Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Yūnus b. ‘Ubayd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I do not know anything rarer than a good dirham (money earnt lawfully) whose owner spends it on something right, or a brother in Islām in whose company one finds peace. And they are only getting rarer.

Abu Nu’aym,-Hilyatu Al-Awliyā` 3:17

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those of our scholars who went before us used to say,”Adherence to the Sunnah is salvation, but knowledge is taken away quickly, so the revival of knowledge means the stability of religion and worldly affairs, and the loss of knowledge means the loss of all that.”

Al-Lālakā`ī, Sharh-Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah article 136

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Umar b. Al-Khattāb once entered upon Abū Bakr – Allāh be pleased with them both – and found him pulling at his tongue. He said, “Oh, what are you doing?” Abū Bakr replied, “It is this (i.e my speech) that has brought me so much trouble.”

Mālik,-Al-Muatta-2:988

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān b. ‘Uyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Verily, the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ is the highest standard; things are measured by him: his character, lifestyle and behavior. Whatever agrees with [these] is true and correct, and whatever contradicts [them] is wrong.

Al-Khatīb Al-Baghdādī,-Akhlāq Al-Rāwī wa Ādāb Al-Sāmi’-article 8.

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[MazharShafiq]

It was a great deal

Hazrat Maul Tariq Sahib, the son of Hazrat Maulana Zakaria Sahib, this incident is about the Day of Resurrection.
He said, "Once the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) came to Sehwanpur, he came to know that Shaikh was brought to Madam, and immediately he was buried on the one hand, and after the long time he came to Hazrat Madina, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said," Sheikh said, "You are too late How are you coming from here?
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
The incident happened that Maulana Talha Sahib himself describes his incident that he was six or seven years old. And the habit of copying the children, Maulana Talha Sahib was sitting with six seven and said The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, "I am going to give you allegiance, and I am watching this scene." Maulana Talha Sahib said, "Sit down here, I am giving you allegiance." He said, "I do not believe in you." He said, "I am going to get married to you," he said.
Hazrat Maulana Taqa Sahib says that I saw myself referring to Madina Rahmatullah, as long as Hazrat Madinah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was the life of which was in me," Madamani used to sit in two sons before me. I used to say that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Allah has given me a great degree of knowledge." At the same time, traveling on the ship, Hazrat Maulana Yousuf, Hazrat Maulana Badar Alam Mirthi, Hazrat Shaikh Hazrat Madni and Maulana Talha Sahib were all in the journey and all of them were Maulana Yousuf Sahib's statement. People insisted Madani The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, "I have no description." So you will hear your statement and immediately sat down on the chair and said that the order of my feet can not be rejected, Hazrat Maulana Talha He said the response to the love that can not order my feet
Even today, Maulana Talha Sahib describes this incident, then the eyes are released with eyes and further said that I did not see this type of ritual.

Reference Surfaces Hanif Volume 1 page 139

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Muhammad b. Sīrīn – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

If the Dajjāl appears, I believe the heretics (People of Desires, Bid’ah) will follow him.
Al-Lālakā`ī,-Sharh-Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah-1:131

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

There is nothing that corrupts a person or rectifies him more than [his] companion.

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-article 504.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī-Tālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Mention what you will of the greatness of Allāh, but Allāh is greater than anything you say. And mention what you will of the Fire, but it is more severe than anything you say. And mention what you will of Paradise, but it is better than anything you say.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm-article 853.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How strange it is that a people whose departure (from this world to the next) has been announced, and whose predecessors have already departed, still play around!

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm-article 843.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Muhammad b. Al-Hanafīyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whoever has self respect does not give any value to the worldly life (dunyā).

Ibn Al-Jawzī,-Sifatu Al-Safwah-2:77.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – once said during the funeral of a man:

May Allāh have mercy on the man who works for the likes of this day; for today you are able to do what these brothers of yours, the residents of these graves, cannot do. So make full use of your health and free time before the day of distress and accounts comes upon you.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Dhamm Al-Dunyāarticle 53.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abū Ja’far reports:

Whenever Ibn ‘Umar – Allāh be pleased with him – heard a ḥadīth from Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him – he never went beyond it, and he never fell short of it.

Ibn Mājah,-Al-Sunan, ḥadīth #4. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded this narration ṣaḥīḥ in his edition of the Sunan.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Yūnus b. ‘Ubayd (d. 139H) – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I only liken the worldly life (dunyā) to a man who, whilst sleeping, sees in his dream things he likes and things he does not like. Then he wakes up (the world ends and the next life starts).

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Dham Al-Dunyā-article 21.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The dunyā, from its beginning to its end, is only like a man who takes a nap, sees in his dream what pleases him, and then wakes up.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm article 2056.

[eesa the kiwi]

Muhammad Ibn Al-Hanafīyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

He is not wise who does not live in a good way with the person he has no choice but to live with, until Allāh gives him relief from that [situation].

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`-4:117 et al. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded it-Sahīh-in Silsilatu Al-Da’īfah 6:172, after explaining that it is not authentic as a-hadīth from the Prophet – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ibrāhīm Al-Taymī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

What a great difference there is between you and those people [of the past, the Salaf]! Worldly wealth came to them but they fled from it, whereas the world turns its back on you and you go after it.
Ibn Al-Mubārak,-Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iqarticle 538.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

By Allāh, never was a person given an abundance of worldy wealth and then not feared this might be a plot against him [for his wrongdoing] except a person lacking intelligence and sound opinion. And never has Allāh held back worldy wealth from a person and that person has not thought that a good choice has been made for him except a person who [also] lacks intelligence and sound opinion.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Dham Al-Dunyā-article 42.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Imrān b. Husayn – Allāh be pleased with him – was once relating-hadīth amongst a group of people, when a man said:

Leave this and give us something from the Book of Allāh. ‘Imrān said, “You are a dunce (stupid). Do you find in the Book of Allāh details of prayer. Do you find in the Book of Allāh details of fasting!? This Qur`ān prescribes those matters, and the Sunnah explains them.”

Al-Harawī,-Dham Al-Kalām-article 244,-et al-with various wordings.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Mufaddal b. Muhalhal – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
If the heretic started mentioning his bid’ah right at the beginning of the sitting, you would be on your guard and flee from him, but what he does is begin by mentioning ḥadīth from the Sunnah. Then, he slips his bid’ah in on you. It might then stick to your heart; but when will it leave your heart?

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā, 2:444.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

This world (the dunyā) is [only taken as] a home by those who will have no real home [in Jannah], and it is the wealth of those who will have no real wealth, and it is gathered and collected for by those who have no real intelligence.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Dhamm Al-Dunyāarticle 16.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Bakr Al-Maṭū’ī said:

I sat in the circle of Abū ‘Abdillāh Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal for twelve years while he read the Musnad to his children, and I never wrote a single ḥadīth, I only looked at his behavior, character and etiquette.

Ibn Al-Jawzī,-Manāqib Aḥmad, article 210.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

One who acts without knowledge is like one who travels off the path; and the one who acts without knowledge corrupts more than he rectifies. So seek knowledge in a way that does not harm your worship, and seek to worship [Allāh] in a way that does not harm [your seeking of] knowledge. For verily, there were people (the Khawārij extremists) who sought to worship [Allāh] but abandoned knowledge until they attacked the Ummah of Muḥammad – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him – with their swords. But if they had sought knowledge, it would not have directed them to do what they did.

Quoted by Ibn ‘Abd Al-Barr,-Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm wa Faḍlihi-article 905.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that the son of Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said to his father:

Father! How sweet (beautiful) the speech of the Companions is! [Al-Fuḍayl] said, “Son, do you know why it was so sweet?” He replied, “No father, I do not.” He said, “Because they sought Allāh the Exalted when they spoke.”

Al-Bayhaqī,-Shu’ab Al-īmān-2:299

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Muḥammad b. Sīrīn – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

There were people who abandoned knowledge and sitting with the scholars, and [instead] took to their chambers and prayed until their skin dried [from exertion in worship]. Thereafter they began to contradict the Sunnah and thus were destroyed. By Allāh, never does a person act without knowledge, except that he spoils and corrupts more than he fixes and rectifies.

Al-Aṣbahānī,-Al-Targhīb wa Al-Tarhīb-3:98

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The believer speaks little and does alot, whereas the hypocrite (munāfiq) speaks a lot and does little. When the believer speaks, it is with wisdom, when he is silent, it is in deep thought, when he sees, he takes lessons, and when he acts, it is a cure. If this is the way you are, then you are in the constant worship [of your Lord.]

Abū Nu’aym,-Ḥilyatu Al-Awliyā`-8:98.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The believer does the best deeds yet is most fearful [that his deeds will not be accepted]. If he were to spend a mountain of wealth [in charity], he would not feel sure [of the reward] until he sees it. The more righteous and pious he becomes, the more he fears. But the hypocrite (munāfiq) says, ‘There are so many people, I will be forgiven, no problem.’ So he does wrong and evil deeds, yet holds foolish wishes about Allāh.

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`4:586.

[eesa the kiwi]

Umar b. Al-Khattāb-– Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Verily, the followers of opinion are the enemies of the Sunan (the teachings of Allāh’s Messenger as passed down in hadith): they were unable to preserve them and their meanings escaped them, and when asked [questions] they were too embarrassed to say ‘We don’t know,’ so they opposed the Sunan with their opinions.

Ibn Abī Zamanīn,-Uṣūl Al-Sunnah-article 8; Al-Lālakā`ī,-Sharḥ-Uṣūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah-article 201 et al.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Al-Shāfi’ī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

If you fear becoming deluded and impressed by your deeds then remember whose pleasure you are seeking, and the joy (Paradise) in which you want to be, and what punishment you fear. Whoever thinks about these things will diminish his deeds.

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`10:42.

[BeTheChange]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The believer speaks little and does alot, whereas the hypocrite (munāfiq) speaks a lot and does little. When the believer speaks, it is with wisdom, when he is silent, it is in deep thought, when he sees, he takes lessons, and when he acts, it is a cure. If this is the way you are, then you are in the constant worship [of your Lord.]

Abū Nu’aym,-Ḥilyatu Al-Awliyā`-8:98.

Allah Hu Akbar. Too many blessings Alhamdulilah yet we are so ungrateful!!

[eesa the kiwi]

Salmān Al-Fārsī – Allāh be pleased with him – once visited a sick friend. When he entered upon him he said:

Have glad tidings, for verily Allāh makes the illness of a believer an expiation [for his sins] and a cause of being pleased, whereas the illness of a sinner is like a camel that has been tied by its owners, then released by them: it knows not why it was tied up nor why it was released

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The intelligent person’s tongue is behind his heart: when he wants to speak, he first thinks. If [his words] will be in his favor, he says them, and if they will be against him, he does not speak. And the ignorant person’s heart is behind his tongue: when he merely thinks of saying something, he says it, whether it is for or against him.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm-article 2049.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Awn b. ‘Abdillāh – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those before you used to give to their worldly affairs what was left over from their pursuit of the hereafter. But today, you give to the matters of the hereafter the left-overs from your pursuit of worldly affairs.

Abū Nu’aym,-Ḥilyat Al-Awliyā`-10:242.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Anas b. Mālik – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

There are two days and two nights the likes of which no one has ever heard of before: the Day on which you will receive the news about Allāh the Exalted: whether you will receive His punishment or His mercy, the Day you will be given your book (of deeds): either in your right hand or your left, that [first] night you will spend alone in your grave, a night like no other you have spent, and that night on the morning of which will be the Day of Resurrection, after which there will be no more night.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article-19.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The souls [of people] are in groups gathered together: those of them that identify with each other come together, and those that are different diverge. It is not possible for an adherent of the Sunnah to incline towards an adherent of Bid’ah except out of hypocrisy (nifāq).

