The Virtue Of Reading Books Imam Ash-Shafi’iee Rahimahullah

Collected by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr in ‘Jami’ Bayan al-’Ilm wa Fadlih,’ the chapter titled: ‘The Virtue of Looking Through Books and the Praiseworthiness of Tending to Them’:

2414: Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad bin Isma’il al-Bukhari was asked:

“What is it that strengthens one’s memory?”

He replied: “Constantly looking through books.”

2415: Ahmad bin Abi ‘Imran said:

“I was with Abu Ayyub Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Shuja’, and he was staying in his house. So, he sent one of his sons to Abu ‘Abdillah bin al-A’rabi to invite him over.

The boy returned, saying: “I asked him this, and he said to me: “I am with a group, and when I am done being taught by them, I will be over,” and I did not see a single person at his house. Rather, he had in front of him books that he was looking through. He would look in this book for some time, and then look in another book for some time.”

Shortly thereafter, he arrived. So, Abu Ayyub said to him: “O Abu ‘Abdillah! Glory be to Allah, the Mighty! You stayed behind and prevented us from your presence, and my son said that he did not see anyone with you, and that you said you were with a group, and that you would come as soon as you were done being taught by them!”

So, Ibn al-A’rabi said:

We have company who sit with us and do not bore us * Loyal ones who can be trusted while they are present or away;

They benefit us from their knowledge of what happened in the past * And intelligence, manners, and opinions that are correct;

With no fear of conflicts or bad companionship * And one does not fear from their tongue or hand;

So, if you say that they are dead: nay! You are a liar * And if you say they are alive, you are not far from the truth…

Translator’s note: He did not lie, as he was referring to his books as his companions, and this is from the ma’arid (metaphoric speech) that do not count as lies, as was narrated authentically from ‘Imran bin Husayn, ‘Umar bin al-Khattab, and Ibn ‘Abbas.

2416: It was said to Abi al-’Abbas Ahmad bin Yahya (Tha’lab):

“The people have greatly missed you. If only you could leave your house for just a bit and show yourself to the people so that they could benefit from you, and you could benefit from them.”

So, he stayed silent for an hour, and said:

If we accompanied the kings, they would act arrogantly with us * And would belittle the rights of those they were accompanying;

Or if we accompanied the merchants, we would become sorrowful * And would become mere counters of money;

So, we remained in our homes, extracting knowledge * And filling with it the stomachs of these pages


2419: From what was memorized in the past:

What a great speaker and companion the book is! * You can seclude yourself with it if your friends bore you;

It does not reveal your secrets, and is not arrogant * And you can gain from it wisdom and uprightness…

2420: Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Ahmad recited to me:

And the sweetest that a youth can desire after piety * Is knowledge that is beautified for him to seek it;

And for every seeker, there is a pleasure that he desires * And the pleasure of the scholar is his books…

2421: And he asked me to add to the above, and I immediately followed up with this in his presence:

The book relieves the concerns of its reader * And when he reads, his exhaustion disappears;

What a great companion it is if you seclude yourself with it * You do not fear it plotting against you, or causing commotion…

2424:Abu ‘Amr bin al-’Ala’ said:

“I never entered upon a man or passed by his door – seeing him with a book in his hand, and his companion doing nothing – except that I judged him to be the more intelligent one.”

2425:‘Abdullah bin ‘Abd al-’Aziz bin ‘Umar bin ‘Abd al-’Aziz said:

“I never saw a better admonisher than the grave, or anything more satisfying than a book, or anything safer than lack of socialization.”

2426:al-Hasan al-Lu’lu’i said:

“Forty years of my life have passed in which I never awoke or went to sleep except that a book was resting on my chest."

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Looking At The Sky Living On The Soil Of My Sins

Walking on the roads of life thinking what had left behinds..,

Feeling what would I show and what would You see..

I have nothing more then a heart which want to love You yet falls behind in a dark pit of sins..

Ya Rabbi I can't keep looking at the sun,

I'm Your weak creation definately I will turn blind,

Ya Habibi when I look at this world and lights of desires it not only make me blind but also lost..,

A blind is helped by many but for wayfarer you're the only guide.

Looking at the sky living on the soil of my sins I'm calling You Ya Habibi ...

Help me to be on Your path,a path of truth,love and obedience.

