Pearls of Wisdom

[AT]

If you want to talk to Allah,
perform Salah.
If you want Allah to talk to you,
read Qur'an.




Action is the biggest measurement of knowledge




All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen




Dont despair. Allah is there.
- Mutma'inaa




Be hard on yourself, easy on others.
- Imam Shafi' (rahimullah)




If you are not of the righteous, then at least do which the righteous do, and you'll become one of them
- From those who know




If sins had an odour, then nobody would be able to sit with me.
- Muhammad ibn Wasi




If sins had an odour, would you be sitting alone?




When light engages the heart, it causes an illumation of the path,a purification of the consciousness, an enlightenment of the intellect and an establishment of the foundations of dhikr and shukr and of beautiful worship...
- Habib Umar Bin Hafiz




Do not try to run away from trials and tribulations, but endure them with patience. They cannot be avioded, and there is nothing for it but to endure them with patience, How can you expect the whole of this world, and all that has been created therein, to undergo change and transformation just to suit your convenience? The Prophets are the best of all creatures, yet they have always had to suffer afflication and so it is for their followers, those who tread in their footsteps as they walk along their highway, emulating their example.
- Muhyuddin Abdul Qadir Jilani




And love your Lord by serving Him
For lovers are but servants of the Beloved
- a poet




Allah's Generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)




Actions are but lifeless forms whose soul is the secret of sincerity in them
- ibn Ata'illah




This world in comparison with the world to come, is the same as if one of you were to put his finger in the ocean.
Consider how much you would have when you pulled it out
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)




In my 39 years on this earth, the Holy city of Makkah had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of all and felt like a complete human being
- El Hajj el Malik al-Shabbaz (Malcolm X)



Be a good man to Allaah and a bad man to yourself (desires); and be one of the commoners among the people
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)




A servant should overcome his soul,
And be continuous in the remembrance of his Lord,
Establishing the rights of his Lord,
Focusing upon Him with his heart,
The light of fear setting ablaze his heart,
Whilst drinking from the vessel of pure love,
And certain hidden realities being unveiled for him.
So when he talks, it is due to Allah,
When he speaks, it is from Allah,
When he moves, it is by the Command of Allah,
And when he is serene, then it is from Allah,
He belongs to Allah, is for Allah and is with Allah
- al-Junayd




Dhikr is the reason for the life of the heart and leaving it is the reason for its death.
- Ibn Ajiba




What can my enemies do to me?
I have in my breast both my Heaven and my Garden.
If I travel they are with me, and they never leave me.
Imprisonment for me is a religious retreat [khalwa].
To be slain for me is martyrdom [shahada]
And to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey [siyaha].
- Ibn Taymiyyah







The scholars of our time have been content with speech and with no practice! The Salaf use to practice but not speak. After them the people practiced and spoke being followed by a people who spoke but did not practice. There will come a time when people will not speak nor practice.
- Abu Hazim




If you are good, be better.




Since you are not a prophet, follow the way taught by prophets.
Since you are not a king, be a loyal subject toThe King.
Since you are not a captain, do not take the helm of the ship.
Since you do not possess every skill, have partners in your business.
Be as pliant as dough in the hands of others, that you may rise well.
- Jalaluddin Rumi [from Masnavi]




This world is full of remedies. But you have no remedy until God opens a window for you. You may not be aware of that remedy just now. In the hour of need it will be made clear to you. The Prophet said God made a remedy for every pain.
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi




When light engages the heart, it causes an illumation of the path,a purification of the consciousness, an enlightenment of the intellect and an establishment of the foundations of dhikr and shukr and of beautiful worship.
- Habib Umar Bin Hafiz




Do not try to run away from trials and tribulations, but endure them with patience. They cannot be avioded, and there is nothing for it but to endure them with patience, How can you expect the whole of this world, and all that has been created therein, to undergo change and transformation just to suit your convenience? The Prophets are the best of all creatures, yet they have always had to suffer afflication and so it is for their followers, those who tread in their footsteps as they walk along their highway, emulating their example.
- Abdul Qadir Jilani




True knowledge is not measured in relationship tohow much you memorize and then narrate, but rather, true knowledge is an expression of piety
- Ibn Mas'ud




What hurts the soul? To live without tasting the water of its own essence.
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi




Truth is Timeless, and returning to Truth is better than continuing in Falsehood.
- Umar ibn al-Khattab (radiAllahu anhu)




Who has never killed an hour? not causally or without thought, but carefully: a predmeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you killed the hour. you do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and the loss is too empty to share.




