“Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise.”
Saʿīd b. Jubayr – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Tawakkul (reliance and trust in Allah) comprehends all of Īmān.
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd #534.
It is reported that Abū Bakr Al-Ṣiddīq – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Beware of lying, for lying is far removed from īmān.
Abū Bakr Al-Ḵallāl, Al-Sunnah no. 1467, 1470; Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān no. 4463.
It is reported that Imām Mālik – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Whatever you fool around with, don’t fool around with your dīn (religion).
Al-Lālakāʾī, Sharḥ ʾUṣūl ʾIʿtiqād Ahl Al-Sunnah 1:163
Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal [Quran, Ghāfir (40):19]
يَعْلَمُ خَآئِنَةَ ٱلْأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِى ٱلصُّدُورُ
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd article 1428.
It is reported that Imām Al-Awzāʿī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Learn what is not to be taken, like you learn what is to be taken.
Ibn ʿAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiʿu Bayyān Al-ʿIlm article 435.
It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Adham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
A person has not been true to Allāh, the mighty and sublime, if he loves recognition (fame).
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Al-Zuhd article 2240.
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It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
If the people were gathered on one plain, all of them believers, except for two unbelievers amongst them, they would join each other. And if the people were gathered on one plain, all of them unbelievers, except for two believers amongst them, they would join each other.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-ʾIbānah Al-Kubrā 1:455
It is reported that ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
When you learn knowledge, preserve it, and do not mix it with laughter and falsehood, such that the hearts refuse (dislike) it.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq Al-Rāwī wa Ādāb Al-Sāmiʿ 1:232
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
It is part of sure belief (yaqīn) [in Allāh] that you do not please the people by angering Allāh, and do not praise anyone [else] for what Allāh has provided you, and do not blame anyone for what Allāh has not given you. For verily, the provision of Allāh is not gained by the keenness of those who are keen [for you to have it], nor is it prevented by the hatred of those who hate [for you to have it]. And verily Allāh, in His justice, made happiness and joy in being certain and content [with Allāh], and made worry and sadness in doubt and anger.
Hannād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd, article 535.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAmr b. Al-ʿĀs – Allāh be pleased with them – said:
Leave alone what you have nothing to do with, and do not speak about what does not concern you, and secure your tongue like you secure your money.
Ibn Ḥibbān Al-Bustī, Rawḍatu Al-ʿUqalāʾ 1:55.
It is reported that Mālik b. Dīnār – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
It is better for a man to leave one ḥarām dirham than to give one hundred thousand in charity.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 5:125.
It is reported that Abū Al-Dardāʾ – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
There is no good in this life except for one of two men: a man listening carefully, receiving and holding [knowledge]; or someone knowledgeable speaking.
Ibn Ḥibbān, Rawḍatu Al-ʿUqalāʾ 1:42.
There will come upon the people a time when their hearts will be derelict of the Qurān; they will find neither sweetness nor pleasure by it. If they fall short of doing what they have been commanded to do, they will say: Allāh is most forgiving, merciful (He will forgive us), and if they do what they have been forbidden from doing, they will say: we will be forgiven, we haven’t committed any shirk with Allāh. Their affairs will all be based on [false] hope, having no truth and sincerity with it. They will wear the skins of lambs over hearts of wolves. The best of them in his religion will be someone who compromises.
Imām Aḥmad, Al-Zuhd article 1741.
It is reported that Al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad said:
Men are of four types: There is the man who knows and he knows that he knows. He is knowledgeable, so follow him and ask him. And there is the man who does not know, and he knows that he does not know. He is ignorant, so teach him. And there is the man who knows, but he does not know that he knows. He is heedless, so remind him. And then there is the man who does not know, but he does not know that he does not know (he thinks he knows). This is the fool (idiot), so beware of him.
Ibn ˁAbd Al-Barr, Jāmiˁ Bayān Al-ˁilm wa Faḍlihī article 1538.
I entered upon Abū Al-Dardāʾ – Allāh be pleased with him – at his home in Ḥims and found him standing in prayer at his place of prayer. When he sat for tashahhud he started to seek protection with Allāh from al-nifāq (hypocrisy). So when he had finished praying, I said “May Allāh forgive you o Abū Al-Dardāʾ, what have you got to do with nifāq?” He said, “O Allāh forgive!”, three times, and replied, “Who can feel secure from trial, who can feel secure from trial? By Allāh, a man can be tested with fitnah in a single hour and turn away from his religion.”
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 1:857.
It is reported that Harim b. Ḥayyān – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
“Beware of the sinful scholar (al-ʿālim al-fāsiq).” This reached ʿUmar, so he wrote to him in fear, “Who is the sinful scholar?” He wrote back, “I did not intend but good; this is when there is an imām (leader, taken as an example) who speaks knowledge, but practices sins, confusing the people, and thus they go astray.”
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 4:49.