When the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) was asked
by 'Amr ibn 'Abasah what
was meant by faith, he replied,
"Self restraint and gentleness."
(Hadith of Muslim)
***
Greed and faith can never co-exist
in the human heart.
(Hadith of an Nasa'i on the authority of Abu Hurayarah)
***
Keep your faith pure. Even the smallest good deed will suffice.
***
When a person repents, Allahs pleasure at this is even greater
than that
of one who dismounts from his camel,
loses it in the desert and then
finds it again all of a sudden.
(Hadith of al-Bukhari and Muslim)
***
When you lead the prayer, you should make it short because,
among those offering salat there may be some who are infirm, sick and old.
But when you offer individual prayers, as you wish.
(Hadith of al-Bukhari)
*** Anas ibn Malik said that they used to travel with the
Prophet.
Those who observed a fast never found fault with those who did
not keep the fast.
Similarly, those not observing the fast never said anything
amiss
to those who kept their fast.
(Hadith of Al-Bukhari)
***
The man who keeps a fast in full faith,
and for reward
in the world hereafter,
will be forgiven his past sins.
And the man who
prays in the night during Ramadan
with faith and for reward in the world
hereafter,
will be forgiven all his past sins.
(Bukhari, Muslim)
***
Allah has made the Muslims duty bound to pay zakat (alms).
It will be realized from the wealthy to be distributed among the needy.
(Bukhari, Muslim)
***
The owner of any land which is irrigated by rain water
or a stream,
or which is situated close to a river,
is obliged to give
one tenth of its produce to the needy.
The owner of such land as is irrigated
by other methods will pay half this amount.
(Al-Bukhari)
***
If a person to whom God has given wealth does not give
zakat (alms),
he will find that, on the Day of Judgement,
his wealth turns
into a poisonous snake with two black spots on its head.
It will be like
a yoke around his neck.
Then it will seize him by the jaws and declare,
‘I am your wealth. I am your treasure’.
(al-Bukhari) *** Abu Dharr al-GhifarI relates that he came to the prophet, who was sitting in the shade of the Kabah. When he saw me he said, ‘They
stand to lose.’ I said, ‘May my parents ransom you. To whom do you refer?’ ‘To those with an excess of riches,’ he replied, ‘who just squander their
wealth, heedless of the fact that they can be saved only if they spend
generously for a good cause. And there are very few wealthy men of that
ilk.’ (Bukhari, Muslim) *** Giving alms to the poor is a single good deed,
but giving
alms to a poor relative has the double virtue of giving alms
and, at the
same time, treating one’s own relative well.
(At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasa'i)
***
Young man, (the Prophet said to Abdullah ibn al-Abbas)
hear some words of advice:
Be mindful of God and God will protect you.
Be mindful of God and you will find Him before you.
If you ask, ask of
God; if you seek help, seek help of God.
Know that if all the people were
to gather together
to give you the benefit of anything,
it would be something
that God had already prescribed for you,
and that if they gathered together
to harm you with anything,
this would only be as God had already ordained. (At-Tirmidhi)
***
A man who acquires a stretch of land by tyranny
will be
made to wear a yoke made of seven earths
around his neck on the Day of
Judgement.
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
‘A man who has as much as an iota of arrogance
in his
heart will not enter Paradise’.
Hearing these words of the Prophet, a man
asked,
‘What if a man likes to dress in good clothes and wear good shoes’?
The Prophet said, ‘God himself possesses elegance.
And He likes elegance.
This has nothing to do with arrogance.
A man is arrogant when he refuses
to accept the truth and considers others to be inferior’.
(Muslim)
***
According to Abu Hurayrah, the Prophet recited a verse
from the Qur’an
about the Day the earth would give its account.
Then he
asked ‘Do you know what this account will be’?
his listeners replied, ‘God
and His Messenger know better’.
‘The account the earth will give’, said
the Prophet,
‘is the witness it will bear to the deeds and misdeeds
all
men and women have committed throughout its length and breadth,
and to
the exact moments of their commission.
That is what the earth’s account
will be’.
(At-Tirmidhi) ***
A man who treats his relatives well
in order to return
their good treatment of him
shows no real love for them.
The man who really
shows love for his relatives is one who treats them well
despite their
being unkind to him.
(Al-Bukhari)
***
Abu usayd as-Saidi tells of how they were once with the
Prophet
when a man from the Banu Salmah arrived in their midst.
Addressing
the Prophet, he asked,
‘O messenger of God, are there any outstanding debts
which I have to repay after my parents’ deaths?’