Ibid.-article 429.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

The house in which the Qur’ān is not recited is like a derelict house that has no one to maintain it.

It is also reported that he said:

Verily the emptiest of houses are those that are empty of the Book of Allāh.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abdullāh b. Shaqīq Al-‘Uqaylī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allah’s praise and peace be upon him – did not consider the leaving of any action to be kufr (unbelief), except the prayer (ṣalāh).

Al-Tirmidhī,-Al-Sunan-ḥadīth 2622. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in his edition of-Sunan Al-Tirmidhī.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – used to say about the house in which the Qur’ān is recited:

It becomes spacious for its inhabitants, the good of it becomes plentiful, the angels come to it and the devils leave it. And the house in which the Qur’ān is not recited becomes cramped for its inhabitants, has little good in it, and the devils come to it.

Ibn Abī Shaybah,-Al-Muṣannaf-articles 30645, 30647 and 30650.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – used to say:

Whoever does not think that his speech is part of his deeds and that his character is part of his religion will be destroyed without even realizing.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā-Dham Al-Kadhib wa Ahlī-article 94.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Mujāhid – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those who strive and exert themselves (al-mujtahid) amongst you today are like those who used to play around amongst those before you.

Wakī’ b. Al-Jarrāh,-Al-Zuhd-article 221.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that some people asked ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him –- to describe this worldly life (the dunyā). He said:

Do you want a long description or a brief one? They replied, “a brief one.” He said, “Its permissible things (ḥalāl) [lead to] accounts being taken from you, and its forbidden things (ḥarām) [lead to the] Fire.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Dham Al-Dunyā-article 17.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

I entered upon Mālik b. Anas when a man was asking him about the Qur`ān. [Imām Mālik] said, “Perhaps you are a companion of- Amr b. ‘Ubayd. May Allāh curse ‘Amr, for he was the one who innovated this bid’ah of Kalām -. If Kalām was knowledge, the Companions and their Followers would have spoken it, like they spoke about the regulations and laws [of Islam]. But [Kalām] is falsehood that leads to falsehood.”

- - - Updated - - -

Abd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

I entered upon Mālik b. Anas when a man was asking him about the Qur`ān. [Imām Mālik] said, “Perhaps you are a companion of- Amr b. ‘Ubayd. May Allāh curse ‘Amr, for he was the one who innovated this bid’ah of Kalām -. If Kalām was knowledge, the Companions and their Followers would have spoken it, like they spoke about the regulations and laws [of Islam]. But [Kalām] is falsehood that leads to falsehood.”

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Al-Dardā – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
You will never be pious (a person of taqwā) until you become knowledgeable, and you will never be beautiful with your knowledge until you act [by it].

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr,-Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihī-article 1239.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyād – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How will you be if you reach a time when you will see people who do not distinguish truth from falsehood, believer from unbeliever, trustworthy from treacherous, nor ignorant from knowledgeable, and neither recognize what is right nor censure what is wrong?

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-1:188.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Goodness is not in your wealth and offspring being plentiful; true goodness is when your [good] deeds are plenty and you have great understanding and forbearance, and when you compete to worship your Lord. If you do good you praise Allāh and thank Him, and if you sin you beg Allāh’s forgiveness. There is no good in this life except with two types of men: A man who sins but then corrects himself through repentance, and a man who strives and hastens to get [the good] of the hereafter.

Ibn ‘Asākir,-Al-Tawbah-article 13.

[eesa the kiwi]

Imām Al-Buwayṭī – Allāh have mercy on him – reports:

I heard Al-Shāfi’ī say, “A man does not become complete in this life except when he has four [qualities]: religiousness (al-diyānah), trustworthiness (al-amānah), safeguarding [from sin] (al-ṣiyānah) and sobriety (al-razānah).”

Al-Bayhaqī,-Manāqib Al-Shāfi’ī-2:189.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, Allāh has angels who seek out the circles of remembrance [of Allāh], so be careful who you sit with; make sure it is not with an adherent of bid’ah, for Allāh does not look at them. And the sign of nifāq (hypocrisy in faith) is that a man mingles with an adherent of bid’ah.

Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-1:460

[eesa the kiwi]

It is narrated that ‘Uthmān b. ʿAffān – Allāh be pleased with him – said in a sermon:

Son of Adam! Know that the angel of death who has been assigned to you has not ceased to pass you and move on to others, ever since you have been in this world. But it is as if he is about to pass someone else and move on to target you, so be careful and prepare for him (by correcting your deeds). And do not forget him, for he does not forget you. And know o son of Adam, if you are heedless about yourself and do not prepare, no one else will prepare for you. You must meet Allah the Mighty and Majestic, so take for yourself and do not leave it to someone else. Peace be on you.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī,-Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm-2: 73, 74.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ayyūb Al-Sakhtiyānī was asked:

Is knowledge today greater or lesser [in amount]? He replied, “There is more speech today, but there was more knowledge in the past.”

Al-Fasawī,-Al-Ma’rifah wa Al-Tārīkh2:136.

[OLFocus]

“Always fear Allah, like if only one person was to go to hell, it could be you. Never get disappointed from Allah, like if only one person was to go to Jannah, it could be You.”

Abu Bakr A-Ssidik

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“Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, does not have kinship, and therefore, He does not grant anyone special status, favors, or exemptions, except with regards to obeying His command and abstaining from what He forbids.”

Abu Bakr A-Ssidik

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that when Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī was on his deathbed, some of his companions came to him and said:

O Abū Sa’īd, offer us some words you can benefit us with. He replied, “I will equip you with three words, then you must leave me to face what I am facing. Be the farthest of people from those things you have been forbidden, and be the most involved of people in the good you have been commanded to do; and know that the steps you take are two steps: a step in your favor and a step against you, so be careful where you come and where you go.”

Abū Nu’yam,-Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā`-2:154

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan b. Al-Ḥasan b. ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him – said to a person from the Rāfiḍah:

Love us, but if we disobey Allāh, then hate us; for if Allāh was going to benefit anyone because of his relation to the Messenger of Allāh – peace and blessings be upon him, without obedience [to Allāh], He would have benefitted the mother and father [of the Prophet].

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`4:486.

[eesa the kiwi]

It was said to ‘Ā`ishah – Allāh be pleased with her, “There are people who faint when they hear the Quran.” She said. “The Quran is nobler than to have people lose their minds from it. Rather, it [should be] as Allāh the Mighty and Sublime said:

Those who fear their Lord tremble with fear by it, then their skins and hearts settle to the remembrance of Allah. (Sūrah Al-Zumar: 23)

Abū ‘Ubayd Al-Qāsim b. Sallām,-Faḍā`il Al-Qur`ān-p214.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abd Al-Rahmān b. Mahdī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If it were not for the fact I hate that Allah is disobeyed, I would have wished that no one remain in this city except that he had spoken ill of me and backbitten me; for what is nicer than a good deed a man finds in his records on the Day of Resurrection without having done a thing or even having known?”

Abū Nu’aym,-Hilyatu Al-Awliyā`-4:45.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Bukhārī reports that ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – came to the Black Stone (performing ṭawāf, circumambulation), kissed it, and said, “I know that you are a stone, you do not cause benefit or harm; and if it were not that I had seen Allāh’s Messenger – peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him – kiss you, I would never have kissed you.”

Al-Bukhārī,-Al-Ṣaḥīḥ,-Chapter on what has been said about the Black Stone.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that a man came to ʿAbdullāh b. Mas’ūd – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked, “Teach me some comprehensive and beneficial words.” He replied, “Worship Allāh and do not associate any partners with Him, and be with the Qur’ān wherever it is. And whoever comes to you with some truth – whether he is young or old, even if he is hated by you – then accept [that truth]. And whoever comes lying to you – even if he is beloved and close – then reject it from him.”

Abū Bakr Al-Kharā`iṭī,-Masāwī Al-Akhlāq wa Madhmūmihā-p72.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak said, “I once borrowed a pen in Al-Shām (Transjordan) and went to return it. But when I came back to Marwu (Eng.-Merv-, in Central Asia) I saw that I still had it, so I went back to Al-Shām to return it to its owner.”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 8 p395.

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It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Wealth is the disease of this Ummah, and the scholar is the doctor of this Ummah. So if the doctor brings the disease to himself, how will he cure the people?”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 7 p243.

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It is reported that Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “We were the beginning [the heads] of this Ummah, and perhaps a man from the best of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – and the most righteous amongst them could maintain only one chapter of the Qur`ān or thereabouts. For the Qur`ān was weighty upon them, and they were given knowledge of it or action based on it. But the last of this Ummah will find the Qur`ān light [and easy] – the child and the non-Arab will recite it, without possessing any knowledge about it.”

Al-Harawī,-Dhamm Al-Kalām wa AhlihīVol. 5 p144.

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It is reported that Muḥammad b. Sīrīn said, “They used to consider themselves on the [right] path as long as they followed-al-athar-(guidance of the Sunnah and Salaf as passed down in the narrations).”

Al-Lālakā`ī,-Sharḥ Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā’ah-Vol.1 p120.

It is reported that ‘Uthmān b. Ḥāḍir said, “I said to Ibn ‘Abbās: ‘advise me.’ He replied, ‘It is upon you to be upright, follow-al-athar, and beware of innovating [in religion].’”

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It is reported that Shurayḥ – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If I am afflicted with a calamity, I praise Allāh for it four times: I praise Him because it wasn’t worse than it was, I praise Him when He gives me the patience to bear it, I praise Him for enabling me to say-al-istirjā’-(‘To Allāh we belong and to him we will return’; see Al-Baqarah: 154-156 ) in hope of a great reward, and I praise Him for not making it a calamity in my religion.”

Al-Dhahabī,-Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`,-in his biography of Shurayḥ Al-Qāḍī.

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It is reported that the last sermon ʿUmar b. ʿAbd Al-‘Aziz – Allāh have mercy on him – delivered was as follows:

He praised Allāh and said, “You were not created in vain, nor will you be left without purpose. Verily, you have an appointed time in which Allāh – the Most High – will come down to judge you. Wretched and ruined will he be who leaves the mercy of Allāh and is denied a Garden whose width is that of the heavens and Earth. Know you not that no one will be safe tomorrow save one who is wary of today and fears it; and sells the transitory for what will remain, and the little for the plenty, and fear in exchange for security [in the hereafter]? See you not that you are in the loins of the dead, to be taken by those who remain after you, until all matters return to the Best of Inheritors? Every day, [in the funerals] you accompany those returning to Allāh the Mighty and Sublime, having spent their time, until you hide them in a crevice in the ground, in the belly of a bare and unfurnished hole, having parted from their loved ones, stroking the dirt and facing their accounts. Now, they are dependent on their deeds, free of what they left behind, in need of [the deeds] they put before them. So fear Allāh before the time He appointed is up and death descends upon you. This is what I have to say.” He then lifted the edge of his garment over his face and wept profusely, and made everyone around him weep.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm Vol. 3 p343.

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It is reported that Imām Layth b. Sa’d – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Even if I saw a heretic (follower of bid’ah) walk on water, I would not accept him.” This was reported to Imām Al-Shāfi’ī – Allāh have mercy on him, to which he replied, “He didn’t go far enough. Rather, if I saw one walk in the air, I would not accept him.”

Al-Lālakā`ī,-Sharh-Usūl ‘I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah-Vol.1 p228; Ibn Battah,-Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā-Vol2. P175; Ibn Al-Jawzī,-Talbīs Iblīs-p14 – with slightly variant wordings.

