In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The life of the salaf between speech and action.
Modesty.
Modesty before Allah.
Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, once addressed the people and said:
"O assembly of Muslims,
show modesty before Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.
For by Him in whose hand is my soul,
I remain, when I go to relieve myself in the open,
covered by my garment out of modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
Abu Musa, may Allah be pleased with him, also said:
"I bathe in a dark room,
and I do not straighten my back while taking my garment,
out of modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
Abu Sulayman al-Darani, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"If a servant feels modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic,
then he has attained complete goodness."
Modesty before people.
Zayd ibn Thabit, may Allah be pleased with him, went out intending to attend the Friday prayer,
but he met people returning [from it].
He entered a house, and it was said to him:
"Are you shy before the people?"
He replied:
"Indeed, whoever is not modest before people,
will not be modest before Allah."
Salman, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"When Allah, the Almighty, intends evil or destruction for a servant,
He strips modesty from him.
Then you will find him only hateful and hated.
Once he is hateful and hated,
mercy is stripped from him.
Then you will find him only harsh and callous.
Once he is like that,
trustworthiness is stripped from him.
Then you will find him only treacherous and a traitor.
Once he is like that,
the bond of Islam is stripped from his neck,
and he becomes accursed and a source of cursing."
Some wise men said:
"Whoever is clothed in the garment of modesty,
people will not see his faults."
A poet said:
"If you do not fear the consequence of the nights,
and you have no modesty, then do as you wish.
By Allah, there is no good in life,
and no world, once modesty is gone.
A person lives well as long as he has modesty,
just as a branch remains as long as its bark remains."
Modesty before one's own self.
Some wise men said:
"Let your modesty before your own self
be greater than your modesty before others."
Some scholars of etiquette said:
"Whoever performs an act in secret
that he would be ashamed of in public,
then his own self has no value to him."
Generosity, munificence, and altruism.
'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, embraced Islam
while possessing forty thousand dirhams."
'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, informed me,
saying: "Abu Bakr passed away
and did not leave behind a single dinar or dirham."
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, took
four hundred dinars,
placed them in a pouch,
and said to his servant:
"Take this to Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, may Allah be pleased with him."
The servant went,
and said:
"The Commander of the Faithful says to you:
'Use this for some of your needs.'"
He said:
"May Allah join him [to goodness] and have mercy on him."
Then he said:
"Come here, slave girl,
take these seven to so-and-so,
and these five to so-and-so,
and these five to so-and-so,"
until he had spent it all.
The servant returned to 'Umar
and informed him.
He found that he had prepared the same amount for Mu'adh ibn Jabal.
He said:
"Take this to Mu'adh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him."
He went to him with it.
He said:
"The Commander of the Faithful says to you:
'Use this for some of your needs.'"
He said:
"May Allah have mercy on him and join him [to goodness]."
"Come here, slave girl,
take this much to the house of so-and-so,
take this much to the house of so-and-so."
His wife came out
and said:
"By Allah, we are also needy,
so give us something."
There were only two dinars left in the cloth,
so he tossed them to her.
The servant returned to 'Umar
and informed him of that.
He said:
"They are brothers, one from the other."
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say to his children:
"Remember the owner of the loaf of bread."
Then he mentioned that a man from the Children of Israel worshipped Allah for seventy years,
then Satan made a woman appear beautiful in his eyes,
and he stayed with her for seven days.
Then he fled,
and stayed with some poor people.
He was given a loaf of bread as charity,
which one of those poor people wanted.
He preferred him over himself with it, then he died.
His worship was weighed against the seven days he spent with the woman,
and the seven days outweighed his worship.
Then the loaf of bread was weighed against the seven days,
and it outweighed them.
Sa'da bint 'Awf, the wife of Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"Talhah once gave one hundred thousand dirhams in charity,
and it kept him from going to the mosque
because I had gathered it for him between the folds of his garment."
Al-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam, may Allah be pleased with him, had one thousand slaves
who paid him tribute,
and he would distribute it every night,
then go to his house with nothing of it left.
'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him,
freed his slave girl who was called Rumaythah.
He said:
"I heard Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, say in His Book:
﴿You will not attain righteousness until you spend from that which you love.﴾
And by Allah, I truly loved you in this world,
so go, for you are free for the sake of Allah."