Aa'meen Ya Habibi Ya Allah 

by faiza al noor

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Love You Habibi

when I think of You and the love You do,

A fragrance surrounds me which fill my world…

O I searched You on the heights of skies,deepest of oceans,

On the bright days in burning sun,in the stars and the moon ;
O the jewels of dark I searched in you my heaven.

O I searched You in the woods,the deserts,the valleys and the rivers but couldn't find You my Beloved..

But there is still your fragrance of love…

I hold my breath closed my eyes and looked within,

O it’s my heart which holds You're love Habibi and it’s fragrance make my life.

Alhamdulilllah Beloved You brought this Deen Al Islam which is Haqq,

You were the one who cried for me through days and nights,
You turn the darkness to light,hatred to love.

You are the one only one,
Your every breath,every second of life is a decree of ALLAH and I love you from my heart.

O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم 

Allah's blessings be upon You and your beloved family Aa’meen

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Lessons For Life

"Be uninterested in the world, and God will love you; be uninterested in what people possess, and they will love you."

Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

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The Supplication for Forgiveness

I seek forgiveness of God for my words and deeds for my vain striving and the exhaustion of my abilities.

I seek the forgiveness of God for my ignorance and transgressions,for the greatest of my conscious sins, and the minor ones I have committed.

I seek the forgiveness of God for what my hand has wrought,for my errors and [the sins] toward which I was inclined.

I seek the forgiveness of God for that which my hand did not earn,and for that which I earned upon attaining adulthood.

I seek the forgiveness of God for saying "I"and "with me",[for saying] "belonging to me" and "mine", and for my suspicions and my [limited] understanding.

I seek the forgiveness of God for that which I did not know,for that which I knew and for which I wrote by pen.

I seek the forgiveness of God for my sleep, my lethargy,and my wakefulness, and for that which has maintained me [in life].

I seek the forgiveness of God during the day, its night,and its morrow, before it is created from nothingness.

I seek the forgiveness of God for that which occurred during my youth,and for my disagreements with the aged and mature.

I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as I have feared what He has bestowed,and [as often as] the clouds have rained on the plains and hills.

I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of pilgrims, going toward lands characterized by purity and sanctity.

I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the breaking of dawn, and as often as the doves coo their songs in the branches.

Aa'meen Ya Rabb Al Arshil Azeem 

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Words of Imam Ash-Shafi’iee Rahimahullah

 "Let days go forth and do as they please,And remain firm when settled is the Decree.

 Don’t be afraid of what happens by night,For the affairs of this world are not to last.

And be a man,strong in the face of calamities, And let your nature be that of kindness and     honesty.

If your faults become too much in front of the people,And you wish that they were to be concealed;Then know that kindness covers all faults, And how many faults are kept hidden by kindness!

No sadness lasts forever,nor any happiness,And you shall not remain in poverty or any luxury.

Generosity cannot be hoped from the miserly, For no water exists in the Fire for the thirsty.

Your provision will not be decreased due to life's delays,And it cannot be increased due to your haste.

If, in your heart,you possess contentment, Then you and those who possess the world are equal.

And for him upon whose horizon death descends,No earth can offer him protection,nor any sky.

Indeed,the earth of Allah is certainly vast, But if decree descends,then the world constricts

Let days be the ones that betray you at all times, For no cure can avail a person of death" 

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Blessings of Hayaa

"One of Allah's best blessing a women can ever have is a man with Haya and Good Manners"

He will always be your prince and you will be the princess forever and this wealth of love will never be lost ♥

So girls rise your desires so high that the worldly pleasures will never catch you nor end your desires...


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Forty Rules of Love ♥

  ~How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we.


~The Path to the Truth is a labor of the heart,not of the head.Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet,challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart. Knowing your ego will lead you to the knowledge of God.

~Each and every reader comprehends the Holy Qur’an on a different level in tandem with the depth of his understanding.There are four levels of insight.The first level is the outer meaning and it is the one that the majority of the people are content with. Next is the Batıni—the inner level. Third,there is the inner of the inner.And the fourth level is so deep it can not be put into words and is therefore bound to remain indescribable.


~You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe because God is not confined in a mosque,synagogue or church.But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is,there is only one place to look for Him in the heart of a true lover.


