“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 from Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – that he said:
It is reported from Al-Shaʿbī – Allāh have mercy on him – that he said: ʿAbdul-Malik [ibn Marwān, the Khalīfah] once sent me to the king of the Romans, and I stayed with him for a number of days. When I wanted to leave, he asked me, Are you from the House of [your] king (his family)? I replied, I am just a man from the Arabs. He gave me a parchment and said, Deliver this to your companion (the Caliph). When ʿAbdul-Malik had read it, he said to me, Do you know what it says? I replied, No. He said, It says in it, I wonder at a people who have made other than this man king over them. I said, By Allāh, if I had known I would not have carried it to you. [The Roman king] only said this because he has not seen you. ʿAbdul-Malik said, Rather, he envied me for having you, and was trying to incite me to kill you. This reached the Roman king; and when it did, he said, I wanted nothing but this.
Ibn Al-ʿImād, Shadharāt Al-Dhahab 2:26
It is reported from Ḥammād b. Zayd that ʾAyyūb [Al-Sakhtiyānī] was once in a gathering when he was effected (moved to tears) by an exhortation, so he began wiping his nose saying, How severe a cold can be!
It is reported from Ḥammād b. Zayd that he said, I never saw a man who used to smile more at people than ʾAyyūb.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 5:17
It is reported that a man came to ʿAlī – Allāh be pleased with him – and asked, What do you think about a man who committed a sin? He replied, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. [The man] said, He did that, but then sinned again? [ʿAlī] said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The man again said, He did that, but returned to sin. [ʿAlī] said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him. The man said for the fourth time, He did, but then sinned again. ʿAlī then said, Until when? Then he said, He must seek Allāh’s forgiveness and repent to Him; and not give up until it is Shayṭān who is defeated [overcome].
Hunād b. Al-Sarī, Kitāb Al-Zuhd article 910
It is reported that a shaykh (older man) once came and greeted ‘Alī – Allāh be pleased with him, wearing a cloak decorated with silk at the front. He said to the man, What is this filth under your beard? The man looked around and said, I do not see anything. Another man said, He means the silk embroidery. The shaykh said, In that case, we will throw it away and never wear [such a thing] again.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf article 25187
Sa’īd b. Manṣūr, Al-Sunan. See Al-Albānī, Al-Ḍa’īfah 12:465, where he graded the chain of narration ṣaḥīḥ.
A cushion was once passed to ‘Alī – Allāh be pleased with him, upon which he sat, and said, None but a donkey refuses good treatment (honour/respect).
Sa’īd b. Manṣūr, Al-Sunan.
It is reported that Hasan b. Rabī’ asked ‘Abdullāh b. Al-Mubārak – Allāh have mercy on him – about the meaning of the hadith, “Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim”. He replied:
It is not [the expert knowledge of hadith and fiqh] you are seeking. Seeking knowledge is an obligation when a man comes to something concerning his religion (dīn): he is to ask about it until he knows it.
Al-Khatīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Faqīh wa Al-Mutafaqqih article 162.
It is reported that Ibrāhīm b. Ad-ham – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Delving into falsehood removes the ability to recognize the truth from the heart.
Abu Nu’aym, Hilyatu Al-Awliyā` 8:22.
It is reported that Wahb b. Munabbih – Allāh have mercy on him – used to say:
The believer mixes with others in order to learn, keeps quiet to keep safe (from sinning), speaks in order to understand, and secludes himself for the attainment (of good).
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-‘Uzlah article 99.
Three things are from Imān: when a man has nocturnal emission during a cold night, so he gets up – only Allāh sees him – and he has a full wash (ghusl); when a person fasts on a hot day; and when a man prays in a barren land, where none but Allāh sees him.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shu’ab Al-Īmān article 51
It is reported that Ya’lā b. ‘Ubayd said, “We entered upon Ibn Sūqah, who said: ‘O nephew, let me relate to you something that will hopefully benefit you; for it benefited me. ‘Atā b. Abī Rabāh once said to us:'”
Those before you used to consider idle talk to be anything other than the Book of Allāh, or the enjoining of good, or the forbidding of evil, or speaking for the sake of your basic living needs. Do you deny that there are recording angels appointed over you? Sitting on your right and your left? Never is a word said except there is an observer prepared to record? Are you not afraid (ashamed) that your record of words and deeds be spread open only to discover that there is nothing of the hereafter in it?
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` 5:86