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It is reported that Abū Al-Dardā` – Allāh be pleased with him – used to say, “Learn knowledge before it is taken way, and it is taken away by its people (scholars) being taken away. The scholar and the student are partners in good and there is no good in any other people. The richest of men is the knowledgeable man whose knowledge is needed: he benefits those who need him and if done without, he benefits himself with the knowledge Allāh ‘azza wa jalla has placed with him. So how is it I see your scholars dying yet the ignorant amongst you not learning? I fear that the predecessor will depart and the successor will not learn. If the scholar studies, he only increases in knowledge, and he does not take anything away from knowledge. And if the ignorant studies, he will find knowledge firm and established. So how is it that I see you full up with food, yet starved of knowledge?”

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr,-Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm wa Fadlihi-Vol. 2 p233.

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Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – once saw two men. He asked one of them, “How is this man related to you?” He replied, “He is my father.” Abū Hurayrah said, “Do not call him by his name, do not walk in front of him and do not sit before he does.”

Al-Bukhārī,-Al-Adab Al-Mufrad.-Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission-sahīh-in-Sahīh-Al-Adab Al-Mufrad-Vol. 1 p19.

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It is reported from Al-Hasan Al-Basrī that he said, “If a man from amongst the Salaf were to be sent forth today, he would not recognize anything from Islam.” He put his hand on his cheek and added, “Except this prayer (salāh).” Then he said, “But by Allāh, this does not apply to the person who lives in this unfamiliar time, never having seen the Righteous Predecessors, but who sees [instead] the innovator calling to his bid’ah, and the follower of worldly wealth calling to his materialism, but Allāh protects him from all this and makes his heart love and aspire to those Righteous Predecessors, asking about their way, searching and trying to follow in their footsteps, and adhering to their path. Such is a person who will be recompensed with an immense and great reward. So be you all like this, by Allāh’s permission”.

Ibn Waddāh,-Al-Bida’-Vol. 1 p190.

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It is reported that Al-Fudayl b. ʿAyyāḍ said, “When backbiting appears, brotherhood for Allāh will disappear; and at that time you will be like things plated with gold and silver: wooden on the inside, [merely] looking good on the outside.”

Abū Nu’aym,-Hilyah Al-Awliyā`, Vol. 3 p395.

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It is reported that Hishām b. ‘Urwah said, reporting from his father, ‘Urwah b. Al-Zubayr – Allāh have mercy on him , “He used to say to us when we were youths, ‘Why do you not seek knowledge? Even though [today] you are the youngsters, you are about to be the elders [in the future]. What is the use of being a shaykh when the shaykh is ignorant? Four years before the death of ‘Ā`ishah, I would say, if she died today, I would not feel regret about a single-hadīth she had, for I had gathered them from her. I would hear that a Companion had a-hadīth and would go to him. I might find that he was napping, so I would sit at his door and wait, and then ask him about it [later when he woke].’”

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It is reported that Muhammad Al-Bāqir – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Never does any pride enter the heart of a man except that his intelligence decreases by the same amount.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar-A’lām Al-Nubalā`,-in his biography of Muhammad Al-Bāqir.

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Abdullāh the son of Al-Imām Ahmad reports that his father, Al-Imām Ahmad, said, “The graves of Ahl Al-Sunnah who committed major sins are gardens (from Paradise) whilst the graves of the heretics (adherents of Bid’ah) who were ascetics are pits (from the Fire). The sinners from Ahl Al-Sunnah are the beloved (awliyā`) of Allāh, whereas the ascetics of Ahl Al-Bid’ah are the enemies of Allāh.”

Ibn Abī Ya’lā,-Tabaqāt Al-HanābilahVol. 1 p182.

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It is reported that Sufyān b. ‘Uyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “The intelligent person is not one who merely knows what is good and what is bad. The intelligent person is one who, when he sees what is good, follows it, and when he sees evil, shuns it.”

Abū Nu’aym,-Hilyah Al-Awliyā`, Vol. 4 p16.

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It is reported that Ṭalq b. Ḥabīb – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “The right of Allāh is too great and heavy for the creation to fulfill and the blessings of Allāh are too many to enumerate, but you should remain repentant, morning and evening.”

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā,-Al-Tawbah-article 62.

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It is reported that Muḥammad b. Sīrīn – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “I have never envied anyone over anything: if a person is going to be in the Fire, how could I envy him over some worldly matter when he is destined for the Fire?! And if he is going to Paradise, how could I be envious of a man of Paradise with whom Allāh tabāraka wa ta’ālā is pleased?!” Muslim said, “We have never heard anything better than this from the words of Ibn Sīrīn.”

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that:

ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn – Allāh have mercy on him – would sometimes ride to Makkah and return without entering it (meeting anyone there), and he used to sit with Aslam the freedman of ʿUmar (himself a scholar), so it was said to him, “You leave Quraysh, and instead sit with the slave of Banī ʿAdī!” So he replied, “A man [should] sit where he benefits.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:388.

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It is reported that a man once came to Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – and asked him about something, so he replied:

“Ibn Masʿūd used to say such-and-such [about this issue].” The man asked, “But tell me your opinion.” He replied, “Are you not all astonished by this man? I inform him of what Ibn Masʿūd [said] and he asks me my opinion. My religion is more important to me than that. By Allāh, I would rather sing a song than inform you of my opinion.”

Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan ḥadīth 108.

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It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Safety lies in not wanting to be known.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:258

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It is reported that Qatādah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily the Qurān guides you to your disease and your treatment: as for your disease, it is your sins; and as for your treatment, it is to seek the forgiveness of Allāh.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 9:347 no. 6745.

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It is reported that ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said to a young man while exhorting him:

A man might have ten qualities, nine of them good and one bad, but the nine good ones can be spoiled by the one bad quality. Beware of the slips and faults of youth.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I have not seen less zuhd (abstinence) in anything than leadership; you can see a man renouncing food, drink, wealth and clothing, but if his leadership is contested, he vehemently defends and has enmity over it.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 7:262.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Whoever is happy (satisfied) with what Allāh has apportioned for him, it will suffice him and Allāh will bless it for him, but whoever is not satisfied, then [what is apportioned for him] will not suffice him and it will not be blessed.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Riḍā ʿan Allāh bi Qaḍāʾihi article 95.

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It is reported that ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Do not expose yourself to what does not concern you, stay away from your enemy, beware of [taking as] your friend anyone except the trustworthy amongst people – and there is no one who is trustworthy except one who fears Allāh; and do not accompany the sinner in case you learn his sinfulness, and do not let him know your secrets, and consult those who fear Allāh for your affairs.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf 34476.

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It is reported that Ayyūb Al-Sakhtiyānī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

A man does not become noble until he has two qualities: he is undesirous of what other people possess, and he pardons and overlooks them.

Ibn Ḥibbān, Rawḍatu Al-ʿUqalāʾ p167.

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ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Do not be from those who are hasty, who broadcast (what should not be broadcast), who plant trouble by divulging what should be secret, for you will face severe, prolonged and heavy tribulations.

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad no. 327. Its chain of transmission was graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad no.250.

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It is reported that Bilāl b. Saʿd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

A brother who, whenever you meet him, points out to you one of your faults (for you to correct yourself) is better for you than a brother who, whenever you meet him, puts a dīnār (money) in your hand.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm no. 1428.

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Ibn Al-Qayyim said in Al-Fawāʾid, …Thus, every good action – both outer and inner – comes from truthfulness, and every evil corrupt action – both outer and inner – comes from falsehood and lying.

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Maymun b. Mihran Describes The Salaf He Met

It is reported that Maymūn b. Mihrān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I have met men in front of whom I would be ashamed to speak, and I have met men who used to say nothing but the truth, or be silent. And I have met men who had never seen the sky properly, out of fear of their Lord.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm article 2039.

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It is reported that Yaḥyā b. Abī Kathīr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

It used to be said, “People have never honoured themselves with anything [better] than the obedience of Allāh, and they have never dishonoured themselves with anything [worse] than disobedience to Allāh.”

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Muḥāsabatu Al-Nafs article 98.

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It is reported that Abū Ḥāzim Salamah b. Dīnār – Allāh have mercy on him – was once asked:

“O Abū Ḥāzim, do you not see how prices have risen?” He replied, “And what is the worry? Verily, he (Allāh) who provides for us during deflation is the one who will provide for us during inflation.”

Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyatu Al-ʾAwliyāʾ 3:239.

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It is reported that Abu Al-ʿĀlyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

There are two blessings I have been blessed with, I know not which of them is greatest: that Allāh guided me to Islām, and that he did not make me a Ḥarūrī (from the Khawārij extremists).

ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣanʿānī, Al-Muṣannaf ḥadīth 18667.

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It is reported that Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Stay away from the sinful amongst the scholars and the ignorant amongst the worshippers, for these two are the calamity of everyone who would fall into fitnah.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān ḥadīth 1753

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Al-Awzāʿī reports that Caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz – Allāh have mercy on him – wrote (in his orders):

There is no place for anyone’s opinion [when it comes to] what is in the Book (revelation). The opinion of the imāms (great scholars) is only regarding what the Book did not come down with, and regarding which no Sunnah has passed from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. And the opinion of no one is counted in the face of a Sunnah from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ.

Al-Ājurrī, Al-Sharīʿah #113 et al.

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It is reported that Saʿīd b. Jubayr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, fear (al-khashyah) is that you fear Allāh such that your fear comes between you and your disobedience (of Allāh). That is khashyah. And dhikr (remembrance) is obedience to Allāh: whoever obeys Allāh has remembered Him; and whoever does not obey Him is not a rememberer of Him, even if he says a lot of tasbīḥ and recites a lot of Qurān.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:326.

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It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Whoever takes leadership quickly (too early) will harm a lot of [his] knowledge (will not learn what he needs); and whoever does not take leadership can continue to seek knowledge until he reaches [where he needs to be].

Al-Dārimī, Al-Sunan #554.

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It is reported from Ḥabīb Al-Jallāb that he asked ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him:

“What is the best thing a person is ever given?” He replied, “Innate intelligence.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “Good conduct.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “A compassionate brother to consult.” He then asked, “And if not that?” He replied, “Long silence.” He asked, “And if not that?” Ibn Al-Mubārak replied, “Then an early death.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 8:397

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The Correct Reaction to Knowledge

Ayyūb Al-Sakhtiyānī reports that Abū Qilābah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

O Ayyūb, when Allāh brings about knowledge for you, bring about worship of him, and do not let your [sole] concern be to narrate it.

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm, article 1279.

It is reported that the inscription on the ring of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with them – read:

You know, so now act (علِمت فاعمل).

Op. cit. article 1280.

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Taking Knowledge in Stages

It is reported that Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said to Yūnus b. Yazīd:

O Yūnus! Do not try to overcome knowledge, for verily knowledge is [like vast] valleys: whichever of them you take will stop you before you traverse it. Instead, take it over the days and nights. And do not take knowledge all at once, for whoever tries to take it all at once will lose it all at once. Rather take it bit by bit over the days and nights.

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm article 652.

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It is reported that Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

When you see someone older than you, say: he has preceded me in īmān and righteous actions so he is better than me; and when you see someone younger than you, say: I have preceded him in sinning and disobedience so he is better than me. And when you see your brothers honouring and revering you, say: this is a virtue they have attained; and when you see them falling short (in their treatment of you) say: this is [because of] a sin I committed.

Ibn Al-Jawzī, Ṣifatu Al-Ṣafwah, article 505: Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī.

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ʿAbbād b. Al-ʿAwwām narrates:

Sharīk b. ʿAbdillāh came to us around fifty years ago, and we said to him, “O Abū ʿAbdillāh, here amongst us there are people from the Muʿtazilah who reject these āḥādīth [like]: ‘Allāh descends to the lowest heaven’, and ‘the people of Jannah will see their Lord’. So Sharīk narrated to me around ten such narrations, then said: ‘As for us, we have taken our religion from the sons of the Tābiʿīn, from the Ṣaḥābah. Who have they taken from?’”

