Part of Lives of the Salaf — the Pious Predecessors (series completed)
· Lesson 69 of 72
A summary of the life of the Salaf between words and deeds | Episode (69) | Justice and condemnation of injustice
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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The life of the salaf between speech and action.
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Preserving time.
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It is narrated that al-Awza'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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There is not a single hour of the hours of this world
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but that it will be presented to the servant on the Day of Resurrection,
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day by day,
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and hour by hour.
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So, no hour passes him in which he did not remember Allah
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but that his soul will be torn apart by regrets over it.
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How then, if hour upon hour passes him by,
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and day upon day?
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Fudayl ibn al-Raqqashi, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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Do not let the multitude of people distract you from your own self,
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for the matter will be settled with you, not them.
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And beware of spending your day wandering here and there,
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for it is being recorded against you.
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Abu Sulayman al-Darani, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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Everything that distracts you from Allah, the Almighty and Majestic—whether family, wealth, or children—
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is a calamity for you.
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It was said to al-Mu'afa ibn 'Imran, may Allah have mercy on him:
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What is your opinion of a man who composes and recites poetry?
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He replied: It is your life, so spend it on whatever you wish.
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Yahya ibn Mu'adh, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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The greatest misfortune for a wise person in a day
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is that it passes him by without a gift from his Lord coming to him in it,
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meaning a new piece of wisdom.
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Condemning envy.
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Mu'awiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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I can please all people,
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except the one who envies the blessings I have,
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for nothing will satisfy him but their disappearance.
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It was said to al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him:
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Does a believer envy?
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He replied: Have you forgotten the brothers of Yusuf?
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But keep it hidden in your chest,
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for it will not harm you as long as you do not act upon it with your hand or tongue.
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Some have said:
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Envy is the first sin by which Allah was disobeyed in the heavens,
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meaning Iblis’s envy of Adam.
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And it is the first sin by which Allah was disobeyed on earth,
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meaning the son of Adam’s envy of his brother until he killed him.
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Fudayl ibn 'Iyad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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Emulation (ghibta) is from faith,
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while envy is from hypocrisy.
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The believer emulates but does not envy,
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and the hypocrite envies but does not emulate.
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Justice and condemning injustice.
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'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, bought a horse from a man,
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on the condition that he would inspect it.
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He took the horse and rode it, but it became injured.
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He said to the owner of the horse: Take your horse back.
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The man replied: No.
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'Umar said: Then appoint a judge between you and me.
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The man said: Shurayh.
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'Umar asked: And who is Shurayh?
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He replied: Shurayh al-'Iraqi.
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'Umar said: Then go to him, and he recounted the story to him.
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Shurayh said: O Commander of the Faithful,
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return it as you took it, or keep it as you bought it.
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'Umar said: Is there any judgment other than this?
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Go to Kufa.
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It was the first day he had ever known him.
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He said to Muhammad ibn Maslamah, may Allah be pleased with them both:
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How do you see me, O Muhammad?
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He replied: By Allah, I see you as I love,
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and as anyone who wishes you well would love.
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I see you strong in collecting wealth, yet chaste regarding it,
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and just in distributing it.
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If you were to deviate, we would straighten you,
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just as an arrow is straightened in the tool for straightening arrows.
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'Umar said: Praise be to Allah who has placed me among a people
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who, if I deviate, straighten me.
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'Uthman ibn 'Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, entered
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upon a servant of his who was feeding his camel,
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and he saw something in the fodder that he disliked.
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He took his servant by the ear and twisted it.
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Then he felt remorse and said to him:
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Take my ear and twist it.
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The servant refused.
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But he did not let him be until he took his ear.
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'Uthman began saying to him:
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Pull, pull!
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Until he thought he had exacted from him as much as he had exacted from him.
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'Uthman said:
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Woe to me for the retribution of this world before the retribution of the Hereafter.
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Abu al-Darda', may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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The person I most hate to treat unjustly
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is the one who has no helper against me except Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.
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Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, said:
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If a mountain were to act unjustly toward another mountain,
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the aggressor would be crushed.
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Ibn Sirin, may Allah have mercy on him, heard a man invoking against someone who had wronged him,
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and he said: Stop, O man.
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Do not let your oppressor profit at your expense.
