may be the one's known to pray in length, or fast with intensity - but then one day, in what seems to be a blink of an eye - they've completely changed. Their beard or hijab has disappeared, and now they're only known for their involvement in haram - in our culture, often their involvement with the other gender.
• Here people often ask "how can this happen to them" or the more arrogant version of the question posed, sounds as "how can Allah do this to them".
• What needs to be understood is that Allah intensifies the disease of misguidance in the hearts of those who have already chosen misguidance. And so Allah (swt) says:
  فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللّهُ مَرَضاً
  {In their hearts is a disease (of doubt and hypocrisy) and Allah has increased their disease.}
• The reality is that, the deeds they did that we thought were good, bore no fruit. They were essentially meaningless because there was a lack of sincerity and a misdirection of intention. And so within this person there is a civil war, where the outerward reality of the person belies their inner reality. This is where hypocrisy is born. This hypocrisy causes massive pain within the person, which drives them to eventually just not care about their honour or their reputation or anything like that, and begin to outwardly sin in some of the most shameful ways.
• But during this time of "civil war", which all of us live through at some point or another, there is no good that can come out of your actions. There is no fruit that can blossom. Until you can return sincerity to your heart, all your good deeds become exercises in futility.
• This is the importance of tazkiyyah, self-purification. It is needed before anything else in order to give value and bring benefit from your good deeds and righteous actions.
• You can see this fact in Surat al-Baqarah, where Ibrahim (as) makes dua to Allah and says:
  
  رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولاً مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ العَزِيزُ الحَكِيمُ
  {"Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own (and indeed Allah answered their invocation by sending Muhammad Peace be upon him ), who shall recite unto them Your Verses and instruct them in the Book (this Quran) and Al-Hikmah (full knowledge of the Islamic laws and jurisprudence or wisdom or Prophethood, etc.), and sanctify them. Verily! You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise."}
  
  Twenty-two verses later, Allah (swt) states his acceptance of Ibrahim's (as) dua
  
  كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِيكُمْ رَسُولاً مِّنكُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيكُمْ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُم مَّا لَمْ تَكُونُواْ تَعْلَمُونَ
  {Similarly (to complete My Blessings on you) We have sent among you a Messenger (Muhammad SAW) of your own, reciting to you Our Verses (the Quran) and sanctifying you, and teaching you the Book (the Quran) and the Hikmah (i.e. Sunnah, Islamic laws and Fiqh - jurisprudence), and teaching you that which you used not to know.}
  
  This dua' is basically outlining the job of a Prophet and Messenger. The point of interest to be taken from this is that, look at how when Allah accepted the dua', He brought mention of tazkiyyah (sanctity) as the first job of the Prophet, because it is needed as the first step of the worshipper.

Ibn Hazm says:

249. If you take pride in your ancestry, that is even worse than everything we have mentioned so far, since it is pride in something that has no real usefulness for you in this world or the next. Just ask yourself whether your ancestry protects you against hunger, or dishonour, or whether it does you any good in the next world.

Notes:

• I believe in the first post of this series, I noted that Muslim's seemed to place nobility in caste systems and ancestry.
• It's true that many, if not most Muslim's attach immense pride and self-recognition in social class and ancestry, despite the fact that it means absolutely nothing. It gives you relatively nothing in this world, and absolutely nothing in the next world.
• The Qur'an shows the examples of three people(s) who were at a great stature and mistook that stature to be due to ancestry and lineage.
• First there is Iblis who was at a great stature because of his Taqwa, but became deluded into thinking that his stature was a birthright rather than due to his Taqwa. As a result, he abandoned his taqwa, and so Allah pushed him away from the station He had given him.
• Second, there is Bani Israel, who were chosed by Allah over all the people due to their Taqwa, but they began to consider their lofty status as a birthright and due to their ancestry, which led them to reject the Prophet (saw) as the final Prophet, and became cursed by Allah and earned His anger.
• Then there is Adam (upon him be peace), who was given Paradise to reside in due to his Taqwa. But as he began to consider his status as a birthright, he ended up sinning, and being removed from his great status in Paradise. Of course, he realized his mistake immediately and asked for repentance.
• The end lesson to take: Even if there is value in lineage and ancestry etc, the only way to truly attain it is through Taqwa, and every other way to attain it is pure delusion.