Seeing defects within one's self

"Hazrat Umar (ra) prayed: 'May God show mercy on the man who points out mydefects to me'."

"... mix with people and know their faults... a believer is a mirror to anotherbeliever. He sees his defects from the defects from others."

(Source: (Translation of) Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter on Good Conduct)

The Leader of a People is Their Servant

"Two friends, Abdullah and Abu Ali Rabati once started on a journey. Abdullah said to Rabati, 'You are my leader'. Rabati said to Abdullah, 'You are my leader'. [Eventually,] Abdullah was made leader of the two. Thereafter he carried his own luggage and the luggage of Rabati upon his back. One night there fell profuse rain. Abdullah held a blanket over his companion for the whole night. Whenever Rabati said 'Don't do it', Abdullah said 'Have you not selected me as your leader? So don't order me and don't do other than what I order you to do'. Rabati then said, 'I wished then that I were dead and that I did not say to him:You are my leader'."

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Rules and Regulations of Journey)

Awesome awesome example.

What are friends for.

"Hazrat Abu Darda used to sit by graves. Being asked the reason, he said: 'I sit with such people who remind me of the next world. If I go away from them, they do not backbite me.'"

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din)

Rare.

Find excuses not faults

"Hazrat Ibnul Mubarak said, 'A believer searches for excuses and a hypocrite searches for faults'."

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, chapter of Love and Brotherhood)

Love and Hate

"By God, if I fast all days and pray all nights, spend all my wealth in the way of God without account and if I die on the day with no love for those who obey God and with no hatred for those who do not obey God, it will be of no use to me."

(Attributed to Abdullah ibn Omar (may God be pleased with him) in Ihya-Ulum-id-Din, the chapter of Love and Brotherhood)

Dodging the Haram

Turn away from the unlawful.
Face piety.

Step forward from the doubtful.
Approach piety.

God-fear within reach,
duck under the doubtlessly lawful,
that which clotheslines into the doubtful.

Spring up a final leap,
leaving all that is not for God,
landing in the company of the truthful.

Recommended Reading: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter of Halal and Haram

Your stomach is your foundation...

... base it on good spiritual nutrients.

"Hazrat Omar drank the milk of a camel intended for Zakat by mistake. He thrust his fingers into his throat and vomited it."

"The limbs of a man who eats lawful food become obedient to him and help him in doing good deeds." (and vice-versa)

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter of Halal and Haram (Lawful and Unlawful Things))

What goes around...

... can/may/will come around and hack you down.

A simple example to demonstrate a simple point:

"A man had a cow. He milked his cow everyday and sold milk after mixing water therein (fraudulently). One day there was a flood which drowned the cow. One of his sons said to him, 'The waters which you mixed with milk gathered together and washed away the cow...'"

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din)

Do no evil.

Be not like sheep

"... If a man takes food for helping his learning and action and God-fear, his food and drink are considered as divine service.

For that, he should not spend his time uselessly remaining busy like a lower being which roams from field to field in eating and drinking..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Din, The Book of Worldly Usages, Rules of Eating and Drinking)

The days, meals and opportunities are many. Life and death (in this world) once. Use wisely.

The mind in prayer

A couple of quotes about the mind in prayer:

(1) "... When the mind is not present in prayer, it does not remain idle and is concentrated to the thoughts of the worldly affairs with which it is immediately concerned. So there must be firm belief that prayer is a stepping stone to the next world which is everlasting..."

(2) "... The medicine of removing various thoughts that come to mind in prayers is to cut the root or to remove the reasons which cause different thoughts. He who loves a thing remembers that thing. For this reason, he who loves things other than God is not free from diverse thoughts in prayer."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Din, The Book of Worship)

Intoxication and Prayer

"God says, 'Don't come near prayer when you are intoxicated until you understand what you say'. Some say that intoxication means a great anxiety. Some say that it means attachment to the world. There are many worshippers who do not drink wine but they do not know what they say in prayer..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Din)

Vintage Ghazzali maa sha Allah;
digging beneath the surface.