No one attains the reality of renunciation (Zuhd) until there are three characteristics in him: work without attachment, speech without personal motives, and honor without seeking position.
- Yahya bin Muadh




Guard your tongue from praise as you have guarded it from blame.
- Maruf al-Karkhi




Absorption in worldly affairs breeds darkness in the heart, and absorption in the affairs of the next world enkindles light in the heart
- Uthman ibn Affan (radiAllahu anhu)




To maintain nice relation with the people is half of intelligence, nice questioning is half of knowledge, and nice domestic arrangements is half of the management of livelihood.
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)




None in this age will amass wealth except those having five traits ofcharacter. High hopes; abnormal greediness; excessive miserliness, lack of fearing Allaah; and forgetfulness of the coming world.
- Sufyan ath-Thawri




Five are the marks of Allaah-fearing people. They do not associate with people other than those with whom they can maintain terms on a religious basis; they restrain their private parts and their tongues; when they make any large temporal gain, they take it as a curse, and when they gain even a little piety, they consider it precious; they do not eat to their full even of what is permitted for fear that anything forbidden might be mixed with it, they consider all people pious and pardoned, but consider themselves as sinners.
- Uthman ibn Affan (radiAllahu anhu)




I know none who has heard of Paradise and Hell, then spends an hour of his life without praying, remembering Allah or doing a good deed
- An ascetic




I am astonished about those people who are ordered to prepare their provisions, then the start of the journey is announced, however they remain unmindful in their vain discussions and fruitless deeds.
- Al Hasan al-Basri




Work for the sake of this life within the extent of your stay in it, and for the Hereafter within the extent of your stay therein
- Sufyan ath-Thawri, when asked by a man seeking his advice




Don't seek anything other than contentment, because therein is the bliss and the comfort of your body. Then consider the case of a person who possesses the whole world, can he take with him in the grave more than cotton and a shroud?
- A poet



What you love to have with you in the Hereafter you should advance today, and what you hate to have with you, you should abandon today
- Salman ibn Dinar



Allah the Exalted loves him who forgoes worldly life, the Angels love him who rejects the vices, and the Muslims love him who gives up greediness in respect of the Muslims.
- Uthman ibn Affan (radiAllahu anhu)




Be a good man to Allah and a bad man to yourself (desires); and be one of the commoners among the people
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)




A great many people proceed towards evils on account of receipt of blessings, many people are ruined by praise, and many a man is deceived by Allah's protection (in concealing vices).
- Ibn Mas'ud Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests wordly life; and whoever recognises the worldly life, the trials and tribulations (of life) become slight for him.
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)

My father died, and for an entire year I did not ask Allah for anything except that He forgive my Father
- Amir ibn Abd Allah ibn Az-Zubayr (radiAllahu anhu)

During the funeral of his mother, Al-Harith Al-Akli (radiAllahu anhu) weeped. When asked for the reason of his tears he said, "Why should I not cry when one of my doors to Paradise has now closed?"

Iyyadh bin Ghanam narrated that Allah's messenger (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said:
" I was informed by the heavenly hosts of angels that the most dignified among my followers are people who rejoice in public when they ponder the vastness of Allah's all-encompassing mercy and compassion, and they weep privately when they contemplate rigorous punishment He reserved for the sinners and the deniers of the truth. They sit in His blessed mosques morning and evening worshipping Him and celebrating His praises inwardly, and they implore Him with their tongues outwardly with reverence and awe. They pray to Him with their hands raised as well as lowered, and they yearn for Him unceasingly. They take little from people, and yet, it bears heavily on their hearts. They walk barefooted, humble, unpretentious, and unnoticed, just like ants, without finery; and they are free of self-adulation. They walk with dignity and serenity, and they rise to the nearness of their Lord through their link to His messenger (salAllahu alayhi wasalam).
They wear the garment of good conduct and follow the clear proof. They read the Qur'an regularly, take their daily guidance from it, and they happily make the necessary personal sacrifices to meet its requirements. Almighty Allah has surrounded them with distinguished witnessing angels, and faithful guardians, and He has illumined their faces with effulgence as a sign of His blessings upon them and as a demostration of His satisfaction with them. When they look at His servants, they anticipate promising signs. They often contemplate the vastness of Allah's creation. Their bodies dwell on earth, and their eyes are anchored upon the heavens. Their feet stand on earth, and their hearts dwell in the heavens. They breath on earth, and yet, their spirits are connected to the divine Throne. Their souls live in this world, and their thoughts are focused on the hereafter. They only worry about what may come. Their graves are in this world, and their ranks are exalted in Allah's sight."
- Imam Abu Na'eem al-Asfahanee
[from The Beauty of the Righteous and the Ranks of the Elite]