Al-Ḏahabī, Al-ʿUluw. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in Mukhtaṣar Al-ʿUluw article 146.

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Anas b. Mālik reports:

A young man who had stolen was brought to ʿUmar (for punishment). He said, “By Allāh I have never stolen before this time.” So ʿUmar responded, “You lie, Allāh would not (or does not) surrender a servant of His on the first sin.”

Abū Dāwūd, Al-Zuhd article 56, and others. Graded ṣaḥīh by Ibn Kathīr and others.

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It is reported that Ḥudhayfah – Allāh be pleased with him – was asked:

“What is the worst fitnah?” He replied, “That good and evil is presented to you and you do not know which of them to follow.”

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf, Kitāb Al-Fitan, article 38565.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Muzāḥim, the famous scholar of tafsīr from the Tābiʿīn, said:

No one who has learned Qurān and then forgotten it except due to a sin he has committed, because Allāh the most high said:

وَمَآ أَصَـٰبَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ

Qurān 42:30

“And no calamity befalls you except due to what your own hands have earnt.”

And forgetting the Qurān is one of the greatest calamities.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān article 1813, and others.

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Whenever ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās – Allāh be pleased with them – saw a muṣḥaf (copy of the Qurān) decorated with silver or gold he would say:

Do you tempt the thief, when its beauty is in its inside?

Abū ʿUbayd Al-Qāsim b. Sallām, Faḍāʾil Al-Qurān article 907.

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It is reported that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Blessings arrive with gratitude [to Allāh], and gratitude is connected with more [blessings], and the two are tied together: more blessings from Allāh will never stop unless gratitude from the servant stops.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Shukr article 18.

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Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (rahmatullahi ‘alayh) narrates from someone of knowledge who said: “Learn to say, ‘I do not know’, and do not learn to say: ‘I know’. This is because if you say: ‘I do not know’, they will teach you till you know. But if you say, ‘I know’, they will continue questioning you till you have no answer.” Ibn ‘Abdil Barr, Jami’ Bayan al-‘Ilm, Vol 2, p. 55

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It is reported that ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz b. Abī Rawwād – Allāh have mercy on him – said to a man:

Whoever does not take exhortation [and is not effected] by three things, will not be exhorted by anything: Islām, the Qurān and old age (graying).

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUmr Wa Al-Shayb #40

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Mālik said:

The Salaf used to teach their children to love Abū Bakr and ʿUmar like they used to teach them a sūrah of the Qurān.

Al-Lālakāʾī, Sharḥ ʾUsūl ʾIʿtiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah #2325.

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Verily a man continues to be truthful until he is written with Allāh as a true believer (ṣiddīq); and he persists in truthfulness until there is not even the space of a needle for sinfulness left in his heart to settle. And a man lies and persists in lying until there is not even the space of a needle for goodness in his heart to settle.

Wakīʿ b. Al-Jarrāḥ, Al-Zuhd ḥadīth 398.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Maymūn b. Mihrān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

There are three things that must be given to both the righteous and the sinful: the ties of the womb (relatives) must be kept connected, whether they are righteous or sinful; trust must be fulfilled, for the righteous and the sinful; and promises must be kept, to the righteous as well as the sinful.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf 12:298.

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ʿAmr b. Dīnār reports that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them – intended not to marry after the [passing of the] Prophet – ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa salam, so Ḥafṣah (his sister) – Allāh be pleased with her – advised him:

My brother, marry, for if you have a child and it dies, it will precede you into Al-Jannah (and be a cause for you to be admitted), and if it lives, the child will supplicate for good for you.

ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣanʿānī, Al-Muṣannaf #10388

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

If the people were gathered on one plain, all of them believers, except for two unbelievers amongst them, they would join each other. And if the people were gathered on one plain, all of them unbelievers, except for two believers amongst them, they would join each other.

Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-ʾIbānah Al-Kubrā 1:455

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It is reported that Mālik – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

It is upon whoever seeks knowledge to have a solemn, dignified demeanour, fearful [of Allāh]; and to follow in the footsteps of those who went before him.

[eesa the kiwi]

ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

A man laughed in [the circle of] Hishām Al-Dustawāʾī, so Hishām said to him, “Young man! You seek knowledge laughing?” He replied, “Is it not Allāh who makes [us] laugh and cry (as stated in the Qurʾān)?” So Hishām replied, “Then go and cry.”

Op. cit. 233

[eesa the kiwi]

Ismāʿīl b. Yaḥyā reports:

Sufyān once saw me joking with a man from Banī Shaybah at the House (Kaʿbah). I laughed, so he said to me, “You laugh here? A man used to hear a single ḥadīth and its demeanour and guidance would be seen on him for three days.”

Op. cit. 234

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

It is part of sure belief (yaqīn) [in Allāh] that you do not please the people by angering Allāh, and do not praise anyone [else] for what Allāh has provided you, and do not blame anyone for what Allāh has not given you. For verily, the provision of Allāh is not gained by the keenness of those who are keen [for you to have it], nor is it prevented by the hatred of those who hate [for you to have it]. And verily Allāh, in His justice, made happiness and joy in being certain and content [with Allāh], and made worry and sadness in doubt and anger.

Hannād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd, article 535.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀs – Allāh be pleased with them – said:

Leave alone what you have nothing to do with, and do not speak about what does not concern you, and secure your tongue like you secure your money.

Ibn Ḥibbān Al-Bustī, Rawḍatu Al-ʿUqalāʾ 1:55.

[MazharShafiq]

according to Sells, "Junayd seems to presuppose that his hearer or reader has had the experience about which he is speaking – or, even more radically, that the hearer or reader is able to enter that experience, or some re-creation of it – at the moment of encounter with Junaid's words."[4] This statement makes it seem like Junayd was writing to a specific sect of the elite that he described earlier. The elite that he refers to are the elect, or "a tightly-knit group of 'brethren' that Junayd designates by such phrases as 'the choice of believers' or 'the pure ones'. They play significant roles in the community of believers."[7]

As mentioned, Junayd has always been difficult to read for scholars because most of his writings have been lost to time. Junayd constantly uses precise words and language specific to try and describe God, the longing for Him, and the human condition. His ornate language immediately turns off most people, but Junayd had a reason for writing so cryptically. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Junayd found out that a letter he had written was opened by a stranger before it got to its destination: “doubtless by some zealot desirous of finding cause for impugning his orthodoxy; and to this ever-present danger must in part be attributed the deliberate preciosity which marks the writings of all the mystics of J̲unayd's period”.[9] This constant worry about others getting a hold of his ideas caused Junayd to become very protective of his writings.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Masrūq – Allāh have mercy him – said: There is no house better for the believer than the niche of his grave, for then he will rest from the worries of this world, and be secured from the punishment of Allāh.

Ibid. #87

[MazharShafiq]

Life is nothing but an accumulation of many breaths. So every breath is just a precious diamond which cannot be purchased with anything in the world. It is a priceless jewel which has got no substitute in value. So in movements and talks, and in sorrows and happiness, such a priceless breath should not be spent in vain. To destroy it is to court destruction. An intelligent man cannot lose it. When a man gets up at dawn, he should enter into an agreement with himself just as a tradesman contracts with his partner. At that time, he should address his mind thus: O mind, you have been given no other property as precious as life. When it will end, the principal will end and despondency will come in seeking profit in business. Today is a new day. Allah has given you time, that is, He has delayed your death. He has bestowed upon you innumerable gifts. Think that you are already dead. So don't waste time. Every breath is a precious jewel. Man has got for each day and night twenty-four treasure houses in twenty-four hours. Fill up these then find them filled up with divine sights in the world next. If they are not filled up with good works, they will be filled up with intense darkness wherefrom a bad stench will come out and envelop them all around. Another treasure house will neither give him happiness nor sorrow. That is an hour in which he slept, or was careless, or was engaged in any lawful work of this world. He will feel grieved for its remaining vacant.

[Taken from al-Ghazali: Meditation and Introspection, The Book of Constructive Virtues, Ihya Ulum-id-din.]

[eesa the kiwi]

Saʿīd b. Jubayr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Tawakkul (reliance and trust in Allah) comprehends all of Īmān.

Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd #534.

[eesa the kiwi]

Aḥmad b. Yūnus reports:

I saw Zuhayr b. Muʿāwiyah come to Zāʾidah b. Qudāmah (d.160H) and speak to him to get him to narrate ḥadīth to a man, so Zāʾidah asked, Is he from Ahl Al-Sunnah? Zuhayr replied, I do not know that he has any bidʿah. Zāʾidah said, No, that is another matter! Is he from Ahl Al-Sunnah? Zuhayr said, Since when have people become like this? Zāʾidah replied, Since when did people curse Abū Bakr and ʿUmar?!

Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq Al-Rāwī #754.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, you will find the believer (muʾmin) consistent time after time, upon one way, showing the same face; [whereas] you will find the hypocrite (munāfiq) changing colors, trying to be like everyone around him, running with every wind.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm #1936

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

We used to sometimes come to a scholar and what we learned of his manners was more beloved to us than the knowledge we took from him.

Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyatu Al-ʾAwliyāʾ #4575

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that a man once wrote to Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with them:

Please write down all knowledge for me. Ibn ʿUmar replied: Knowledge is vast, but if you can meet Allāh having kept your back light of the burden of people’s blood, your stomach void of people’s wealth and having kept your tongue from [disparaging] their honour, then do so.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 3:222

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Do not mix except with those who have good character; for the one who has good character brings nothing but good, whilst the one who has bad character brings nothing but evil.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān, #87044

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Muslim Al-Khawlānī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The example of the scholars on earth is that of the stars in the sky: when they appear, the people are guided (they navigate using the stars), but when they disappear, the people get confused and lost.

Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Madkhal ilā Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā #287

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that a man came to ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked, What do you think about a man who committed a sin? He replied, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. [The man] said, He did that, but then sinned again? [ʿAlī] said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The man again said, He did that, but returned to sin. [ʿAlī] said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The man said for the fourth time, He did, but then sinned again. ʿAlī then said, Until when?Then he said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him; and not give up until it is Shayṭān who is defeated [overcome].

Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 910

[eesa the kiwi]

Delving into Falsehood (I’ll take what’s good)

It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Ad-ham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Delving into falsehood removes the ability to recognize the truth from the heart.

Abu Nu’aym, Hilyatu Al-Awliyā` 8:22.

[MazharShafiq]

Muhammad ibn Waasi' (rahima-hullaah) used to say:

((If sins had an odour then nobody would be able to sit with me)).

The Evil of Craving for Wealth and Status - Imaam ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee

Ref: Fatwa-Online

Subhan Allaah!

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Wahb b. Munabbih – Allāh have mercy on him – used to say:

The believer mixes with others in order to learn, keeps quiet to keep safe (from sinning), speaks in order to understand, and secludes himself for the attainment (of good).

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-‘Uzlah article 99.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Al-Zuhrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those of our scholars who went before us used to say,”Adherence to the Sunnah is salvation, but knowledge is taken away quickly, so the revival of knowledge means the stability of religion and worldly affairs, and the loss of knowledge means the loss of all that.”

Al-Lālakā`ī, Sharh Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah article 136

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān b. ‘Uyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Verily, the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ is the highest standard; things are measured by him: his character, lifestyle and behavior. Whatever agrees with [these] is true and correct, and whatever contradicts [them] is wrong.