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'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, may Allah have mercy on him, wrote to one of his governors:
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To proceed:
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If your power over people invites you to treat them unjustly,
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then remember Allah’s power over you,
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and the passing of what you do to them,
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and the remaining of what they do to you.
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Whenever he, may Allah have mercy on him, wanted to punish a man,
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he would imprison him for three days,
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then punish him,
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fearing that he might act in haste while still angry.
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Some of the wise said:
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Security is the most pleasant life,
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and justice is the strongest army.
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Fudayl ibn 'Iyad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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By Allah, it is not lawful for you to harm even a dog or a pig without right,
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so how can you harm a Muslim?
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Muslim ibn Yasar, may Allah have mercy on him, heard a man invoking against another man,
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and he said:
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Leave the oppressor to his oppression,
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for it will reach him faster than your invocation against him,
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unless he repents through a good deed,
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though it is unlikely he will do so.
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A man came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, and said to him:
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Should we write hadiths from Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Tusi?
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He replied:
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If you do not write from Muhammad ibn Mansur,
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then who would you write from?
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He repeated this several times.
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The man said to him:
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But he speaks ill of you.
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Ahmad replied:
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A righteous man who has been tested regarding us;
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what are we to do?
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A poet said:
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By Allah, injustice is a calamity,
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and the wrongdoer is always the one who is truly oppressed.
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To the Judge of the Day of Judgment we shall go,
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and before Allah, the adversaries will gather.
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You will know in the Hereafter when we meet,
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tomorrow before the King, who is the true oppressor.
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Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, used to practice fairness and say:
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There is nothing less common among people than this,
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so I wanted to persist in it.
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Al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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How wretched is the provision for the Hereafter:
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aggression against the servants of Allah.
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The snares of Satan and his whispers,
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and being cautious of him.
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'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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The believer’s devil is emaciated.
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And he, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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The example of minor sins
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is like a group of people who stopped at a place where there was no firewood,
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and they had meat with them.
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They kept picking up sticks until they gathered enough to cook their meat.
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Salman al-Farisi, may Allah be pleased with him, said about the marketplace:
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Do not be the first of its people to enter,
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nor the last of them to leave,
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for it is where Satan lays his eggs and hatches his brood.
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Mutarrif ibn al-Shikhkhir, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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If a man saw prey,
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and the prey did not see him stalking it,
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is it not likely that he will catch it?
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They said: Yes.
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He said: Well, Satan sees us,
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while we do not see him,
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so he strikes at us.
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He also said, may Allah have mercy on him:
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I found the servant caught between his Lord, the Almighty, and Satan;
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if He saves him, he is successful,
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and if He leaves him to Satan, he will take him away.
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Some of the salaf said:
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I found procrastination to be one of the armies of Iblis,
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which has destroyed many of Allah’s creation.
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Al-Hasan ibn Salih, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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Satan opens ninety-nine doors of good for the servant,
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desiring by them one door of evil.
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Abu Hazim, may Allah have mercy on him, entered the mosque,
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and Satan whispered to him:
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You have broken your ablution.
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He replied:
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Has your advice reached such a point?
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Some of the salaf said:
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If Satan looks at you and sees you constant in the obedience of Allah,
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he will despair and abandon you.
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But if you are sometimes like this and sometimes like that, he will covet you.
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Abu Sulayman al-Darani, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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Whispers only come to a heart that is inhabited.
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Have you seen a thief come to a ruin to dig into it?
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He enters through whichever door he wishes.
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A man complained to him about whispers, and he said:
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If you want them to stop,
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then whenever you feel them, rejoice.
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For if you rejoice at them,
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they will stop,
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because there is nothing more hateful to Satan than the joy of a believer.
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But if you become distressed by them, he will increase them.
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Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
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I saw Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, praying,
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and he gestured with his hand like this,
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pointing with his fingers.
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When he finished the prayer, I said:
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O Abu 'Abdullah,
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What did you say in your prayer?
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He replied,
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I was in a state of ritual purity,
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then Iblis came and said,
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"You are not in a state of ritual purity."
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So I said, "I have two just witnesses [to the contrary]."
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Some have said,
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"Indeed, Satan is satisfied with a person
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if he can move him from one act of obedience to another,
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in order to undermine his resolve through that."
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The life of the pious,
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between speech and action.