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