Wudhu (ablution) with intent

In performing repetitive ritualistic acts, it is so easy to slip into mechanical mode and to forget the beauty of what we are doing and why we are doing it. A good example of this is Wudhu (ablution). We wash without a care and without a thought, for example, for the many sins flowing out and leaving our bodies.

Here are some quotes to get you thinking and to give your Wudhu a deeper meaning:

"... He shall rinse his mouth thrice with water and say afterwards: 'O God, help me to read Thy book and glorify Thy name'. Then he shall take up water and cleanse his nose thrice and say: 'O God, grant me to enjoy the fragrance of paradise while Thou art pleased to promise it to me'...

... As he washes his face, he should say: 'O God, make my face white and bright with Thy light on the day when Thou will make the faces of Thy friends bright'...

... He should then wash his arms up to the elbows three times. The believers will come on the Day of Resurrection with brightness on their foreheads, wrists and ankles from the effect of ablution...

... When he will finish ablution thus, he should raise his head towards the sky and say: 'I testify that there is no deity but God. He is one and there is no partner for Him. I testify also that Muhammad is the servant and Apostle of God'..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Deen)

The toothstick (miswaak)

"... The Prophet said: 'Your mouths are the pathways of Quran. Cleanse them therefore with toothstick'.

The Prophet said: 'Prayer after the use of toothstick is better than prayer without its use by seventy-five times'.

He said: 'Had it not been difficult for my followers, I would have ordered them to use toothstick before every prayer'.

... Hazrat Ibn Abbas said: 'The Prophet has so repeatedly commanded us to use toothstick that we thought soon a revelation would come for its use'.

... Hazrat Ali said: 'Use of toothstick increases memory and removes phlegm'.

The Companions of the Prophet used to keep toothstick in their ears even at the time of journey..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Deen)

Governed to the minutest detail and proud

"Hazrat Salman said: 'The Prophet taught us everything even how to cleanse after [answering the] call of nature...'"

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-id-Deen)

Ain't it funny when you have a conversation about a particular topic and later randomly independently stumble upon that very topic in reading, both in the same day? Anyway, the point here is that we are a people governed to the minutest detail... and proud of it. :-)>

Evils of debates

As well as the conditions to test your sincerity against (see previous post), Imam Ghazzali (may Allah have mercy on him) specifies ten evils of debates, as follows:

"(1) Envy... A debater is never free from envy and hatred. Envy is a burning fire. One who falls in it gets punishment in the world...
(2) Pride...
(3) Rancour [i.e. a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will]. A debater is seldom free from the evil of rancour...
(4) Back-biting... A debater ascribes to his opponent foolishness, ignorance and stupidity.
(5) Declaration of self-purity...
(6) Spying and prying into the secrets of [one's] adversary...
(7) Hypocrisy. A debater expresses his friendship for his adversary outwardly but he cherishes hatred for him inwardly...
(8) To turn away from truth. The most hateful thing to a debater is to reject the truth revealed to his adversary and thus he takes to deception and deceit...
(9) ... show and battering [flattering?] the people in an effort to win their favour and to mislead them. Hypocrisy is the greatest disease with which a debater is attacked and it is a major sin.
(10) Deception. Debaters are compelled to deception."

Conditions of Debates

Just found a beautiful characterisation of debates and the debater in Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-Id-Deen. Imam Ghazzali specifies eight conditions which provide a good means of identifying when we are debating for the sake of God and when we are debating for other purposes. Here's the fifth and sixth conditions:

"(5)... the debate should be held in private in preference to open meetings in presence of noted people and in grandeur because privacy is more suitable for clear thinking and to examine what is right and what is wrong."

"(6)... the debater should like truth in the same spirit as a lost thing is searched for. He should not mind whether the truth is found by him or by his adversary. When Hazrat Umar was once given sermon, a woman pointed out to him his mistake to which he submitted. At another time, Hazrat Ali was asked a question by a man and he replied. When the man pointed out his mistake, he admitted it."