Al-Khatīb Al-Baghdādī, Akhlāq Al-Rāwī wa Ādāb Al-Sāmi’ article 8.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Ad-ham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Zuhd (abstinence from materialism, asceticism) is of three types: (i) obligatory zuhd, (ii) virtuous zuhd and (iii) zuhd for safety. Obligatory zuhd is to abstain from what is forbidden (harām); virtuous zuhd is to be disinterested in what is allowed (of this world); and zuhd for safety is to stay away from doubtful matters.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article 905.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Tālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Mention what you will of the greatness of Allāh, but Allāh is greater than anything you say. And mention what you will of the Fire, but it is more severe than anything you say. And mention what you will of Paradise, but it is better than anything you say.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article 853.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How strange it is that a people whose departure (from this world to the next) has been announced, and whose predecessors have already departed, still play around!

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article 843.

[eesa the kiwi]

The believer has good expectation of his Lord, so he makes his deeds good. But, the evil person has bad expectation of his Lord, so he does evil. - Hasan al-Basri

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – once said during the funeral of a man:

May Allāh have mercy on the man who works for the likes of this day; for today you are able to do what these brothers of yours, the residents of these graves, cannot do. So make full use of your health and free time before the day of distress and accounts comes upon you.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dhamm Al-Dunyāarticle 53.

[eesa the kiwi]

Living the Dream

It is reported that Yūnus b. ‘Ubayd (d. 139H) – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I only liken the worldly life (dunyā) to a man who, whilst sleeping, sees in his dream things he likes and things he does not like. Then he wakes up (the world ends and the next life starts).

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dham Al-Dunyā article 21.

[eesa the kiwi]

Umar bin Khattab (radiyAllaahu 'anhu) said,

"We were a people who lived in humiliation before, and Allah gave us honor through Islam. So if we seek honor through anything else other than what Allah has honored us with, then Allah will humiliate us".

[Mustadrak Al Hakim 207, Sahih by Ad Dhahabi in Talkhees and Sahih by Albani in Silsilah Sahiha 51]

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ibrāhīm Al-Taymī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

What a great difference there is between you and those people [of the past, the Salaf]! Worldly wealth came to them but they fled from it, whereas the world turns its back on you and you go after it.
Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iqarticle 538.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Imrān b. Husayn – Allāh be pleased with him – was once relating hadīth amongst a group of people, when a man said:

Leave this and give us something from the Book of Allāh. ‘Imrān said, “You are a dunce (stupid). Do you find in the Book of Allāh details of prayer. Do you find in the Book of Allāh details of fasting!? This Qur`ān prescribes those matters, and the Sunnah explains them.”

Al-Harawī, Dham Al-Kalām article 244, et al with various wordings.

[eesa the kiwi]

Non-Racial Supremacy

It is reported that Abū ‘Ubaydah b. Al-Jarrāḥ – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
O people! Yes, I am a man from Quraysh, but there is not a white man (literally: red), nor a black man amongst you who exceeds me in righteousness (taqwā) except that I wish I was in his skin.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 1:18.

[eesa the kiwi]

Imām Sa’īd b. Al-Musayyib – Allāh have mercy on him – once saw a man praying more than two rak’ah after sunrise the beginning of Fajr, making many bows and prostrations, and so he forbade him. The man said, “O Abu Muḥammad, is Allāh going to punish me for praying?” Sa’īd said, “No, but He will punish you for contradicting the Sunnah.”

Al-Bayhaqī, As-Sunan Al-Kubraa 2:466. graded ṣaḥīḥ by Shaykh Al-Albānī. See Irwā Al-Ghalīl 2:236.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

This world (the dunyā) is [only taken as] a home by those who will have no real home [in Jannah], and it is the wealth of those who will have no real wealth, and it is gathered and collected for by those who have no real intelligence.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dhamm Al-Dunyāarticle 16.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Bakr Al-Maṭū’ī said:

I sat in the circle of Abū ‘Abdillāh Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal for twelve years while he read the Musnad to his children, and I never wrote a single ḥadīth, I only looked at his behavior, character and etiquette.

Ibn Al-Jawzī, Manāqib Aḥmad, article 210.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

One who acts without knowledge is like one who travels off the path; and the one who acts without knowledge corrupts more than he rectifies. So seek knowledge in a way that does not harm your worship, and seek to worship [Allāh] in a way that does not harm [your seeking of] knowledge. For verily, there were people (the Khawārij extremists) who sought to worship [Allāh] but abandoned knowledge until they attacked the Ummah of Muḥammad – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him – with their swords. But if they had sought knowledge, it would not have directed them to do what they did.

Quoted by Ibn ‘Abd Al-Barr, Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm wa Faḍlihi article 905.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that the son of Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said to his father:

Father! How sweet (beautiful) the speech of the Companions is! [Al-Fuḍayl] said, “Son, do you know why it was so sweet?” He replied, “No father, I do not.” He said, “Because they sought Allāh the Exalted when they spoke.”

Al-Bayhaqī, Shu’ab Al-īmān 2:299

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Abū Dāwūd Al-Sijistānī – Allah have mercy on him – said:

Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal never used to involve himself in the things of this world that people involved themselves in; but when knowledge was mentioned, he would speak.

Ibn Al-Jawzī Ṣifatu Al-Ṣafwah 2:519.

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Umar b. Al-Khattāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Verily, the followers of opinion are the enemies of the Sunan (the teachings of Allāh’s Messenger as passed down in hadith): they were unable to preserve them and their meanings escaped them, and when asked [questions] they were too embarrassed to say ‘We don’t know,’ so they opposed the Sunan with their opinions.

Ibn Abī Zamanīn, Uṣūl Al-Sunnah article 8; Al-Lālakā`ī, Sharḥ Uṣūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah article 201 et al.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The believer speaks little and does alot, whereas the hypocrite (munāfiq) speaks a lot and does little. When the believer speaks, it is with wisdom, when he is silent, it is in deep thought, when he sees, he takes lessons, and when he acts, it is a cure. If this is the way you are, then you are in the constant worship [of your Lord.]

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyatu Al-Awliyā` 8:98.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Khālid b. Ma’dān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

There is not a person except he has four eyes: two in his head with which he sees the matters of this worldly life, and two in his heart with which he looks to the matters of the hereafter. So if Allāh wants good for his servant, He opens his heart’s eyes, and so he perceives what he has been promised in the unseen world. Thus he is saved from the unseen [punishment] through the unseen [reward for the obedient].

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 4: 543

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Al-Shāfi’ī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

If you fear becoming deluded and impressed by your deeds then remember whose pleasure you are seeking, and the joy (Paradise) in which you want to be, and what punishment you fear. Whoever thinks about these things will diminish his deeds.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`10:42.

[eesa the kiwi]

Salmān Al-Fārsī – Allāh be pleased with him – once visited a sick friend. When he entered upon him he said:

Have glad tidings, for verily Allāh makes the illness of a believer an expiation [for his sins] and a cause of being pleased, whereas the illness of a sinner is like a camel that has been tied by its owners, then released by them: it knows not why it was tied up nor why it was released.

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad in the Chapter on the Expiation [of sins through] illness. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Shaykh Al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Aḥnaf b. Qays – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

“Restraint is praiseworthy except in three things.” People asked, “And what are they o Abū Baḥr?” He replied, “Make haste to do the righteous deed, hurry to conduct the funeral of your deceased, and marry the girl in your charge to a suitable man [as soon as you find him.]”

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm 6:307.

[ZeeshanParvez]

al-Hasan said: One day I was with Ibn al-Mubaarak and we came upon a siqaayah (watering place). The people were drinking from it. He got closer to it to drink from it and the people did not recognize him so they shoved and pushed him. When he left, he said to me: There is no mode of living except like this (meaning where we are not recognized or revered).

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Awn b. ‘Abdillāh – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those before you used to give to their worldly affairs what was left over from their pursuit of the hereafter. But today, you give to the matters of the hereafter the left-overs from your pursuit of worldly affairs.

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyat Al-Awliyā` 10:242.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Anas b. Mālik – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

There are two days and two nights the likes of which no one has ever heard of before: the Day on which you will receive the news about Allāh the Exalted: whether you will receive His punishment or His mercy, the Day you will be given your book (of deeds): either in your right hand or your left, that [first] night you will spend alone in your grave, a night like no other you have spent, and that night on the morning of which will be the Day of Resurrection, after which there will be no more night.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article 19.

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Abdullāh b. Shaqīq Al-‘Uqaylī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

The Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allah’s praise and peace be upon him – did not consider the leaving of any action to be kufr (unbelief), except the prayer (ṣalāh).

Al-Tirmidhī, Al-Sunan ḥadīth 2622. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in his edition of Sunan Al-Tirmidhī.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – used to say about the house in which the Qur’ān is recited:

It becomes spacious for its inhabitants, the good of it becomes plentiful, the angels come to it and the devils leave it. And the house in which the Qur’ān is not recited becomes cramped for its inhabitants, has little good in it, and the devils come to it.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf articles 30645, 30647 and 30650.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – used to say:

Whoever does not think that his speech is part of his deeds and that his character is part of his religion will be destroyed without even realizing.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā Dham Al-Kadhib wa Ahlī article 94.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Mujāhid – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Those who strive and exert themselves (al-mujtahid) amongst you today are like those who used to play around amongst those before you.

Wakī’ b. Al-Jarrāh, Al-Zuhd article 221.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

If I had ten days left to live, and I knew I would die by the end of them, and I had enough time to get married, I would get married for fear of temptation (fitnah).

Sa’īd b. Mansūr, Al-Sunan article 493.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Tālib wrote to Salmām Al-Farsī – Allāh be pleased with them both – saying:

The likeness of this worldly life (dunyā) is that of a snake: soft to the touch, it will kill you with its poison. So turn away from what impresses you of it, since what stays with you is so little. And do not be concerned about it, since you are certain about its parting. And be most happy in it when you are most heedful of it; for every time its companion takes solace in one of its delights, it gives way to one of its woes.
Was-Salām.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 164.

[Simply_Logical]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Tālib wrote to Salmām Al-Farsī – Allāh be pleased with them both – saying:

The likeness of this worldly life (dunyā) is that of a snake: soft to the touch, it will kill you with its poison. So turn away from what impresses you of it, since what stays with you is so little. And do not be concerned about it, since you are certain about its parting. And be most happy in it when you are most heedful of it; for every time its companion takes solace in one of its delights, it gives way to one of its woes.
Was-Salām.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 164.

SubhanAllah may Allah swt be pleased with them both

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Four signs of wretchedness are: [having] a hard heart, dry eyes [that never cry], extended hopes [about this life], and greed and keenness to amass worldly things (the dunyā).

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 36.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that some people asked ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – to describe this worldly life (the dunyā). He said:

Do you want a long description or a brief one? They replied, “a brief one.” He said, “Its permissible things (ḥalāl) [lead to] accounts being taken from you, and its forbidden things (ḥarām) [lead to the] Fire.

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Dham Al-Dunyā article 17.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī reports:

I entered upon Mālik b. Anas when a man was asking him about the Qur`ān. [Imām Mālik] said, “Perhaps you are a companion of Amr b. ‘Ubayd. May Allāh curse ‘Amr, for he was the one who innovated this bid’ah of Kalām . If Kalām was knowledge, the Companions and their Followers would have spoken it, like they spoke about the regulations and laws [of Islam]. But [Kalām] is falsehood that leads to falsehood.”

Abul-Faḍl Al-Muqri`Al-Rāzī, Aḥādīth fī Dham Al-Kalām wa Ahlihī p96.
Al-Harawī, Dham Al-Kalām wa Ahlihīno.874.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Al-Dardā – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
You will never be pious (a person of taqwā) until you become knowledgeable, and you will never be beautiful with your knowledge until you act [by it].

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm wa Faḍlihī article 1239.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyād – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How will you be if you reach a time when you will see people who do not distinguish truth from falsehood, believer from unbeliever, trustworthy from treacherous, nor ignorant from knowledgeable, and neither recognize what is right nor censure what is wrong?

