Sins are like the chains and locks preventing their perpetrator from roaming the vast gardens of tawheed and repeating the fruits of righteous actions.

- Majmoo’ Fataawaa (14/49)

[Soorah al-Baqarah (2):106]

`Abbaad b. `Abbaad al-Khawwaas:[1]

Let your attitude be, when finding something you disapprove of in your brothers, as though you are offering help from yourselves to yourselves, and offering sincerity from yourselves to your Lord, and offering sympathy from yourselves to your brothers. If you do that, then your faults will be of more concern to you than those of anyone else, and each of you would seek to wean sincere advice from each other, and whoever offers sincere advice to you and submits it from among you, will enjoy your good favors and graces. `Umar ibn al-Khattaab (radiyallaahu `anh) said, concerning this: ‘May Allaah have mercy on the one who brought my faults to my attention.”

You yourselves love to speak and that what you say should be put up with it. But when the like of what you have said, is said to you, you become angry, being angry with the people concerning their traits that you dislike, while you have the likes of these traits. Would you then not like that these are held against you?!

• Source: Narrated by ad-Daarimee (1/160-163), who said: “`Abdul-Malak ibn Sulaymaan Aboo `Abdur-Rahmaan al-Antaakee reported the whole of this to us.”
• Translated by: `Aboo Abdullaah as-Sayalaanee

Doubt and suspect your opinions and the opinions of the people of your era, and be certain, verifying [a matter] before speaking [about it]. Seek knowledge before it is sought from you, for indeed a time will come in which Truth and falsehood resembles each other such that they will become confused, and in which good is [called] evil and evil is [called] good. So some of you will end up trying to get close to Allaah with that which will distance you from Him, showing love for Him with that which will anger Him. Allaah, the Most High, said:

“Is he then to whom the evil of his deeds is made to seem fair to him, so that he considers it as good, (equal to the one who is rightly guided)? Verily, Allaah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. So do not destroy yourself (O Muhammad) in sorrow for them. Indeed Allaah is the All-Knower of what they do.” [Soorah al-Faatir (35):8]

• Source: Narrated by ad-Daarimee (1/160-163), who said: “`Abdul-Malak ibn Sulaymaan Aboo `Abdur-Rahmaan al-Antaakee reported the whole of this to us.”
• Translated by: `Aboo Abdullaah as-Sayalaanee

Seek for yourselves

The likes of what I have found.

I have found a place of rest wherein

He never falters in His love:

If I move away, He draws me close

And if I move closer, He draws nigh.

- Aboo Nu`aym, vol. 9, p. 357 no. 14112

There are people who recite the Qurān yet it doesn’t descend beyond their throats; were it to reach the heart & take root therein, it is then that it would benefit.

- Muslim, no. 822

Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzīyah, Miftāh Dār Al-Sa’ādah, 1:418+

The superiority of knowledge over wealth is understood from numerous angles:

1. Knowledge is the inheritance of the Prophets, while wealth is merely the inheritance of kings and the rich.
2. Wealth is diminished by spending, whereas knowledge grows when it is disbursed.
3. When the possessor of wealth dies, his wealth leaves him, whereas a man’s knowledge accompanies him to his grave.
4. Knowledge is what judges and rules over wealth, but wealth does not judge knowledge.
5. Wealth is acquired by the believer, the unbeliever, the righteous and the sinful; but beneficial knowledge is not acquired except by the believer.
6. The scholar is needed by the kings and those beneath them, whereas the possessor of wealth is only needed by the poor and destitute.
7. The soul is ennobled, purified and developed through the acquisition of and concern for knowledge – that is part of its completeness and nobility, whereas wealth neither purifies, completes nor adds a noble quality to the soul. On the contrary, the soul declines, becomes more greedy and more miserly through the gathering and concern for wealth. Thus, the soul’s concern for knowledge is its very completion, whereas the soul’s concern for wealth is its very decline.
8. Wealth calls the soul to transgression, pride and arrogance; whereas knowledge calls it to humility and the establishment of servitude and worship [of Allāh]. Thus, wealth calls the soul to the qualities of mere kings, whereas knowledge calls to the qualities of true servants [of Allah].
9. Knowledge attracts and conveys the soul to the felicity it was created for, whereas wealth is a veil between the two.
10. Enrichment with knowledge is loftier than enrichment with material wealth. Because being rich with wealth is enrichment by something external to the human: if that wealth were to depart in one night he would be immediately destitute. However, richness of knowledge is not under the threat of poverty, rather it is in ever increase. Thus, it is in reality the highest form of richness, as was said: I gained independent from everyone without acquiring wealth. Verily, the highest richness is in freedom from needing a thing, not in needing to possess it.
11. Wealth enslaves the one who covets it and makes him into a slave of it, as the Prophet – Allāh’s praise and peace be upon him – said, “Wretched be the slave of the dirham and the dīnār…” But knowledge makes its possessor a servant and worshipper of his Lord and Creator, it does not call him except to servitude to Allāh alone.
12. The love of knowledge and its pursuit is the root of all obedience [to Allāh], whereas the love of this worldly life (dunyā) and its wealth is the root of all evil.
13. The value of a rich man is his wealth, while the value of a learned man is his knowledge. The former is valued according to his wealth: if it ceases, so does his value; he is left valueless. The value of a learned man does not decrease, it is always on the rise.

• Translated by: Owais al-Haashimi
• Source: Points  of Benefit

Shaykh Ahmad al-Qar`aawee narrates:

Often, before the Shaykh [Saalih al-`Uthaymeen] entered the masjid, a little girl of 6 years would approach him asking the Shaykh for a riyal. So, the Shaykh, smiling, would say to her:

Would you like a (brand) new riyal or an old (used) riyal?

She would reply: “I would like a new riyal.”

So the Shaykh would gave her a new riyal, and then she would ask him on behalf of her sister, and the Shaykh would give her one (riyal) too.’

• Source: Safahaat Mushiqah min Hayaat al-Imaam Muhammad ibn Saalih al-`Uthaymeen, p71.
• Transcribed from: Jewels of Guidance, vol.1, p167

“…Every text that proves the obligation to believe in what has come in the Qur`aan is also a proof that one must believe in what has come in the Sunnah, due to the direct orders found in the Qur`aan to follow the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) and refer back to him in disputes. And referring back to him (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) was done by going directly to him during his lifetime, and it is done by referring to his Sunnah after his death.

So where is the belief in the Qur`aan for the one who is too haughty to follow the Messenger (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam), the very one he has been commanded to follow in the Qur`aan?! And where is the belief in the Qur`aan for the one who does not refer back to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) in disputes while Allaah has ordered him with that in the Qur`aan?!

And where is the belief in the Messenger (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam), that which the Qur`aan has directed us to, for the one who does not accept what is found in his Sunnah?! And verily, Allaah has said:

«And We have sent down upon you the Book,

a clarification for everything.» [16:89]

It is well known that many of the affairs of the Islaamic legislation, of both knowledge and practice, have been explained by the Sunnah. This shows how the details given to something from the Sunnah are actually from the “clarification” of the Qur`aan (as referred to in the above Verse).”

• Source: al-Qawaa`id al-Muthlaa, Shaykh `Uthaymeen.
• Translated by: Ustaadh Moosaa Richardson.