EFFECTS OF ACTIONS

Indeed good actions are a light in the heart, a strengthening for the body, a glow on the face, a cause for extensive provisions and love in the hearts of the creation.  Indeed bad actions are a darkness in the heart, a blackness on the face, a weakness for the body, a cause for decrease in provisions and hatred in the hearts of the creation. - Ibn Abbas 

Two Types Of Good In The Dunya

Ali RA said: There is no good in the dunya except two (types of) people: Someone who commits a sin then corrects it with tawbah and another who hastens to do good deeds.

قال علي رضي الله عنه

: لا خير في الدنيا إلا رجلين: رجل أذنب ذنوبا فهو يتداركها بالتوبة ورجل يسارع في الخيرات

Forbearance and Humility With Knowledge

Learn knowledge, and learn calmness and forbearance for the sake of knowledge. Humble yourselves to those whom you teach, and let those whom you teach humble themselves to you. Do not be tyrannical people of knowledge, lest your knowledge not spread because of your ignorance.—‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb

RESURRECTED AND RECOMPENSED ALONE

O son of Adam! You will die alone, be resurrected alone and be recompensed alone. O son of Adam! If all people obey Allah and you disobey him, their obedience will not benefit you. If they all disobey Allah and you obey him, their disobedience will not harm you. O son of Adam! Beware of your sins, for it is your flesh and blood at stake. If you are saved from the evil repercussions of your sins, you are flesh and blood will be saved for you. If it is the other destination, then it is a Fire that will never be extinguished, a body that will never perish [eternal torment] and a soul that will never die—Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [d 110H/728CE]

Do Not Take A Small Sin Lightly

Do not take a small sin lightly; instead, think about Who it is that you are disobeying: You are disobeying the Almighty Lord Who [sometimes] punishes people for small sins, and [sometimes] pardons people for great sins. - Sufyān al-Thawrī [d. 161H/778CE]

Good Expectations

Whoever reflects upon this issue deeply will realize that having the best expectations from Allah is equivalent to having good deeds, and doing good with one’s soul. For only when a person expects the best from Allah will he perform good deeds, since he will expect that Allah will reward him for his deeds and accept them. Therefore, the reason that he performed these good deeds was because of his good expectations from Allah; so the more a person betters his expectations from Allah, the more good deeds he does! - Ibn al-Qayyim [d. 751H/1350CE] Al-Jawab al-Kafi, p. 23

Qualities For The Bears Of The QURAN

It befits the bearer of the Qur’an to be known by his night when the people are asleep; by his day when the people are feasting; by his caution when the people mix [the lawful and the unlawful]; by his humility when the people are proud; by his grief when the people are happy; by his weeping when the people are laughing; and by his silence when the people chatter.

—’Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud [d. 32H]

Eloquent Repentance

‘I ask You by Your power and my humility to show mercy to me. I ask You by Your strength and my weakness, by Your independence of me and my dependence upon You. Here is my lying, sinful forelock in Your hands. Your slaves other than me are so many, and I have no refuge or sanctuary from You except with You. I ask You in the manner of the poor and wretched, I pray to You in the manner of one who humbly submits, I call on You in the manner of one who is fearful and blind, one whose neck is totally bowed to You, whose eyes shed tears for you, whose heart is humbled before You.’When the slave comes whispering words such as these, his faith multiplies exponentially in his heart.—Ibn al-Qayyim [d. 751H/1350CE] on expressing humility before Allah

Invoke Me and I will respond

Woe to you!  You run to one who would shut his door in your face, display his poverty to you and conceal his riches.  And you leave the One who opens His door to you in the middle of the night and the middle of the day, who displays His richness and proclaims, ‘Invoke Me and I will respond.’- Wahb b. Munabbih

Feeling Safe From Abandonment

O’ son of Adam, when Prophet Musa (Moses) objected to Khidr (ie. to his actions) on three occasions, the latter said, ‘This is the parting between you and me.’ Then how will it be with you who disobey your Lord many times in a single day? Do you feel so secure (and sure) that He will not say to you, ‘This is the parting between you and Me.’

—Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī

Better To Be Afraid Yet Safe

Al-Hasan al-Basri was asked, 

“O Abu Sa’id! What should we do? We sit with people who make us afraid (from death) that makes our hearts fly away.”He said, “By Allah! If you associate with someone who makes you afraid, so that you earn safety, is better than associating with someone who makes you feel safe, for in this case, un-safety might touch you.”Al-I’hyaa 4:170

Be With God If You Loose Some Thing

كُنْ مَعَ اللهِ إِذَا أَخَذَ مِنكَ مَا لَم تَتَوَقَّع ضِيَاعَهُ ، فَسَوفَ يُعطِيكَ مَا لَم تَتَوَقَّع تَملِكُهُ

Be with God, if He has taken from you that which you could never have imagined losing, and He will give you that which you could never have imagined owning. - Shaykh Muḥammad Mutawallī al-Shaʿrāwī [d. 1419AH/1998CE]

Succeeding In Hereafter And Dunya

Child of Adam, you are in need of your worldly portion and your portion in the hereafter, but you are more in need of the hereafter. If you put your worldly portion first, you shall lose that of the hereafter and threaten your worldly one. If you put the hereafter first, you will succeed in your worldly portion and put in its rightful place.- Mu’adh b. Jabal

Buried Hearts

God, Glorified be He, has compared those who do not answer the call of His Messenger to the people of the graves.  This is the best comparison because their bodies are the graves for their hearts, for their hearts have died and have been buried in their bodies. God said: Surely Allah makes whom He pleases hear, and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves.  Fāṭir, 35: 22]Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350), Ighathat al-Lahfān min maṣāyid al-Shaytān

Final Prayer

O my son, if you ever pray, then pray a farewell prayer.  Do not think that you shall return to it ever again.  Know O my son that the believer dies between two good deeds; a good deed that he put forth, and a good deed that he kept back. - Mu’adh b. Jabal to his son

Smile in Public, Weep in Private

When you are with people, smile frequently and maintain a cheerful countenance, but when you are alone, cry frequently and be in a state of grief and sadness (on account of your sins).  For it has been conveyed to us — and Allah Knows best — that on the Day of Resurrection, the most things that a believer will find in his book of good deeds are the grief and the sadness (that he felt in this world on account of this sins) -Sufyān al-Thawrī

True Purpose of Seeking Knowledge

Knowledge is sought after only so that one can use it to fear Allah (and ward off His punishment); It is in this context that knowledge is deemed a superior thing; otherwise, it is like all other things.—Sufyān al-Thawrī 

USE SPARE TIMES TO DO GOOD DEEDS

Earn virtues in your spare time, because,

Your death might come upon a sudden, Many healthy people I have seen who were free of disease, But then their soul parted upon a sudden.—Muhammad b. Ismaa’eel al-Bukhari

Always In Need of Allah

 The servant is always in need of his Lord, from every perspective. This is because He is the object of his worship, and the source of all of his help. So no one can bring him any good except Him, and nothing can better the situation of the servant except His worship. And on top of all of this, the servant is sinning, and there is no way that he can avoid this. So he is always in need, sinning, and he is in need of the One who always Forgives, the One who is Ever-Merciful. The One who always Forgives (al-Ghafoor) will Forgive his sins, and the Ever-Merciful will show him Mercy and bless him and be kind to him. So the servant is eternally between the blessings of his Lord and the sins of his soul.- Ibn Taymiyyah 

Improve!

Some jurists would perform ablution after backbiting, just as they would perform ablution after they released impurities from their bodies.  

Improve your secret and private life, and Allah will improve your public and social life. 

Make matters well between you and Allah, and Allah will make matters well between you and people. Work for the Hereafter, and Allah will be enough for you in your worldly concerns.