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā 1:188.

[eesa the kiwi]

Khālid b. ‘Umayr Al-‘Adawī reports, ‘Utbah b. Ghazwān – Allāh be pleased with him – once gave us a sermon. He praised Allāh, then said:

The life of this world has announced its departure and is quickly turning away, and nothing remains of it save the likes of the last drop of water in a vessel as its possessor tries to catch it. You are moving on to an abode that has no end, so move on with the best [deeds] that you have. For it has been said to us that a rock can be dropped from the edge of Hell and fall for seventy years without reaching the bottom. Yet, by Allāh, it will be filled. Do you not then wonder? And it has been said to us that a single entrance to Paradise is as wide as a journey of forty years, yet there will come a day when it will be crowded.

I have seen myself as the seventh of seven [followers of] Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him; we had no food save the leaves of trees which put sores round our mouths. I once got a cloak which I tore in half to share with Sa’d b. Mālik: I used half as my waist-wrap and he used the other. And yet today, there is not one of us except he has become a governor over some city – and I seek refuge with Allāh that I consider myself great and important when I am small in front of Allāh. Verily there was never prophet-hood except that it gradually changed until it ended up being a kingship, and verily you will see what the governors after us are like.

Sahīh Muslim no. 7624

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said:

Goodness is not in your wealth and offspring being plentiful; true goodness is when your [good] deeds are plenty and you have great understanding and forbearance, and when you compete to worship your Lord. If you do good you praise Allāh and thank Him, and if you sin you beg Allāh’s forgiveness. There is no good in this life except with two types of men: A man who sins but then corrects himself through repentance, and a man who strives and hastens to get [the good] of the hereafter.

Ibn ‘Asākir, Al-Tawbah article 13.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

Verily, Allāh has angels who seek out the circles of remembrance [of Allāh], so be careful who you sit with; make sure it is not with an adherent of bid’ah, for Allāh does not look at them. And the sign of nifāq (hypocrisy in faith) is that a man mingles with an adherent of bid’ah.

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā 1:460

[eesa the kiwi]

It is narrated that ‘Uthmān b. ʿAffān – Allāh be pleased with him – said in a sermon:

Son of Adam! Know that the angel of death who has been assigned to you has not ceased to pass you and move on to others, ever since you have been in this world. But it is as if he is about to pass someone else and move on to target you, so be careful and prepare for him (by correcting your deeds). And do not forget him, for he does not forget you. And know o son of Adam, if you are heedless about yourself and do not prepare, no one else will prepare for you. You must meet Allah the Mighty and Majestic, so take for yourself and do not leave it to someone else. Peace be on you.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 2: 73, 74.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Al-‘Āliyah – Allāh have mercy on him – said:

I would travel for days to a man to hear [knowledge/ḥadīth ] from him, and the first thing I would check about him is his prayer: if he performed it properly I would stay and hear [knowledge] from him, but if he neglected it, I would return without hearing from him, and I would say, ‘He will be even more neglectful of other matters.’

Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Riḥlah fī Ṭalab Al-Ḥadīth article 22; Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 4:209.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – was asked:

Did the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – used to laugh? He replied, “Yes, and the īmān (faith) in their hearts was greater than the mountains.”

ʿAbd Al-Razzāq Al-Ṣan’ānī, Al-Muṣannaf 11:327.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that when Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī was on his deathbed, some of his companions came to him and said:

O Abū Sa’īd, offer us some words you can benefit us with. He replied, “I will equip you with three words, then you must leave me to face what I am facing. Be the farthest of people from those things you have been forbidden, and be the most involved of people in the good you have been commanded to do; and know that the steps you take are two steps: a step in your favor and a step against you, so be careful where you come and where you go.”

Abū Nu’yam, Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā` 2:154

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Jundub b. ‘Abdillāh Al-Bajalī – Allah be pleased with him – was once asked for advice and instruction. He said:

I advise you to fear Allāh and obey Him (taqwā) and I advise you to adhere to the Quran, for it is a light in the dark night and a guidance during the day, so implement it no matter how much struggle and poverty you have to face. If a calamity befalls you, put your wealth forward to protect your religion, and if the calamity continues, put forward your wealth and your life to save your religion [but never risk your religion], for the ruined is he whose religion is ruined, and the looted is he whose religion is taken. And know that there is no poverty after Paradise, and no riches after the Fire.

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 3:174.

[eesa the kiwi]

It was said to ‘Ā`ishah – Allāh be pleased with her, “There are people who faint when they hear the Quran.” She said. “The Quran is nobler than to have people lose their minds from it. Rather, it [should be] as Allāh the Mighty and Sublime said:

Those who fear their Lord tremble with fear by it, then their skins and hearts settle to the remembrance of Allah. (Sūrah Al-Zumar: 23)

Abū ‘Ubayd Al-Qāsim b. Sallām, Faḍā`il Al-Qur`ān p214.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Abd Al-Rahmān b. Mahdī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If it were not for the fact I hate that Allah is disobeyed, I would have wished that no one remain in this city except that he had spoken ill of me and backbitten me; for what is nicer than a good deed a man finds in his records on the Day of Resurrection without having done a thing or even having known?”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyatu Al-Awliyā` 4:45.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Bukhārī reports that ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – came to the Black Stone (performing ṭawāf, circumambulation), kissed it, and said, “I know that you are a stone, you do not cause benefit or harm; and if it were not that I had seen Allāh’s Messenger – peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him – kiss you, I would never have kissed you.”

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Ṣaḥīḥ, Chapter on what has been said about the Black Stone.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that a man came to ʿAbdullāh b. Mas’ūd – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked, “Teach me some comprehensive and beneficial words.” He replied, “Worship Allāh and do not associate any partners with Him, and be with the Qur’ān wherever it is. And whoever comes to you with some truth – whether he is young or old, even if he is hated by you – then accept [that truth]. And whoever comes lying to you – even if he is beloved and close – then reject it from him.”

Abū Bakr Al-Kharā`iṭī, Masāwī Al-Akhlāq wa Madhmūmihā p72.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān Al-Thawrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Wealth is the disease of this Ummah, and the scholar is the doctor of this Ummah. So if the doctor brings the disease to himself, how will he cure the people?”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, Vol. 7 p243.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “The servant [of Allāh] should not fear except his sins, and should not hope except in his Lord. The ignorant should not be ashamed to ask, and the knowledgeable should not be ashamed to say – if he does not know something – ‘Allāh knows best.’ Patience (al-ṣabr) to faith (Al-Īmān) is like the head to the rest of the body: if the head is cut off, the body will rot. And one who has no patience, has no faith.”

Al-Baihaqī, Shu’ab Al-Īmān, Vol.12 p195.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ibn ʿUmar – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “We were the beginning [the heads] of this Ummah, and perhaps a man from the best of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – and the most righteous amongst them could maintain only one chapter of the Qur`ān or thereabouts. For the Qur`ān was weighty upon them, and they were given knowledge of it or action based on it. But the last of this Ummah will find the Qur`ān light [and easy] – the child and the non-Arab will recite it, without possessing any knowledge about it.”

Al-Harawī, Dhamm Al-Kalām wa AhlihīVol. 5 p144.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Shurayḥ – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If I am afflicted with a calamity, I praise Allāh for it four times: I praise Him because it wasn’t worse than it was, I praise Him when He gives me the patience to bear it, I praise Him for enabling me to say al-istirjā’ (‘To Allāh we belong and to him we will return’; see Al-Baqarah: 154-156 ) in hope of a great reward, and I praise Him for not making it a calamity in my religion.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, in his biography of Shurayḥ Al-Qāḍī.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that the last sermon ʿUmar b. ʿAbd Al-‘Aziz – Allāh have mercy on him – delivered was as follows:

He praised Allāh and said, “You were not created in vain, nor will you be left without purpose. Verily, you have an appointed time in which Allāh – the Most High – will come down to judge you. Wretched and ruined will he be who leaves the mercy of Allāh and is denied a Garden whose width is that of the heavens and Earth. Know you not that no one will be safe tomorrow save one who is wary of today and fears it; and sells the transitory for what will remain, and the little for the plenty, and fear in exchange for security [in the hereafter]? See you not that you are in the loins of the dead, to be taken by those who remain after you, until all matters return to the Best of Inheritors? Every day, [in the funerals] you accompany those returning to Allāh the Mighty and Sublime, having spent their time, until you hide them in a crevice in the ground, in the belly of a bare and unfurnished hole, having parted from their loved ones, stroking the dirt and facing their accounts. Now, they are dependent on their deeds, free of what they left behind, in need of [the deeds] they put before them. So fear Allāh before the time He appointed is up and death descends upon you. This is what I have to say.” He then lifted the edge of his garment over his face and wept profusely, and made everyone around him weep.

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm Vol. 3 p343.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Imām Layth b. Sa’d – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Even if I saw a heretic (follower of bid’ah) walk on water, I would not accept him.” This was reported to Imām Al-Shāfi’ī – Allāh have mercy on him, to which he replied, “He didn’t go far enough. Rather, if I saw one walk in the air, I would not accept him.”

Al-Lālakā`ī, Sharh Usūl ‘I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah Vol.1 p228; Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā Vol2. P175; Ibn Al-Jawzī, Talbīs Iblīs p14 – with slightly variant wordings

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported on the authority of Ibrāhīm b. Al-Ash’ath that he said, “I asked Al-Fudayl b. ʿAyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – about patience (al-sabr) in the face of adversity and he said, ‘It is to not broadcast it.’ I asked him about asceticism (al-zuhd) and he said, ‘Al-zuhd is to be content with what you have, and that is what it means to be rich.’ I asked him about prudence (al-wara’) and he said, ‘It is to stay away from what is forbidden.’ And I asked him about humbleness (al-tawādu’) and he said, ‘It is when you submit to the truth and comply no matter who you hear it from; even if it was from the most ignorant of people, you would be required to accept it from him.’”

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmi’ Bayān Al-‘Ilm wa Fadlihi Vol. 1 p498.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Fudayl b. ʿAyyāḍ said, “When backbiting appears, brotherhood for Allāh will disappear; and at that time you will be like things plated with gold and silver: wooden on the inside, [merely] looking good on the outside.”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyah Al-Awliyā`, Vol. 3 p395.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Muhammad Al-Bāqir – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “Never does any pride enter the heart of a man except that his intelligence decreases by the same amount.”

Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā`, in his biography of Muhammad Al-Bāqir.

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that Al-Fudayl b. ʿAyyāḍ said, “When backbiting appears, brotherhood for Allāh will disappear; and at that time you will be like things plated with gold and silver: wooden on the inside, [merely] looking good on the outside.”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyah Al-Awliyā`, Vol. 3 p395.

character, love, sinsAl-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ

[MazharShafiq]

Al-Barbahārī (Sharḥ Al-Sunnah p113, 114) states, “If you see a man supplicating against the ruler, know that he is a heretic (ṣaḥib hawā), and if you see a man supplicating for the ruler, know that he is a Sunni – inshā Allāh.”

Al-Imām Al-Ājurrī (d360H) states (Al-Sharī’ah Vol.1 p371), “I have mentioned warnings against the ways of the Khawārij that convey the message for everyone who Allāh protects against the ways of the Khawārij, and who does not hold the views of the Khawārij, but is [instead] patient over the injustice of the rulers … and who prays for the wellbeing and righteousness of the rulers, and who does Hajj and Jihād behind the rulers against every enemy of the Muslims, and who prays the Jumu’ah and ‘Eid prayers behind the rulers. Whoever fits this description is upon the Straight Path – inshā Allāh.”

affairs of the Ummah, bidʿah, governance, Sunnah, ʿaqīdahAl-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ

[eesa the kiwi]

"If a man seeks knowledge, it will appear in his face, hands an tongue and in his humility to Allah." - Hassan Al-Basri

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that Bashr b. Al-Hārith said, “I was once with Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ in Makkah. He sat with us until midnight, then went and did ṭawāf until the morning. I said, ‘Abū ‘Alī! Won’t you sleep?’ He replied, ‘Woe to you! And is there anyone who hears a mention of the Fire and then feels like sleeping!?’”