~Intellect and love are made of different materials.Intellect ties people with knots and risks nothing,but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything,Intellect is always cautious and advises,"Beware too much ecstasy,"whereas love says, "Oh,never mind! Take the plunge!" Intellect does not easily break down,whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are among ruins. A broken heart hides treasures.


~Most of the problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstandings. Don't ever take words at face value.When you step into the zone of love,language as we know it becomes obsolete.That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.


~Loneliness and solitude are two different things.When you are lonely,it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path.Solitude is better for us,as it means being alone without feeling lonely.But eventually it is best to find a person, the person who will be your mirror. Remember, only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you.


~Whatever happens in your life,no matter how troubling things might seem,do not enter the neighborhood of despair.Even when all doors remain closed,God will open up a new path only for you.Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well.A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that he has been denied.


~Patience does not mean to passively endure.It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process.What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose,to look at the night and see the dawn.Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.


~East,west,south or north makes little difference.No matter what your destination,just be sure to make every journey a journey within. If you travel within,you'll travel the whole wide world and beyond.

~The midwife knows that when there is no pain,the way for the baby cannot be opened and the mother cannot give birth.Likewise,for anew Self to be born,hardship is necessary.Just as clay needs to go through intense heat to become strong,Love can only be perfected in pain.


~The quest for Love changes us.There is no seeker among those who search for Love who has not matured on the way.The moment you start looking for Love,you start to change within and without.

~There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe.Don't confuse the power driven,self-centered people with true mentors.
A genuine spiritual master will not direct your attention to himself or herself and will not expect absolute obedience or utter admiration from you,but instead will help you to appreciate and admire your inner self.True mentors are as transparent as glass.They let the Light of God pass through them.


~Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you.And do not worry that your life is turning upside down.How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?


~God is busy with the completion of your work,both outwardly and inwardly.He is fully occupied with you.Every human being is a work in progress that slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection.We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed.God deals with each of us separately because humanity is a fine art of skilled penmanship where every single dot is equally important for the entire picture.


~It's easy to love a perfect God,unblemished and infallible that He is.What is far more difficult is to love fellow human beings with all their imperfections and defects.Remember,one can only know what one is capable of loving.There is no wisdom without love.Unless we learn to love God’s creation,we can never truly love nor truly know God.


~Real filth is the one inside.The rest simply washes off.There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure waters and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul.You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting,but only love will purify your heart.


~The whole universe is contained within a single human being-you. Everything that you see around,including the things you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhors  is present within you in varying degrees.
Therefore,do not look for Satan outside yourself either.The devil is not an extraordinary force that attacks from without.It is an ordinary voice within.If you get to know yourself fully,facing with honesty and hardness both your dark and bright side,you will arrive at a supreme form of consciousness.When a person knows himself or herself,he or she knows God.


~If you want to change the way others treat you,you should first change the way you treat yourself.Unless you learn to love yourself,fully and sincerely,there is no way you can be loved. Once you achieve that stage,however be thankful for every thorn that others might throw at you.It is a sign that you will soon be showered in roses.


~Fret not where the road will take you.Instead concentrate on the first step. That's the hardest part and that's what you are responsible for.Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow.Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.


~We were all created in His image and yet we were each created different and unique.No two people are alike.No two hearts beat to the same rhythm.If God had wanted everyone to be the same,He would have made it so.Therefore,disrespecting differences and imposing your thoughts on others is tantamount to disrespecting God's holy scheme.


~When a true lover of God goes into a tavern,the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer but when a wine briber goes into the same chamber,it becomes his tavern.In everything we do,it is our hearts that make the difference,not our outer appearances. 
Sufi do not judge other people on how they look or who they are.When a Sufi stares at someone, he keeps both eyes closed instead opens a third eye -the eye that sees the inner realm.


~Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality.Only children would mistake a toy for the real thing.And yet human beings either become infatuated with the toy or disrespectfully break it and throw it aside.In this life stay away from all kinds of extremities,for they will destroy your inner balance.


~The human being has a unique place among God’s creation."I breathed into him of My Spirit," God says. Each and everyone of us without exception is designed to be God’s delegate on earth. Ask yourself, just how often do you behave like a delegate, if you ever do so? Remember,it falls upon each of us to discover the divine spirit inside and live by it.


