Gems Pearls of Wisdom of the Salaf

Peo-ple Change & Allah For-gives

It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Do not be hasty in praising people or blaming them, for perhaps what pleases you from a person today will displease you tomorrow, and perhaps what displeases you today, will please you tomorrow. Indeed, people change. It is Allāh who forgives the sins. And Allāh is more merciful to his servant the day he meets him than a mother who lays out a bed for her child in an empty patch of land and feels [the ground]: if there is a risk of being stung, it will be her instead of him (her child), and if there is a risk of being pricked by a thorn, it will be her instead of him.

Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān article 6177, and others.
 
Planting Nifāq

ʿAbdullah b. Mas’ūd – Allah be pleased with him – said:
Singing sprouts hypocrisy (nifāq) in the heart as water sprouts greens and herbs.

Ibn Battah, Al-Ibānah Al-Kubrā Vol.2 p469, and Al-Bayhaqī, Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā Vol. 52 p231.
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyah – Allah have mercy on him – said in Madārij Al-Sālikīn, Vol.1 p487:

These are the words of someone who fully understood singing and its effects, for no one regularly sings or listens to song except that his heart falls into nifāq without him realizing. If such a person understood the reality of nifāq and its end he would see it in his own heart. Never do the love of song and the love of Qur`ān come together in a person’s heart except that one expels the other. I and others have witnessed how heavy the Qur`ān feels to singers and song-listeners; how they coil when it is recited and how they get angry with a reciter when he recites too long for them (in prayer etc); and how their hearts do not benefit from what he recites: they are not moved to do anything by it. But when the Qur`ān of Shaytān comes, lā ilāha illallāh! How they lower their voices and settle down! How their hearts feel at peace and how the crying and emotions start, how moved they are inwardly and outwardly and spend on clothing and perfume and staying up hoping for a long night ahead. If this is not nifāq then it is certainly the way to it and its foundation.
 
If you have no shame, then do as you please
One of the children of Al-Qa’nabi narrated this story:
“A regular drinker of wine, my father used to keep company with disreputable young men. He one day invited them and then sat down in front of his door, waiting for them to arrive. While he was waiting, Shu’bah passed by on his donkey and a number of people were racing behind him in order to keep up with him.
“Who is that?” asked Al-Qa’nabi.
“Shu’bah,” answered someone seated nearby.
“And what is Shu’bah?”
“A scholar of hadith.”
“Recite a hadith to me,” said Al-Qa’nabi, who was wearing an indecent red-colored izar.
“You are not one of the people of hadith so I do not feel obliged to narrate to you,” said Shu’bah.
Al-Qa’nabi took out a knife and pointed it at Shu’bah. “You will report to me a narration or I will injure you,” said Al-Qa’nabi.
“Mansur reported to us,” begain Shu’bah, “From Rib’i from Abu Mas’ud who said:
The Messenger of Allah said, “If you have no shame, then do as you please.” [Sahih Bukhari]
Click to expand...
Al-Qa’nabi tossed the knife to the ground and returned to the inside of his home. He took all the wine bottles he had and emptied them on the floor. He said to his mother, “My companions will soon arrive. When they come, admit them inside and offer them food. When they are finished eating, tell them what I did with the alcohol so they will then leave.”
Al-Qa’nabi immediately left for Al-Madinah, where he spent the following years of his life as a student of Imam Malik bin Anas, and had the honor of reporting hadith from the imam.

Source : Stories of Repentance – by Muhammad Abduh Mughawiri
 
I Would Rather Sing a Song

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.
 
Make Fasting Different
Sulaymān b. Mūsā [d119H] – Allah have mercy on him – said:

When you fast, your hearing and sight should also fast, and your tongue should fast by keeping away from lies; and do not harm your servant. Don’t let the day you fast be the same as the day you don’t fast.

Tārīkh Dimishq Vol. 22 p389.

Al-Sawm (fasting) literally means to keep away from something. Fasting of the faculties of hearing and seeing means to keep away from listening to and looking at things that are displeasing to Allah, in the same way that we stay away from food and drink when we are fasting.
 
​Sleeping during the day [best and worst times]
Khawāt b. Jubayr – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Sleeping in the first part of the day is ignorance, and in the middle of the day [good] character, and in the last part of the day stupidity.
Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ. See Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad hadith #947.
 
The Diagnosis and the Cure

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.
 
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said "If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink) and take it out, for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease."
 
Better to be Dust

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
 
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."
 
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.
 
Mixing or Withdrawing for Gain

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.
 
Patience is that the heart does not feel anger towards that which is destined and that the mouth does not complain.
~Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
 
He who keeps his heart near God will find peace and tranquility, whilst he who gives his heart to the people will find restlessness and apprehension.
~Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
 
It is reported that Ya’lā b. ‘Ubayd said,

“We entered upon Ibn Sūqah, who said: ‘O nephew, let me relate to you something that will hopefully benefit you; for it benefited me. ‘Atā b. Abī Rabāh once said to us:'”Those before you used to consider idle talk to be anything other than the Book of Allāh, or the enjoining of good, or the forbidding of evil, or speaking for the sake of your basic living needs. Do you deny that there are recording angels appointed over you? Sitting on your right and your left? Never is a word said except there is an observer prepared to record? Are you not afraid (ashamed) that your record of words and deeds be spread open only to discover that there is nothing of the hereafter in it?
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 5:86
 
‘Umar Ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azeez (rahimahullah) said:“

Taqwaa is not fasting by day and standing for prayers by night. But taqwaa is to desert/leave what Allah has forbidden and to fulfill what He has commanded - and whoever puts forth goodness after that, then that is khair upon khair.”

(Jaami’ ‘Uloom Wal Hikam, by Ibn Rajb p. 170)
 
Following Hadith Exactly
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.
Shaykh Al-Albānī explained that ‘he never went beyond it’ means: he never added anything to what was in the ḥadīth or overstepped the bounds of the ḥadīth; and ‘he never fell short of it’ means: he never neglected what was in the ḥadīth.
 
Sayyiduna Umar on Abu Bakr and BilalJābir b. ‘Abdillāh reports that ‘Umar b. Al-Khattāb – Allāh be pleased with them – used to say:

Abū Bakr is our sayyid (master/leader), and he freed our sayyid – meaning Bilāl.
Al-Bukhārī, Al-Sahīh, hadith 3754.
 
Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle ﷺ said, "Whoever observes fasts during the month of Ramadan out of sincere faith, and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven."

حَدَّثَنَا ابْنُ سَلاَمٍ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ فُضَيْلٍ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ أَبِي سَلَمَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏
"‏ مَنْ صَامَ رَمَضَانَ إِيمَانًا وَاحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ ‏"‏‏.‏
 
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
 

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