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm, article 723.

fear, The Fire, worshipAl-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ

[eesa the kiwi]

Abū Madīnah Al-Dārimī – Allāh be pleased with him – reports, “When two of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – would meet, they would not part until one would recite to the other “By time, verily man is in loss…” (Sūrah Al-‘Asr). Then, one of them would say salām to the other.”

Recorded by Al-Tabarānī in Al-Awsat, and others. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission sahīh. See Al-Sahīhah, hadīth 2648.

[MazharShafiq]

Al-Sha’bī reports, “When the Companions of Muhammad – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – used to meet, they would shake hands; and when returning from travels, they would hug one another.”

Shaykh Al-Albānī states in Al-SahīhahVol. 1 p300, “[This is] recorded by Al-Bayhaqī Vol. 7 p100 with a sahīh chain of transmission from Al-Sha’bī.”

Abū Madīnah Al-Dārimī – Allāh be pleased with him – reports, “When two of the Companions of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – would meet, they would not part until one would recite to the other “By time, verily man is in loss…” (Sūrah Al-‘Asr). Then, one of them would say salām to the other.”

Recorded by Al-Tabarānī in Al-Awsat, and others. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission sahīh. See Al-Sahīhah, hadīth 2648.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Sufyān b. ‘Uyainah – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “The intelligent person is not one who merely knows what is good and what is bad. The intelligent person is one who, when he sees what is good, follows it, and when he sees evil, shuns it.”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyah Al-Awliyā`, Vol. 4 p16.

[eesa the kiwi]

True knowledge is not mentioned in relation to how much you memorise and then narrate, but rather, true knowledge is an expression of piety. - Ibn Mas'ud (radhiyallahu 'anhu)

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that Al-Aswad [b. Yazīd Al-Nakha’ī] used to complete the recitation of the Quran in Ramadan every two nights; sleeping between al-maghrib and al-‘ishā. Outside of Ramaḍān, he used to complete a recitation every six nights.

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyatu Al-Awliyā` 1:250.

It is related from Al-Rabī’ b. Sulaymān, “Muḥammad b. Idrīs Al-Shāfi’ī used to complete reciting the Quran in the month of Ramadan sixty times, all in the prayer.”

Ibid. 4:107

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported form Abū Al-Dardā – Allāh be pleased with him – that he said, “Three make me laugh, and three make me cry.

Those that make me laugh are a person who puts his hopes in this worldly life while death pursues him, a person who is heedless [of his Lord] while [his Lord] is not heedless of him, and a person who always laughs while he does not know whether he has pleased Allāh or angered Him.

What makes me cry is being separated from my beloved: Muhammad and his party (the Companions), the horrors of the time of death, and standing in front of Allāh ‘azza wa jall on the Day when the secrets will be revealed and I do not know will I then go to Paradise or Hell?”

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iqarticle 250.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Ṭalq b. Ḥabīb – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “The right of Allāh is too great and heavy for the creation to fulfill and the blessings of Allāh are too many to enumerate, but you should remain repentant, morning and evening.”

Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-Tawbah article 62.

[eesa the kiwi]

The great ascetic Shaqīq Al-Balakhī – Allāh have mercy on him – was once asked, “What is the mark of [true] repentance?” He replied, “Continued crying over past sins, deep fear of falling into them again, staying away from bad company, and keeping the company of good people.”

Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-‘Ilm article 2645.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that a group of heretics (People of Bid’ah) and their devout worship was mentioned to ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī. He said, “Allāh only accepts what conforms to what has been commanded and what is in the Sunnah.” Then he recited, And a monasticism which they (Christians) innovated, We did not ordain it upon them [Al-Ḥadīd: 27]. He went on to say, “So Allāh did not accept this from them and reprimanded them for it.” He then said, “Stick to the way and the Sunnah.”

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā` Vol.4 p44.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ‘Awn b. ʿAbdillāh, the ascetic and jurist, said, “Sit with the repentant, for they have the softest hearts.”

Abū Nu’aym, Ḥilyah Al-Awliyā` Vol. 2 p192.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Abū Ayyūb Al-Anṣārī – Allāh be pleased with him – said, “A person might do a single good deed, rely on it and forget sins that he regards insignificant, but then meet Allāh (on the Day of Judgment) with those sins surrounding him. And a man might commit a sin, but never stop fearing its consequences, until he meets Allāh safe and sound.”

Al-Ḥāfidh Ibn Ḥajr, Fatḥ Al-Bārī, references this narration to Asad b. Mūsā’s Al-Zuhd. A slightly different wording is reported by Ibn Al-Mubārak in Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iq Vol.1 p170.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that ʿUmar b. ʿAbd Al-‘Azīz once wrote to Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī to get a brief exhortation from him, so Al-Ḥasan wrote back , “The dunyā distracts and preoccupies the heart and body, but al-zuhd (asceticism, not giving importance to worldly things) gives rest to the heart and body. Verily, Allāh will ask us about the ḥalāl things we enjoyed, so what about the ḥarām!”

Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabīr, article 26.

[eesa the kiwi]

Which life to Pursue?

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī often used to say, “O youth! Seek the hereafter, for we often see people pursuing the hereafter and finding it as well as the dunyā (worldly wellbeing), but we have never seen anyone pursue the dunyā and gain the hereafter as well as the dunyā.”

Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabīr, article 12.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him – once passed by the market in Medinah. He stopped at the market and said, “O people of the market, how incapable you are!” They said, “And how is that Abū Hurayrah?” He replied, “Over there the inheritance of Allāh’s Messenger – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him – is being distributed and you are here! Won’t you go and take your share?” “Where is it?” they asked. He replied, “In the Masjid.” So they hurried to the Masjid and Abū Hurayrah waited for them until they returned. When they came back, he said, “What’s the matter?” They replied, “Abū Hurayrah! We went to the Masjid but we didn’t see anything being distributed.” Abū Hurayrah asked them, “And you didn’t see anyone in the Masjid?” They replied, “Indeed we did; we saw people praying, others reciting Qur`ān and others studying the regulations of ḥalāl and ḥarām.” So Abū Hurayrah said, “Woe to you! That is the inheritance of Muḥammad – Allāh’s peace and blessings be upon him.”

Al-Ḥāfidh Al-Mundhirī said in Al-Targhīb wa Al-Tarhīb, “Reported by Al-Ṭabarāni in Al-Awsaṭ with a ḥasan chain of narrators.” Also graded ḥasan by Shaykh Al-Albānī. See his Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Targhīb wa Al-Tarhīb Vol. 1 p19.

[eesa the kiwi]

ʿAbdullāh b. ‘Amr – Allāh be please with them both – said:

It would be better for a person to be turned to dust than to deliberately walk in front of a person who is praying.

Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Al-Tamhīd. Graded sahīh by Shaykh Al-Albānī in Sahīh Al-Targhībi wa Al-Tarhīb Vol. 1 p135.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported from Al-Awzâ’î – Allâh have mercy on him – that he said:

I have been told that it used to be said, “Woe to those who study [their religion] for a purpose other than worship, and those who seek to permit what is forbidden through doubts and specious arguments.”

Al-Khattîb Al-Baghdâdî, Iqtdâ Al-‘Ilm Al-‘Amal, p77.

[eesa the kiwi]

Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Yarbu’i said:

“Fudha’la Ibn Ubaid advised us saying: “If you can learn and not be known, do that; if you can listen and not talk, do that; and if you can sit and acquire knowledge from others, do that.’”



– Adh-Dhahabi “Siyar a’laam an-Nubalaa’”: 3/116

[eesa the kiwi]

Reputation

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ said:

If you can be unknown, be so; it doesn’t matter if you are not known and it doesn’t matter if you are not praised. It doesn’t matter if you are blameworthy according to people if you are praiseworthy with Allāh the Mighty and Majestic.

Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabīr p100.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported from Abû Qilâbah – Allâh have mercy on him – that he said:

Do not sit with the People of Desires (Bid’ah), for I fear that they will immerse you in their misguidance or mix up and confuse what you already know.

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibânah Al-Kubrâ Vol.1 p377.

[eesa the kiwi]

A man once asked Abū Hurayrah – Allāh be pleased with him, ‘What is al-taqwā?” He replied, “Have you ever taken a path filled with thorns?” The man replied, “I have.” Abū Hurayrah asked him, “What did you do?” He replied, “When I saw a thorn I would dodge it or pass over it or behind it.” Abū Hurayrah said, “That is al-taqwā.”

Al-Baihaqī, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabīr p351.

[eesa the kiwi]

Shaqîq b. Ibrâhîm reports:

It was once said to ‘Abdullah b. Al-Mubârak, “After you have prayed with us you don’t sit with us?” He replied, “I go and sit with the Sahâbah and the Tâbi’în.” We said, “And how can you sit with the Sahâbah and Tâbi’în (when they have all passed away)?” He replied, “I go and read the knowledge I have collected, I find their narrations and deeds. What would I do with you? You sit around backbiting people.”

Al-Dhahabî, Siyar A’lâm Al-Nubalâ` in his biography of ‘Abdullah b. Al-Mubârak.

[eesa the kiwi]

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.

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Abdullâh b. Mubârak said:

I asked Sufyân Al-Thawrî, “When a man stands to pray, what should he intend by his recitation and prayer?” He replied, “He should intend that he is personally entreating his Lord.”

Muhammad b. Nasr Al-Marwazî, Ta’dhîm Qadr Al-Salâh Vol. 1 p199.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported from ʿAbdullāh b. Mas’ūd – Allāh be pleased with him – that he said:

“One should get used to the idea that if everyone on Earth disbelieved, you would not disbelieve. Do not be an im’ah(characterless).” He was asked, “And what is an im’ah?” He replied, “A person who says, ‘I am with the people (I do what they do).’ Verily, there is to be no following examples in evil.”

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā Vol.1 p33.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported from Al-Awzāʿī that he said:

Whoever remembers death often will find a small amount (of worldly things) sufficient for him; and whoever includes his speech in his deeds will speak little.

Al-Dhahabī , Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` in his biography of Al-Awzāʿī.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Qāsim b. Muhammad, the grandson of Abū Bakr – Allah have mercy on him – said:

In my time the people were not impressed by speech, they were impressed by actions. Anyone can say whatever he wants.

Abū Dāwūd, Kitāb Al-Zuhd p354.

[eesa the kiwi]

Ibn Abī Mulaykah – Allah have mercy on him – said:

I met thirty of the Prophet’s Companions – Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him – and every one of them feared falling into nifāq (hypocrisy); not one of them claimed he had the level of faith of Jibrīl or Mīkā`īl.

Quoted by Al-Bukhārī, Al-Sahīh, Chapter on the believer fearing that his deeds will be nullified without him realizing.

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Ayyād – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
How will you be if you reach a time when you will see people who do not distinguish truth from falsehood, believer from unbeliever, trustworthy from treacherous, nor ignorant from knowledgeable, and neither recognize what is right nor censure what is wrong?

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā 1:188.