When he, may Allah be pleased with him, fell ill,
he craved a fish, so it was prepared for him.
Just as it was placed before him, a beggar came.
He said: "Give him the fish."
His wife said: "We will give him a dirham,
it is more useful to him than this,
and you fulfill your craving with it."
He said: "My craving is not what I want."
Twenty thousand were brought to him,
and he did not rise from his seat until he had given it all away.
Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
"There are three whom I cannot repay:
a man who made space for me in a gathering—
I cannot repay him,
even if I gave him everything I own.
The second is he whose feet became dusty walking to me—
I cannot repay him,
even if I shed my blood for him.
And the third I cannot repay,
until the Lord of the Worlds repays him on my behalf:
one who brought a need to me
and found no one else to fulfill it but me."
'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"If one of you gives something to Allah, the Almighty and Majestic,
let him not give Him what he would be ashamed
to give to someone noble,
for Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, is the most noble of the noble,
and the most deserving of that which is chosen for Him."
Ja'far ibn Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"A good deed is not complete except with three things:
hastening it, belittling it, and concealing it."
Some wise men said:
"If you do a good deed, conceal it,
and if a good deed is done to you, spread it."
The annual income of Sahnun ibn Sa'id, may Allah have mercy on him, from an olive grove
was five hundred dinars a year,
yet the year would not end without him being in debt
due to the abundance of his charity and kindness.
'Uray ibn al-Husayn, may Allah have mercy on him, was thought to be stingy,
but when he died, they found he had been feeding one hundred households in Medina.
He, may Allah have mercy on him, used to carry a sack of bread on his back at night,
give it in charity, and say:
"Indeed, secret charity extinguishes the anger of the Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
When he died, may Allah have mercy on him, and they washed him,
they began to notice black marks on his back.
They asked: "What is this?"
They said: "He used to carry sacks of flour on his back at night
to give to the poor of the people of Medina."
Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufrah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"It is strange that one would buy slaves with his wealth,
but not buy free men with his kindness."
Maimun ibn Mihran, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"That I give a dirham in charity during my life
is more beloved to me than one hundred dirhams being given on my behalf after my death."
A beggar came asking at the door of al-Rabi' ibn Khuthaym, may Allah have mercy on him,
and he said: "Feed this beggar sugar."
His family said: "He only wants us to feed him a piece of bread."
He said: "Feed him sugar,
for al-Rabi' loves sugar."
Ibn al-Muqaffa' said: "Generosity with what one can afford is the ultimate generosity."
Some of the salaf, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"One of them belittles a small thing,
so he ends up doing what is worse than it,"
meaning withholding.
And the one who said it spoke the truth:
Be kind to people, and you will enslave their hearts.
For how often has kindness enslaved a human being.
Whoever is generous with wealth, all people will incline
toward him, for wealth is a great temptation for man.
Be kind whenever you have the possibility and the means,
for the possibility will not last forever for any man.
Hubaysh Ibn Mubashir, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
I sat with Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and Yahya Ibn Ma'in, may Allah have mercy on them,
while many people were gathered around,
and they unanimously agreed that they did not know a single righteous man who was a miser.
Ibn al-Jawzi, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
Nizam al-Mulk, may Allah have mercy on him, fell ill,
so he began to treat himself through charity.
A crowd of the needy would gather before him,
and he would give charity to them, and he was cured.
Al-Hafiz Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
Wealth would come to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him,
“Beautified for mankind is love of the joys (that come) from women and offspring; and stored-up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded (with their mark), and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. Allah! With Him is a more excellent abode.” (3:14)
such as branded horses, livestock, and crops,
and he would give it all away,
placing it in the hands of those in need where it belonged.
He would not take anything from it except to give it away,
and he would not keep it except to spend it all in the path of righteousness.
This is the way of the humble, not the way of the arrogant.
He was not swayed by the love of worldly desires,
nor was anything from the three worldly delights made dear to him,
except for prayer.
Wealth would come to him every year
in amounts that could hardly be counted,
yet he would spend it all, in the thousands and hundreds,
never seeking to keep a single dirham for himself,
nor spending it on his own needs.
Rather, if he had nothing else to give,
he would take one of his own garments
and hand it over to the person asking.
A life of peace,
between word and deed.