The Prophet, replied,
‘Yes, pray for them and seek forgiveness for them.
And fulfill their obligations
now that they are gone.
And treat their relations with kindness.
And respect
their friends.’
(Abu-Dawud)
***
He who satiates himself,
while his immediate neighbours
go hungry,
is not a true believer.
(Ahmad ibn-Hanbal)
***
Asma’ bint Abu Bakr related how her foster mother,
a believer
in polytheism (shirk), had come to her
during the period of the treaty
of al-Hudaybiyyah.
Concerned that her foster mother was a polytheist,
she
addressed the Prophet,
‘O Messenger of God, my idolatrous (mushrik) mother
has come to me
and she wants something from me. Should I give it to her?’
‘Yes. Treat her well,’ replied the Prophet.
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
A believer should never loathe a believing wife.
If one
quality in her does not find favour with her husband,
some other quality
will be to his liking.
(Muslim)
***
A man once went to the Prophet with a grievance against
his relatives.
‘O Messenger of God’, he said,
‘I have some relatives whom
I treat with kindness.
Yet they show me no kindness.
I treat them well
and they treat me badly.
I show them forbearance and they treat me with
brutality.’
The Prophet replied, ‘if you are as you say you are,
then it
is as if you have smeared their faces with dust.
And you will always have
God’s help against them
so long as you continue to be well-behaved towards
them.’
(Muslim)
***
When a man spends on his family members
with the intention
of seeking God’s pleasure,
then his spending becomes an act of charity.
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
A believer is a mirror to another believer. A believer
is a brother to another believer. He saves him from losses. He safeguards
his interests in his absence.(Abu-Dawud) *** According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet said to him,
‘ O my son, if you can act in such a way that you spend your mornings
and
your evenings without wishing anyone ill,
then that is how you should always
act.’
Then he added, ‘O my son, this is my way.
And anyone who loves my
ways, loves me.
And anyone who loves me will live with me in Paradise.’
(Muslim)
***
Each one of you is a shepherd.
And each one of you will
be asked about your flock.
A ruler also is a shepherd and he will be asked
about his flock.
And every man is a shepherd to his family.
And a woman
is the custodian of her husband’s house and his children.
Thus each one
of you is a shepherd,
and each one will be asked about his flock.
(Muslim, al-Bukhari)
***
You should visit the sick, feed the hungry
and set prisoners
free.
(Al-Bukhari)
***
When the Prophet was asked which form of Islam was better,
he replied, ‘To feed the people and extend greetings of peace to them-
be they of your acquaintance or not.’
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
On the Day of Judgement, God will say,
‘O son of Adam,
I was sick, but you did not visit Me.’
The man will reply, ‘O my Lord,
how could I visit You –
the Lord of the whole universe?’
God will say,
‘Did you not know that such and such a man had fallen ill?
Yet you did
not visit him. Did you not known that had you gone there to visit him,
you would have found Me there wit him?’
(Muslim)
***
O Muslim women, do not belittle the gift of any woman
in your neighbourhood,
even if it happens to be a goat’s hoof.
(al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
According to Anas ibn Malik, when God’s Messenger said,
‘Help your brother, irrespective of whether he is the oppressor or the
oppressed,’
a man said, ‘O Messenger of God, I can help the oppressed,
but how can I help the oppressor?’
The Prophet replied, ‘Stop him from
committing an act of oppression.
That in itself is a form of help.’
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
The best gift from a father to his child is education
and upbringing.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
Should I not tell you what is the best charity?
To spend
on the daughter who has been returned to you
(a divorced or widowed daughter),
when there is no one else to earn for her.
(Ibn-Majah)
***
You will observe that the believers are like the parts
of the body
in relation to each other in matters of kindness, love and
affection.
When one part of the body is afflicted, the entire body feels
it;
there is loss of sleep and a fever develops.
(al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
If a Muslim farms the land or plants a tree,
and then
a bird, a beast or a man eats something from it,
he receives in return
the reward of a charity.
(Muslim)
***
One who walks with a tyrant,
in the full knowledge that
he is a tyrant,
in order to strengthen him,
is such as has already left
the fold of Islam.
(al-Bayhaqi)
***
Anger is the devil, and the devil has been created from
fire.
And fire is extinguished by water, therefore, when any of you feel
angry,
you should perform your ablutions.
(Abu Dawud)
***
When any of you feel angry, you should sit down if you
are standing.
And if your anger passes off with this, well and good.