Purity has got four stages

"(1) ... purification of the external organs from excrements and filths.
(2) ... purification of the body organs from sins and faults.
(3) ... purification of the heart from evil traits and evil vices.
(4) ... purification of the inner self from everything except God. This is the stage of the Prophets and saints."

Outwards in:
Wash the bodily limbs,
Cover with religious acts,
Shine with pure thoughts.

"... The early Muslims concentrated their entire attention and energies on the purification of their hearts and were lenient in their outward cleanliness... They used to say prayer kneeling and prostrating directly on the ground in the mosque and walk barefooted on the roads. They used to use pebbles after calls of nature..."

Are you a believer?

The meaning of 'belief' according to the early Muslim sages:

"... with regard to the answer, 'I am a believer if God wills', [in response to a] question put to one: 'Are you a believer?' The reply should not be 'I am a true believer' or 'I am a believer [in] God'.

These qualifications are correct [and] put forward for four reasons, [the first] two [] do not come from doubt and [the second] two come from doubt.
(1) Care taken for fear of showing oneself pure... A certain wise man was asked, 'What is detestable talk?' He said, 'To praise oneself'.
(2) Courtesy and to entrust all actions to the will of God...
(3) ... There is doubt whether [one] is a perfect believer because God said, 'True believers are those only who believe in God and His Apostle and afterwards do not doubt and who fight with their lives and properties for the cause of God. These are the truthful'...
(4) The fear of [a] bad end, for no one knows what will be his end, good or bad."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-Id-Deen)

Am I a believer? Yes... insha-Allah!

Note that there is difference in meaning between the words Mu'min (roughly: a believer or one who confirms the truth - from the word Eeman) and Muslim (roughly: one who submits, surrenders and avoids unbelief, rebellion and disobedience - from the word Islam).

The good deeds of this age

"... Another sign of the learned man of the next world is that he saves himself from innovations even though the people are unanimous on innovations and novelties. He is rather diligent in studying the conditions of the Companions, their conduct and character and their deeds. They spent their lives in Jihad, meditation, avoidance of major and minor sins, observation of their outer conduct and inner self...

... Hazrat Huzaifa said a [] wonderful saying: 'Your good deeds of this age are the evil deeds of the past age and the evil deeds of this age will be considered as good deeds of the next age...' He said the truth, because most of the good deeds of this age were reprehensible at the time of the Companions. The good deeds of our age is the embellishment of mosques, excess in ablution and bath, huge expenses in the construction of buildings for mosques, spreading of soft and fine rugs in mosques etc..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-Id-Deen)

The best of us is the one of learning,
harnessing passion with knowledge.

The best of us is the one free from blame,
following the way of the Companions.

The best of us is the one of good guidance,
firm in faith and silent toward doubt.

Visible Signs of the Learned Man of the Hereafter

"... Another sign of the learned man of the next world is that he becomes humble and adopts silence. The effect of God-fear appears on his body, dress, character, movements, speech and silence. If any man looks at him, it reminds him of God, and his nature and character are proofs of his actions. His eyes are a mirror of his mind. The signs of the learned man of the Hereafter are recognised on his face; tranquility, modesty and freedom from pride and vanity. A certain wise man said, 'God has not given a man a garment better than the garment of God-fear. It is the garment of the Prophets, Siddeeqs (truthful), Pirs and the learned men'..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-Id-Deen)

What do we say of a man
in whom God-fear has become ingrained,
a man who has acquired knowledge
and with it, tranquility and patience,
a man who has humbled himself
and whose knowledge has discouraged ignorance,
a man who rejoices at receiving the Mercy of God
whilst weeping secretly for fear of His punishment?

This man, the one who walks with modesty,
whose soul is in the earth but
whose wisdom is in the Hereafter,
he makes for a great companion;
he helps you when you remember God
and reminds you when you forget,
as the tradition goes.

This man, the one filled with God-fear,
who prepared for death before it came
and wept much in the world,
who remained silent
and did not mix with frivolous talks,
he will laugh most in the Hereafter.
Seek out his companionship.