After reporting this narration, Imām Ibn Battah (d. 387H) said:

To Allāh we belong and to Him we will return! We have reached that time, we have heard this and have come to know most of it and witnessed it. If a man to whom Allāh has bestowed sound reasoning looks and thinks carefully and ponders the matter of Islām and its people and treads the rightly guided path as regards to them, it will become clear to him that most people have turned back on their heals, deviated from the correct path, and turned away from correct proof. Many people have started to like what they used to hate, allow what they used to forbid and recognize what they used to reject. And for sure – Allāh have mercy on you – this is not the [right] character of the Muslims, nor the behaviour of those who have insight into this religion, and neither of those who believe in it and are certain about it.

bidʿah, fitnah, ʿaqīdahAl-Fuḍayl b. ʿAyyāḍ

[eesa the kiwi]

Sufyān b. ‘Uyainah – Allah have mercy on him – said:

The first step in knowledge is to listen, then to be quiet and attentive, then to preserve it, then to put it into practice and then to spread it.

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyah Al-Awliyā` Vol.3 p283.

[eesa the kiwi]

"O son of Adam, how is your heart ever going to be softened by the recitation of Qur'an when all you read for is to reach the end of the surah"
Al Hassan Al Basri

[MazharShafiq]

It is reported that ‘Abd Al-Rahmān b. Mahdī – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If it were not for the fact I hate that Allah is disobeyed, I would have wished that no one remain in this city except that he had spoken ill of me and backbitten me; for what is nicer than a good deed a man finds in his records on the Day of Resurrection without having done a thing or even having known?”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyatu Al-Awliyā` 4:45.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allah have mercy on him – said:

Do not sit with an adherent of bid’ah for he will cause a disease in your heart.

Ibn Waddāh, Al-Bida’ p124.

[MazharShafiq]

Muhammad ibn Salam says that Umm Salamah used to send Umm ul-Hasan to do anything for her. Al-Hasan used to cry in his mother’s absence; so Umm Salamah would breast-feed him for some time. She would also bring him out to the Companions of the Prophet while he was still young. They would pray for him. Once he was bought to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said: “Allahuhummah Faqqih’hufiddeen wa habbib ilayhin naas’ (”O Allah! Make him well-versed in religion and make people love him.”)

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Hasan Al-Basrī – Allah have mercy on him – said:

When a man sought knowledge, it would not be long before it could be seen in his humbleness, his sight, upon his tongue and his hands, in his prayer, in his speech and in his disinterest (zuhd) in worldly allurements. And a man would acquire a portion of knowledge and put it into practice, and it would be better for him than the world and all it contains – if he owned it he would give it in exchange for the hereafter.

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iqVol.1 p.156.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that before his death, Abū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī – Allah be please with him – used to exert himself intensely in worship. It was said to him, “If only you would slow down and go easy on yourself.” He replied, “When steeds are let loose and come close to the end of their course they finish by giving it all they have, and what remains of my life is less than that.”

Al-Dhahabī , Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` in his biography of Abū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī.

[eesa the kiwi]

ʿAbdullah Ibn ‘Abbās – Allah be pleased with them – was once asked, “Who do you think is better: a man who has few (good) deeds and few sins or a man who has many (good) deeds and many sins?” He replied, “There is nothing like being safe.”

Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā`iqVol.1 p146, no.57.

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported from Abū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī – Allah be pleased with him – that he said:

We the Companions of Allah’s Messenger – Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him – never had difficulty in understanding a ḥadīth except that when we asked ‘Ā`ishah we found she had some knowledge about it.

[MazharShafiq]

Ibn Al-Muhallab reports that he heard Abȗ Mȗsā Al-Ash’arī – Allah be pleased with him – standing on his minbar (pulpit) saying:

Whoever Allāh has given some knowledge should teach it. And he must not say anything he has no knowledge of, lest he become one of the pretenders and leave the religion.

Ibn Sa’d, Al-Ṭabaqāt 4:102. Maktabah Al-Khānjī, Cairo.

daʿwah, knowledgeAbū Mūsā Al-Ash’arī

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"If the hearts are pure, they will never have enough from reciting Allah's words (the Qur'an)."
[Uthman ibn Affan - radiyAllaahu 'anhu]

[eesa the kiwi]

Imām Al-Shāfi’ī said:

People didn’t become ignorant and didn’t differ amongst themselves except because they left Arabic and leaned towards the language of Aristotle.

Quoted by Al-Suyūṭī in Ṣawn Al-Manṭiqp15. He said on p22:

I have found Salaf before Al- Shāfi’ī indicate what he did: that the cause of heresy (al-ibtidā’) is ignorance of Arabic language.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Fudayl b. ʿAyyāḍ [187H] – Allah have mercy on him – said:

“Allah ‘azza wa jalla accepts only those deeds which are both correct and sincere (pure). If the deed is done correctly but not sincerely, it will not be accepted. And if it is sincere but not correct, it will not be accepted.” He was asked, “Abū ‘Alī! What is the sincere and correct deed?” He replied, “The sincere deed is one that is done only for Allah ‘azza wa jall. And the correct deed is one done according to the Sunnah.”

Abū Nu’aym, Hilyah Al-Awliyā` Vol.8 p95.

[eesa the kiwi]

A Sign of Knowledge and a Sign of Ignorance

Masrūq – Allah have mercy on him – said:

Sufficient as knowledge for a person is that he fears Allah, and sufficient as ignorance for a person is that he feels impressed with the knowledge he has.

Al-Ājurrī in Akhlāq Al-‘Ulamā’ no.40.

[eesa the kiwi]

Abū Al-Dardā’ – Allah be pleased with him – said:

It is from a person’s knowledge and understanding that he sees to his needs first in order to turn to his prayer with a heart free of distractions.

Ibn Al-Mubārak in Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā’iqVol.2 p726

dunyā, prayer, worship

[eesa the kiwi]

Imām Al-Shāfi’ī said:

Whenever any people of desires (heretics) came to Mālik he would say to them, “As for me, I am upon clarity as regards my religion. As for you, you are a doubter, go and argue with another doubter like yourself.”

Al-Dhahbī in Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā’ under the biography of Imām Mālik.

[eesa the kiwi]

Al-Hārith b. Qays – Allah have mercy on him – said:

When intending to do something good, do not delay it until tomorrow. When involved in something to do with the hereafter, keep yourself involved as long as you can. When involved in some worldly matter, put your mind to it (so as to get it done). And if you are praying and Shaytān whispers, ‘You are showing off,’ then make your prayer even longer.

Ibn Al-Mubārak in Al-Zuhd wa Al-Rqā’iqVol.1 p126

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Aṭā’ narrates that there used to be a young man who used to go to Mother of the Believers ‘Ā’ishah to ask her questions and she would narrate to him. One day, he came to her to ask her some questions. She said, “Son, have you put into practice what you hear from me yet?” He replied, “No mother, I have not.” So she said, “Son, why do you then seek to increase Allah’s proof against us and you?!”

Al-Khatīb Al-Baghdādī in Iqtidā’ Al-‘Ilm Al-‘Amal no. 92.

[eesa the kiwi]

If only this was in fashion

‘Urwah b. Al-Zubayr – Allah have mercy on him – said:

‘Ā’ishah – Allah be pleased with her – gave seventy thousand (dirham) in charity, while her own skirt used to be patched.

‘Abdullah b. Mubārak in Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā’iq Vol. 1 p588, no.705.

[MazharShafiq]

Abū ‘Uthmān Sa’īd b. Ismā’īl Al-Naysābūrī (d290H) said:

Whoever governs himself by the Sunnah – in word and deed – will speak with wisdom. But whoever governs himself according to his own desires will speak heresies (bid’ah); because Allah tabāraka wa ta’ālā said:

And if you obey him (the Messenger) you will be guided. [Sūrah Al-Nūr: 54]

Abū Nu’aym in Al-Ḥilyah Vol.10 p244, and others.

After mentioning this and other similar narrations Shaykh Al-Islām Ibn Taymīyah said (Minhāj Al-Sunnah Vol.5 p117):

It is as they said, for if a person does not follow what the Messenger came with he will act according to his own wishes. Thus he will be one who follows his desires without guidance from Allah.

bidʿah, SunnahAbū ʿUthmān Al-Naysābūrī

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Someone reported to Hasan Basri that a certain man was in his death throes. He commented: "He was in his death throes since his appearance on earth. He will now be released."

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar – Allah be pleased with them both – said:

Every bid’ah (religious innovation) is misguidance, even if people think it is good.

Al-Lālakā’ī in Sharh Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā’ah Vol 1. P134, no.111; and Ibn Battah in Al-Ibānah Al-Kubraa Vol.1 p219, no. 213

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‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar – Allah be pleased with them both – said:

Every bid’ah (religious innovation) is misguidance, even if people think it is good.

Al-Lālakā’ī in Sharh Usūl I’tiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā’ah Vol 1. P134, no.111; and Ibn Battah in Al-Ibānah Al-Kubraa Vol.1 p219, no. 213

[MazharShafiq]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Only du’aa (supplication) can change Qadar (Destiny).” Du’aa can change the destiny of what would have been if the du’aa had not been made.

[eesa the kiwi]

Anas b. Mālik – Allah be pleased with him – said:

You people do things today that you regard as less significant than a strand of hair, whereas we, during the time of the Prophet – peace and blessings be upon him – used to consider them destructive sins.

Al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, Chapter on sins that are seen as insignificant but which should be kept away from.

[eesa the kiwi]

‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib – Allah be pleased with him – said:

Shall I not tell you who the real faqīh is? He is one who does not make people despair of Allah’s mercy, yet he does not give them concessions to disobey Allah. He does not make them feel safe from Allah’s plan and he does not leave the Quran.

There is no good in worship that involves no efforts to gain fiqh, and there is no good in seeking fiqh without seeking a thorough understanding. And there is no good in reading without contemplating.

Al-Ājurrī in Akhlāq Al-‘Ulamā’ no. 45, Al-Khaṭīb in Al-Faqīh wa Al-Mutafaqqih Vol. 2 pp338-339.

[eesa the kiwi]

Do not detest the misfortunes that befall you, for what you detest may be the cause of your salvation and what you like may be the cause of your ruin"

Al-Hasan Al-Basree

[eesa the kiwi]

Imaam Maalik said, when he was asked about how Allaah rose over the Throne: “We know that He rose over it, but we do not know how. Believing in it is obligatory and asking about it is bid'ah."

[eesa the kiwi]

It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī said:

Son of Ādam, you will never find the reality of īmān as long as you fault people for doing what you yourself are guilty of, until you clear yourself of that fault and correct it. Then, you will not correct a fault in yourself except that you will notice another, so your occupation will become correcting yourself, and this is the most beloved thing to Allāh, when you are like this.

Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baġdādī, Al-Muntakhab min Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq, article 41.

[eesa the kiwi]

Aṭāʾ b. Yasār reports:

A man once came to Ibn ʿAbbās and said, “I proposed to a woman and she refused to marry me, then someone else proposed to her and she wanted to marry him; so I became jealous and killed her. Can I repent from this?” [Ibn ʿAbbās] asked, “Is your mother alive?” He replied, “No.” So he said, “Repent (tawbah) to Allāh the mighty and majestic, and worship him as much as you can.”

ʿAṭāʾ said, “So I went and asked Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘Why did you ask him if his mother was alive?’ He replied, ‘I do not know of any action that brings one closer to Allāh than dutifulness to the mother.'”

Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad ḥadīth 4. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī. See Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, Chapter on Dutifulness to the Mother; Al-Ṣaḥīḥah 6:711 ḥadīth 2799.

[eesa the kiwi]

Ibraaheem ibn Faatik said: I heard Aboo Ya`qoob say:

"This world is an ocean, and the Hereafter is that distant shore, the boat to be traveled within is fear of Allaah, and the people are travelers within it."

(Siyaar A`laam an-Nubala, vol.15, p.282)