reality of religion

"The reality of religion; it transcends the sensory, it transcends the intellect. everything around you is meaning. you have to put in the necessary work to understand it, to understand the language and the signs. you have to put in the time to understand a language, learn the way it is read and spoken. the more you do it, the more your power of reflection becomes. you will have insights that come to you in that regard. to experience every single moment." -Sheikh Yahya Rhodus

full of faults

"We find fault with the world, while the faults lie in our own selves. The world is not full of fault, except that we are full of flaws. A wolf does not eat the flesh of another of its kind but we eat the flesh of each other knowingly We have worn the sheep's clothing to deceive the people but woe unto the wild animal if it strays by us! We have reduced religion to mere show and formalities and thus, we deceive those who look at us." -Imam Shafi (RA)

ahead of time

"Congratulations to those who leave the world before it deserts them; to those who build their graves before they enter them; and to those who please their Lord before they meet him." -Yahya ibn Mu'adh

worries

“if you prayed as much as you worry, you’d have nothing to worry about”

oneness

Imam Ibn ul-Qayyim (RA) said “There is nothing that drives away the afflictions of this world except tawhid (asserting the oneness of God). That is why the suplication of the distressed person is with tawhid. Such as the supplication of Yunus (AS). The distressed person does not supplicate with what Yunus supplicated with except that God releases him from his hardship because of tawhid. There is nothing more gruesome for the distressed person than shirk(associating others with God), and there is nothing that can rescue you from it except tawhid, it is refuge for the creation, its shelter, its fortress, its aid.”

silence

"How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak" - Francois Fenelon

contentment

"When a man is satisfied with God's decrees, it is a sign that God is satisfied with him." - Shaykh Ali ibn Uthman Hujwiri

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."

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

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.

willingness

Excerpts from Disciplining the Soul & Breaking The Two Desires by Ghazali "As long as worship and the renunciation of forbidden things are felt to be unpleasant and burdensome their performance will be defective, and cannot bring one to full felicity. Certainly the struggle to persevere with them is a good thing, but only in comparison with abandoning them, not in comparison of doing them willingly. "

The true nature of things

Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests worldy life; and whoever recognizes the wordly life, the trials and tribulations [of life] become slight for him. -Ali ibn Abu Talib (RA)

some Ibn al-Qayyim quotes

There is no joy for someone who has no sorrow. 
There is no pleasure for the one who has no patience.
No bliss for someone with no misery.
and no rest for the one with no fatigue.
When someone is a little tired, he has a long rest.
When he endures the difficulty of steadfastness for a time that leads him to eternal life.
All that the people of eternal bliss are in is steadfastness for a time
-Ibn al -Qayyim

 Yearning for Allah and His meeting is like the gentle breeze blowing upon the heart, extinguishing the blaze of the Dunya. Whosoever caused his heart to settle with his Lord shall be in a state, calm and tranquility and whosoever sent it amongst the people shall be disturbed and excessively perturbed. -Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

 The heart becomes sick as the body becomes sick and its remedy is al-Tawbah and protection [from transgression] It becomes rusty as a mirror becomes rusty and its clarity is obtained by remembrance It becomes naked as the body becomes naked and its beautification is al-Taqwa It becomes hungry and thirsty as the body becomes hungry and its food and drink are knowledge love, dependence, repentance, and servitude. -Ibn al-Qayyim

one of my favorite quotes

i looked at all friends, and did not find a better friend than safeguarding the tongue. i thought about all dresses, but did not find a better dress than piety. I thought about all types of wealth, but did not find a better wealth than contentment in little. i thought about all types of good deeds, but did not find a better deed than offering good advice. i looked at all types of sustenance, but did not find a better sustenance than patience -Umar (RA)

on patience

The Prophet (SAWS) said in the sahih hadith: "Whoever abstains from asking others, Allah will make him contented, and whoever tries to make himself self-sufficient, Allah will make him self-sufficient. And whoever remains patient, Allah will make him patient. No one has ever been given a bestowal better and more extensive than patience." (Related by alBukhari (3/265)

foolish

How strange and foolish is man. He loses his health in gaining wealth. Then to regain health he wastes his wealth. He ruins his present while worrying about his future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past. He lives as though death shall never come to him but he dies in a way as if he were never born.

- Ali ibn Abi Talib

when one door closes ...

As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better. You must convince your heart that whatever Allah has decreed is most appropriate and most beneficial to you."

-Imam al-Ghazali

the prayer of Taif

"O Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful. O Lord of the weak and my Lord too. To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair? So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is of a more expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me. I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction until You are pleased.

There is no power and no might except by You."