why to acquire thirst

"Where there is pain, cures will come; where there is poverty, wealth will follow. Where there are questions, answers will be given; where there are ships, water will flow. Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst! Then water will gush from above and below" - Jalaluddin Rumi

six obstacles

"Ibrahim bin Adham said to a man during Tawaf: ' You should know that you will not attain the rank of the righteous until you overcome six obstacles. The first is that you close the door of luxury and open the door of hardship. The second is that you close the door of arrogance and open the door of humility. The third is that you close the door of comfort and open the door of struggle. The fourth is that you close the door of sleep and open the door of night vigil. The fifth is that you close the door of excessive wealth and open the door of dignified poverty. The sixth is that you close the door of procastination and open teh door of preparation for death.' "

Sincerity

"The first stage of sincerity is that your private and public state are the same" -al-Ghazali facebook group

silver linings

“In all things it is better to hope than to despair” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

on mistakes

"I’m human. If I didn’t make mistakes, I’d never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes." — Alexander McQueen "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that might as well not have lived at all--in which case, you fail by default." --JK Rowling

after all this time

“And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, "You owe me." Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.”

Starry thoughts

"I will love the light for showing me the way, and I will love the darkness for showing me the stars" "Some people make their goals the stars. They may live and die never reaching them, but in the darkness of the night, those starts will guide them to their destination just because they put them in their sights."

in good company

"Without doubt, whenever you sit with someone and are with him, you will take on his disposition. On whom have you been gazing that tightness should have come into you? If you look at green herbs and flowers, freshness will come. The sitting companion pulls you into his own world. That is why reciting the Quran purifies the heart, for you remember the prophets and their states. The form of the prophets comes together in your spirit and becomes its sitting companion.” - Shams-e-Tabrizi (RA) "Only take as your companions those who have these four qualities: generosity even when they have little, willingness to pardon an offense committed against them, patient endurance in times of affliction, and contentment with God's decree for them." -Shaykh Abul Hasan Shadili

learning silence

"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." -Kahlil Gibran

unanswered prayers

 God said, "It is not because he is despicable that I delay My gift to him: that very delay is an aid. his need brought him from heedlessness to Me, pulling him by the hear to My lane. Were I to satisfy his need, he would go back and immerse himself in that game. Although he laments to the bottom of his soul: "Oh Thou whose protection is sought!" ---let him weep with broken heart and wounded breast. For I am pleased by his voice, his saying "Oh God!" and his sercret prayers... People cage parrots and nightingdales to hear the sound of their sweet songs. But how should they put crows and owls into cages? Who indeed has heart tale of that?... Know for certain that this is the reason believers suffer dissapointment in good and evil. -Rumi

All or nothing

“Some days,
I feel everything at once.
Other days,
I feel nothing at all.

I don't know what's worse:
Drowning beneath the waves
Or dying from the thirst.”

― O.M

reminder to myself to stop judging others

“Keep in mind constantly that any fault you see in another is either manifest in you explicitly or concealed like fire hidden in flint” – Imam Muhammad b. Nasir al-DarÏ in Prayer of the Oppressed.

God is with the broken hearted

At the very moment you become content with affliction, the doors of paradise will open. Nothing is more blessed than heartache, for its reward has no end. If you do not show your manliness, you will find nothing. I will be silent, lest a mistake jump from my mouth. -Rumi

 Man in his heartache resembles a target for arrows--he has no armor but intoxication and selflessness. -Rumi

 Though heartache may extract many things from the heart, in truth it will bring something better in return. -Rumi

 "Joys" we normally experience are torments because they keep us far from God. God makes him suffer so he will abandon attachment to himself and strive to attain to Self. -Chittick

5 THINGS THAT CORRUPT THE HEART

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: As for the five things that corrupt the heart, they are:

1. mixing too much with people

 2. wishful thinking

 3. Being attched to anything other than Allah

 4. Eating to one's fill

 5. Sleeping

drive out darkness

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

women

"When she is a daughter, she opens a door of Jannah for her father. When she is a wife, she completes half of the deen of her husband. When she is a mother, Jannah lies under her feet. If everyone knew the true status of a Muslim woman in Islam, even the men would want to be women" - Sheikh Akram Nadawi

sincerely wanting to be sincere

"Sincerity is that all your deeds be for God, and that your heart be not gladdened by men's praise nor that you care about their censure." -Imam al-Ghazali (RA)

seeing clearly

" Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. " - , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry "Le Petit Prince"