If
not, you should lie down.
(Abu Dawud)
***
When a man tells you something in confidence,
you must
not betray his trust.
(Abu Dawud)
***
On the Day of Judgement, the tyrant’s own tyranny
will
descend upon him in the form of darkness.
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
Whosever of you sees an evil action,
let him change it
with his hand;
and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue;
and
if he is not able to do so, then with his heart,
for that is the minimum
that is desirable from a believer.
(An-Nasa'i)
***
A Bedouin once urinated in the Prophet’s Mosque,
and people
got up to punish him.
The Prophet said, ‘Leave him alone,
and throw a bucket
of water over his urine.
You are here to make things easy, not to make
things difficult.’
(Al-Bukhari)
***
According to Aishah, the Prophet used to cobble his shoes,
stitch his clothes
and do the kind of housework that is done in all homes.
He was a human being just like anybody else.
He used to milk his goat and
do sundry other chores himself.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
Sa’ib has thus recorded his commendation of the Prophet;
‘In the period of Ignorance (i.e. before Islam) when you were my partner
in business,
you were the finest of all partners.
You never deceived me.
Neither did you quarrel with me.’
(Abu Dawud)
***
Abu Hurayrah relates how the Prophet never criticized
food.
‘If he liked it, he ate it. If he did not, he just left it.’
(Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
***
According to Abdullah ibn Masud,
the Prophet said that
none of his Companions
should complain to him of another.
‘I would like
to come to you with a clear heart.’
(Abu Dawud)
***
Verily, God Almighty, and His angels, and those who inhabit
the heavens,
even the ants in their holes and the fishes in their waters,
bless the good teachers of mankind.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
You will not enter Paradise unless you have faith,
and
you cannot be one of the faithful unless you love each other.
Should I
not tell you things which, it followed, will create love among you?
One
is to observe the practice of greeting each other.
(Muslim)
***
According to Abdullah ibn al-Abbas the Prophet forbade
the staging of fights between animals.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
According to Abdullah ibn Umar,
the Prophet forbade not
only indulgence in slander and backbiting,
but even listening to such talk.
(Mishkat al-Masabih)
***
A man once asked the Prophet if bigotry was to love one’s
tribe.
‘No,’ replied the Prophet.
‘Bigotry is to help your tribe to tyrannise
others.’
(Ibn-Majah)
***
He who preaches bigotry is not one of us.
And not being
one of us, he may go ahead and fight in the cause of bigotry.
He who dies
for such a cause is not one of us either.
(Abu Dawud)
***
Do not quarrel with your brother. Do not ridicule him.
You should refrain form making a promise and then going back on it.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
Do not rejoice in the misfortunes of your brother.
For
God may show him compassion, but create difficulties for you.
(At-Tirmidhi)
***
The most perfect of believers, in point of faith,
is he
who is the best in manners.
(Abu Dawud)
***
None of you (truly) believes,
until he wishes for his
brother what he wishes for himself.
(Bukhari)
***
Calling God in personal prayer is worship.
(Abu ud, At-Tirmidhi)
***
O God, only you can change our hearts.
We beseech You
to do so, so that we may submit to You.
(Muslim)
***
According to Abu Bakr as-Siffiq,
when he asked the Prophet
to tell him
of some invocations which he could recite in his prayers, the
Prophet said,
‘Say, God, I have been an oppressor to myself.
And there
is no one but You who can forgive my sins.
Therefore forgive me in Your
generosity.
And show me compassion. Verily, You are Forgiving and Compassionate.
(At-Tirmidhi, Muslim)
***
God has give utterance to these words:
‘We are with Our
servant whenever he remembers Us;
when his lips are busy for Us.’
(Bukhari)
***
According to Tamim ad-Dari, the Prophet said,
‘Well-wishing
is faith. Well-wishing is faith. Well-wishing is faith.’
When asked towards
whom, he replied,
‘Towards God, His messenger, His Book, the Muslim rulers
and the common people.’
(Muslim)
***
God is bountiful and feels unhappy
if He has to refuse
to grant a wish.
He feels embarrassed when a man holds out both his hands
before Him,
and He has to disappoint him by turning him away empty-handed.
(Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi)
***
O God, I seek divine guidance
so that I may remain steadfast
in what is just.
I seek divine guidance in order to be firm in righteousness.
I seek divine guidance in the manner that I express my gratitude
for Your
favours and worship with devotion.
I seek from You a tongue that speaks
the truth
and a heart which is pure and clean.
(At-Tirmidhi)
