When you adorn your copies of the Qurān and embellish your mosques, destruction will be upon you.
It is reported that Abū Al-Dardāʾ – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
When you adorn your copies of the Qurān and embellish your mosques, destruction will be upon you.
Ibn Al-Mubārak, Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq, article 746. Shaykh Al-Albānī stated that the chain of transmission of this narration consists of reliable reporters, except he did not know if the reporter Bakr b. Suwādah had heard directly from Abū Al-Dardāʾ. The narration corroborates a similar ḥadīth reported from the Prophet ﷺ himself. See Al-Ṣaḥīḥah ḥadīth 1351.
It is reported that Al-ʿAwwām b. Ḥawshab – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Boasting that you did a sin (when you did not) is worse than committing the sin.
Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm, article 3073.
Muʿāwiyah b. Khadīj (or Ḥudayj) reports that he once passed by Abū Ḏarr Al-Ġifārī – Allāh be pleased with him – while the latter was standing with a horse of his, so he asked:
“What are you doing with this horse of yours?” Abū Ḏarr replied, “I think this horse has had his supplication answered.” Muʿāwiyah asked, “And what supplication does a beast have?” He replied, “By him in whose hand is my soul, there is no horse except that it supplicates every twilight before the dawn: O Allāh, you have given me to a servant of yours and have put my provision at his hands, so make me more beloved to him than his wife, his property and his children.”
Imām Aḥmad, Al-Musnad, ḥadīth 21334.
It is reported that Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
When you see someone older than you, say: he has preceded me in īmān and righteous actions so he is better than me; and when you see someone younger than you, say: I have preceded him in sinning and disobedience so he is better than me. And when you see your brothers honouring and revering you, say: this is a virtue they have attained; and when you see them falling short (in their treatment of you) say: this is [because of] a sin I committed.
Ibn Al-Jawzī, Ṣifatu Al-Ṣafwah, article 505: Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī.
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.
ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
The people will not cease to be well as long as they take knowledge from their seniors. When they take it from their juniors and their bad people, they will be destroyed.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿ Bayān Al-ʿIlm article 1057.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Al-ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀṣ – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Nifāq (hypocrisy) used to be something unusual amongst all the Īmān. Soon, Īmān will be something strange amongst all the nifāq.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānah 1:173 article 6.
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Do not sit with the people of desires (Bidʿah, heresy), even if you think you have a response [to what they say].
Al-Harawī, Dhamm Al-Kalām article 765.
ʿAbbād b. Al-ʿAwwām narrates:
Sharīk b. ʿAbdillāh came to us around fifty years ago, and we said to him, “O Abū ʿAbdillāh, here amongst us there are people from the Muʿtazilah who reject these āḥādīth [like]: ‘Allāh descends to the lowest heaven’, and ‘the people of Jannah will see their Lord’. So Sharīk narrated to me around ten such narrations, then said: ‘As for us, we have taken our religion from the sons of the Tābiʿīn, from the Ṣaḥābah. Who have they taken from?’”
Al-Ḏahabī, Al-ʿUluw. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in Mukhtaṣar Al-ʿUluw article 146.
It is reported that Muʿlā b. Al-Faḍl – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
They (the Salaf) used to supplicate to Allāh for six months asking Him to get them to the month of Ramaḍān; and they used to supplicate for six months that Allāh accept [their fasting and other worship in Ramaḍān].
Abul-Qāsim Al-Aṣbahānī, Al-Targhīb wa Al-Tarhīb article 1761.