~Hell is the here and now.So is heaven.Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven,as they are both present inside this very moment.Every time we fall in love, we send to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or fight someone,we tumble straight into the fires of hell.


~The universe is one being.Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories.Whether we are aware of it or not,we are all in a silent conversation.Do not harm. Practice compassion.And do not gossip behind anyone's back – not even a seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space and they will come back to us in due time.One mans pain will hurt us all.One mans joy will make everyone smile.


~This world is like a snowy mountain that echoes your voice.Whatever you speak,good or evil, will somehow come back to you.Therefore,if there is someone who harbors ill thoughts about you, saying similarly bad things about him will only make matters worse.
You will be locked in a vicious circle of malevolent energy.Instead for forty days and nights say and think nice things about that person.Everything will be different at the end of forty days, because you will be different inside.


~The past is an interpretation,The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line,proceeding from the past to the future.Instead time moves through and within us,in endless spirals.
Eternitiy does not mean inifnite time,but simply timelessness.
If you want to experience eternal illumination,put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.


~Destiny doesn't mean that your life has been strictly predetermined.Therefore,to leave everything to fate and to not actively contribute to the music of the universe is a sign of sheer ignorance.

~The true Sufi is such that even when he is unjustly accused,attacked and condemned from all sides,he patiently endures,uttering not a single bad word about any of his critics.A Sufi never apportions blame.How can there be opponents or rivals or even 'others' when there is no 'self' in the first place?
How can there be anyone to blame when there is only One?


~If you want to strengthen your faith,you will need to soften inside.For your faith to be rock solid,your heart needs to be as soft as a feather.Through an illness,accident,loss or fright, one way or another,we all are faced with incidents that teach us how to become less selfish and judgmental  and more compassionate and generous. 
Yet some of us learn the lesson and manage to become milder,while some others end up becoming even harsher than before.The only way to get closer to Truth is to expand your heart so that it will encompass all humanity and still have room for more Love.


~Nothing should stand between yourself and God.Not imams priests,rabbis or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership.Not spiritual masters,not even your faith.
Believe in your values and your rules,but never lord them over others.If you keep breaking other people's hearts,whatever religious duty you perform is no good.
Stay away from all sorts of idolatry,for they will blur your vision.Let God and only God be your guide.Learn the Truth,my friend,but be careful not to make a fetish out of your truths.


~While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone,only to leave it all behind after death,you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness.
Live this life as light and empty as the number zero.We are no different from a pot.It is not the decorations outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight.Just like that,it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going.


~Submission does not mean being weak or passive.It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Just the opposite.True power resides in submission – a power that comes from within. 
Those who submit to the Divine essence of life will live in unperturbed tranquility and peace even when the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence.


~In this world,it is not similarities or regularities that take us a step forward,but blunt opposites.And all the opposites in the universe are present within each and every one of us. Therefore the believer needs to meet the unbeliever residing within.And the nonbeliever should get to know the silent faithful in him.Until the day one reaches the stage of Insan-e-Kamil,the perfect human being,faith is a gradual process and one that necessitates its seeming opposite: disbelief.


~This world is erected upon the principle of reciprocity.Neither a drop of kindness nor a speck of evil will remain unreciprocated. Fear not the plots,deceptions or tricks of other people.If somebody setting a trap,remember,so is God.He is the biggest plotter.Not even e leaf stirs outside God's knowledge.Simply and fully in that. Whatever God does,He does beautifully.


~God is a meticulous clock maker  So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time.Neither a minute late nor a minute early.And for everyone without exception,the clock works accurately.For each there is a time to love and a time to die. 


~It is never too late to ask yourself "Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?"
Even if a single day in our life is the same as the day before,it surely is a pity.At every moment and with each new breath,one should be renewed and renewed again.There is only one way to be born into a new life "to die before death."


~While the parts change,the whole always remains the same.For every thief who departs this world,a new one is born.And every descent person who passes away is replaced by a new one.In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes.
For every Sufi who dies,another is born somewhere.


~A life without love is of no account.Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material,divine or mundane,Eastern or Western... 
Divisions only lead to more divisions.Love has no labels,no definitions.
It is what it is, pure and simple.
Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire!
The universe turns differently when fire loves water.


Forty Rules of Love actually by Shams Tabrizi brought up in a book by Elif Shafak. 

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