Purchase the Hereafter, and use this worldly life as a method of payment for your purchase, and as a result, you will gain profit both in this world and in the Hereafter.  But do not purchase this world at the cost of the Hereafter, for if you do so, you will lose out on both worlds.- Sufyān al-Thawrī

Seekers of Knowledge

   “The only people who used to seek this knowledge were those who combined two characteristics: intelligence and devout worship. If a person was intelligent but not devout, it would be said that only the worshippers can attain this [knowledge], and so he would not try to seek it. And if a person was devout, but not intelligent, it would be said that only the intelligent can attain this [knowledge], and so he would not try to seek it.” Al-Sha’bî continued, “And I fear that today, people who are neither intelligent nor devout try to seek it.” - al-Sha'bi

Accepted Repentance

A man once went to Rabiah bint Ismail Al-Adawiyyah, who was known by the titles, ‘Mother of Goodness,’ and ‘The famous worshiper.’

He said, “Indeed, I have perpetrated a great number of sins. If I repent, do you think that Allah will accept my repentance?”

She said, “Woe unto you! Do you not see that He invites those who turn away from Him; then why wouldn't He accept the repentance of those who turn towards Him?”

Patience

“Patience is that: the heart does not feel anger towards that which is destined (for you) and that the mouth does not complain.-”Ibn Al Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

This the supplication that I make for my Ummah in every prayer

‘A’ishah radi Allahu anha narrated:“Once, when I saw the Prophet in a good mood, I said to him: “O Messenger of Allah! Supplicate to Allah for me!”
So, he said: “O Allah! Forgive ‘A’ishah her past and future sins, what she has hidden, as well as what she has made apparent.”
So, I began smiling, to the point that my head fell into the lap of the Messenger of Allah sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam out of joy.
The Messenger of Allah said to me: “Does my supplication make you happy?”
I replied: “And how can your supplication not make me happy?”
He then said: “By Allah, it is the supplication that I make for my Ummah in every prayer.

Arguing

'Arguing with people removes the blessings of knowledge from one's heart' ~ Imam Malik.

Taqwa

When Ibn `Aun was bidding farewell to another man, he said:

“Upon you is to fear Allah, for the one who has taqwaa never feels loneliness”.

The Intelligent Person

 “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.” -  Sufyân b. ‘Uyainah

Greatest Wastage

Know that the greatest wastage is the wastage of two things; the wastage of the heart and the wastage of time. The heart is wasted because of preference of this world over the hereafter and time is wasted because of long hopes -Ibn al-Qayyim

Reliance Upon Allah

“Allah loves from His slave that he beautifies his tongue with the truth, and his heart with sincerity and love, turning repentantly with reliance upon Allah.”

—Ibn al-Qayyim

Wasted Time

“Regret for wasted time should be deep, for time passes quickly and it is difficult to make up what you have missed. Time for the worshiper is a time for worship and reciting awraad (adhkar), and for the devoted Muslim it is time for turning to Allaah عز و جل and focusing on Him سبحانه وتعالى with all his heart. 

Time is the dearest thing to him and he would feel very sad if time passes without him doing what he is meant to do. If he misses time, he can never make it up, because a second time has its own duties. So if he misses time, there is no way he can bring it back.”- Ibn al Qayyim

So Early!

I decided to nurture you while you were still in my womb so that you would become the greatest personality. And if you were to say to me: “O my mother, why did you begin so early?” Well, you will discover that if a person grows older, nothing except a miracle can benefit him so long as he does not change by himself!- Ume Hakimah

Reform

O my son! And when you intend the reform of the world, I shall say to you that I don’t want you to! We do not want to get rid of evil. Imagine the universe without cheaters and without liars—how would the noble ones live? And how will we be able to become the more distinguished and better known? - Umm Hakimah

Belittling Yourself

O my Son! Look out for tomorrow…prepare…roll up your sleeves! Be dignified and be proud of yourself! For however you see your own self, so will others see you. So beware of belittling yourself. For you become big when you want to become big and you alone decide to shrink down! - Umm Hakimah

Do Not Cry!

Do not cry O my Son! over the past for it is enough that it has passed. For it is frivolity if we hold on to sawdust from timber and continue to saw!- Umm Hakimah

Do Not Grieve!

Do not grieve, o my son, over what happens in life! For we were not created except to be tried and tested until Allah can see whether we are patient. So for this reason, be easy on yourself and do not be distressed! And be certain that relief is near for when the darkness of the clouds intensifies, then the time is not far when it will rain!- Umm Hakimah