Wise Words From The Predecessors

Al-Fudayl b. ‘Ayyâd said:
"If you can be unknown, be so; it doesn’t matter if you are not known and it doesn’t matter if you are not praised. It doesn’t matter if you are blameworthy according to the people,what matters is if you are praiseworthy with Allâh the Mighty and Majestic."
- Al-Bayhaqî, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabîr

Yunus as-sadafi said: 
"I have never met a man wiser than Imam ash-Shafi`, I was arguing with him one day about an issue and I left him. One day Imam Shafi met me and said: 'Can we not be brother’s even if we disagree about something?'" - Siyar a’laam an-Nubala 10/16.

Imam Ibn al-Jawzi said:
"The nature of character is like a thief, if a person leaves his nature with the people of his time, his nature will steal from theirs and he will become like them, but if he reads into the lives of the Prophet ﷺ companions & tabieens his nature will learn from theirs” (Tablis Iblis by Ibn Jawzi)



‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab once said to Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qais:

“O Ahnaf, the more one laughs, the less dignity will he posses. Whoever jokes (excessively or indecently) is a person who will be taken lightly. Whoever does something frequently will become known by that thing. Whoever speaks often, errs often; the more often one errs, the less modesty will he possess; whoever has a low level of modesty will also have a low level of piety; and when one has a low level of piety, then his heart dies.“ [Taken from "Glimpses Of The Lives Of Righteous People", Darussalam publishing, Pp. 24-25, quoting from "Sifatus-Safwah", 1/1449]

Ahmed ibn Hanbal said,
"Attacking the honour of rulers and occupying oneself with reviling them and mentioning their shortcomings is a very big mistake and a repugnant sin: The purified revelation has forbidden it and has censured the one who does so”. {Foundations of The Sunnah pg 139}

It is not permissible to rush into making takfir (calling a Muslim kafir) or to make takfir on anyone on account of sin”. - Imam Ibn Uthmaymeen: The Khawaarij of the era.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Salih al-Uthaymeen said,
“We see you when you are inflicted with a disease, you knock every physician’s door looking for treatment and bearing whatever pain that may result from surgical operations and the bitterness of medicine. Why do you not do the same when your heart is spiritually sick with sins?”
- The Muslim’s Belief (`Aqeedat-ul-Muslim). Riyadh, 1998.

Abu Darda (ra) said to his wife,

"If you see that I am angry, then appease me, and if I see that you are angry, I will appease you - otherwise why should we keep company with one another?” When this saying reached Imam Zuhri, he said, “That is how companionship should be” (Gems and Jewels by Abdul Malik Mujahid)

Sheikh Raslan said:

"The student of knowledge should not mix except with those who he can benefit or can benefit from. If he is offered the friendship of one who will waste his time with him, will not benefit him, will not benefit from him, and will not assist him in reaching his objective, he should politely end the relationship from the …start before it progresses to something deeper ‘Repelling something is easier than removing it.’ (The Manners of the knowledge seeker by Sheikh Raslan p.45)

Abdullaah Ibn Masud (ra) said:
”Indeed, I hate to see a man totally free, not doing anything from the work of the life of this world nor the Hereafter”. - Al Hilyaa vol.1/pg.130

Image: flickr

From The SunnahWay blog.