Reports on weeping out of fear of Allah

He said: And al-Hasan said: Hold to faith, hold to faith! For whoever is a believer has intercessors with Allah whose intercession is accepted.

Al-Hasan said: Whoever speaks well and acts well, accept what he says; and whoever speaks well but acts badly, do not accept what he says.

Al-Hasan said: It is part of hypocrisy that the tongue differs from the heart, that what is secret differs from what is open, and that what is inside differs from what is outside.

Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O uncle, tell us about death. He replied: Certainly, O Commander of the Faithful! It is like a branch with many thorns that is inserted into a man's belly, and every thorn lodges in a vein. Then a man pulls it hard, so that what he pulls out he pulls out and what remains remains.

Hassan bin Atiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: It has reached me that Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, will say on the Day of Resurrection: O children of Adam! We have kept silent regarding you from the time We created you. So today you keep silent, and We will read out your records of deeds. Whoever sees a good record, let him praise Allah; and whoever sees a bad record, let him blame none but himself. For these are only your own records that We are returning to you.

Damrah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Abu Rayhanah (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the commander of his garrison post for permission to go home. He said: O Abu Rayhanah, how much leave do you want? He replied: One night. When he arrived, he went to the mosque and kept praying until morning. Then he called for his mount and set off for his garrison post. People said: O Abu Rayhanah, did you not ask permission to go home? He replied: My commander gave me leave for only one night, and I neither lie nor break my word. The narrator said: So he left for his garrison post and did not go to his family; and Abu Rayhanah's home was in Bayt al-Maqdis.

Yahya bin Abi Kathir said: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Salam (may Allah be pleased with him) slapped a slave of his. Then he began to weep and say: Take your retaliation from me. The slave said: O master, I will not take retaliation from you. Ibn Salam said: Allah Almighty will forgive every sin except a slap on the face.

Ka'b said: There is no servant but that there is a bridle in his head. If he is humble, Allah raises him, and if he is arrogant, Allah brings him down.

It is reported from al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him), concerning the explanation of the saying of Allah Almighty, "Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it" [Al-Nisa: 123]: This is for the one whom Allah has intended to humiliate. But as for the one whom He intends to honour, Allah Almighty overlooks his misdeeds and gives him a place in Paradise, as Allah says: "the promise of truth which they were promised" [Al-Ahqaf: 16].

Abu Salih said: Abu al-Ala Yazid bin Abdullah bin al-Shikhkhir used to fall unconscious while reciting the Qur'an.

Sa'id al-Jurayri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Abu al-Ala would recite from the Mushaf, and Mutarrif would sometimes say to him: Spare us your Mushaf for the rest of the day.

Harun bin Antarah narrates from his father: I asked Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) which deed is the best. He replied: The remembrance of Allah. He said: Whoever is held back by his deeds, his lineage will not bring him forward.

Abdullah bin Abi al-Husayn said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Shall I not tell you who has the best character in this world and the Hereafter? It is the one who forgives whoever has wronged him, gives to whoever has deprived him, and maintains ties with whoever has cut him off. And whoever would like his life to be prolonged and his wealth to be increased, let him fear Allah and maintain the ties of kinship.

Abu al-Jawza' (may Allah have mercy on him), in explaining the Qur'anic verse "The Day they will be tormented over the Fire" [Al-Dhariyat: 13], said: Yu'adhdhabun, meaning they will be punished.

Abu al-Jawza' (may Allah have mercy on him), explaining the saying of Allah Almighty, "and they fear the evil of the reckoning" [Al-Ra'd: 21], said: What is meant by it is strict scrutiny of deeds.

Abu al-Jawza' (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Moving stones is easier for a hypocrite than reciting the Noble Qur'an. And Sa'id (may Allah have mercy on him) said: It is lighter for the hypocrite.

Abu al-Jawza' (may Allah have mercy on him) said, in explaining this verse of the Noble Qur'an, "I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me. I desire no provision from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me" [Al-Dhariyat: 56-57]: It is I who provide for them and I who feed them, and I created them only for My worship.

Abu al-Jawza' (may Allah have mercy on him), on reciting the Qur'anic verse "They will have no food except from dari'" [Al-Ghashiyah: 6], said: It is al-sulla (thorns). How can one who eats thorns grow fat?

Muhammad bin Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Ibrahim bin Maysarah (may Allah have mercy on him) related: Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) attacked a city. He said: I asked: "Was it Constantinople that he attacked?" He replied: "Yes." Then he said: He passed by a storyteller who was saying: "When a person does a deed in the early part of the day, that deed is presented at the end of the day to all those who know him in the Hereafter; and when a person does a deed in the latter part of the day, his deed is presented at the beginning of the day to all those who know him in the Hereafter." Abu Ayyub said: "See what you are saying!" He replied: "By Allah, it is just as I say." Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) then prayed: "O Allah, I seek refuge in You from being disgraced before Ubadah bin al-Samit and Sa'd bin Ubadah because of the deeds I have done after them." He said: The storyteller then said: "By Allah, when Allah Almighty writes His friendship for someone, He covers his faults and praises him for his best deed."

Muslim bin Yasar said: There are two valleys which are broad, and their depth is not known. People are traveling in them. So act as one who knows that your salvation lies only in righteous deeds, and put your trust as a man does who knows that nothing can reach you except what Allah has written for you.

Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: In every town there are people on whose account punishment is averted from the people of that town, and I hope that Abu Wa'il is among them.

Yahya bin al-Jazzar (may Allah have mercy on him) said, in explaining the Qur'anic verse "And when they are thrown into a narrow place in it" [Al-Furqan: 13]: As the lower part of a spear is narrow for its upper part.

Muslim bin Yasar said: If you were to ask a king for something you need, you would be pleased to bow down before him.

Al-Ala' bin Ziyad al-Adawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I saw in a dream that I was looking at an old, one-eyed woman with one large eye, and her other eye was about to come out. On her were chrysolite (zabarjad) and many kinds of wondrous ornaments. I asked: "Who are you?" She replied: "I am the world." I said: "I seek refuge in Allah from your evil." She said: "If you would like Allah to protect you from my evil, then hate the dirham."

Amr bin Dinar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Jabir bin Zayd was a Muslim when it came to the dirham.

It is narrated from Abu Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him), concerning the Qur'anic verse "And We turned them to the right and to the left" [Al-Kahf: 18], that they were turned twice a year.

Sayyidah Asma' bint Umays (may Allah be pleased with her) said: Sayyiduna Ja'far (may Allah be pleased with him) came to me when they were in Abyssinia, and he was weeping. Asma' asked: "What has happened to you?" He replied: "I saw a pampered, well-built young Abyssinian man pass by a woman, and he knocked down the flour she had with her, and then the wind blew that flour away. The woman said: 'I entrust you to the Day when the King will sit on the Kursi and will obtain the right of the oppressed from the oppressor.'"

Abd al-Rahman bin al-Aswad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When I smell the fragrance of rayhan (basil), I am reminded of Paradise.

Malik bin Mighwal (may Allah have mercy on him) said: A man said to al-Sha'bi: "O scholar, give us a ruling." He replied: "The scholar is the one who fears Allah."

Amr bin Qays (may Allah have mercy on him) said: People used to dislike that a man should give his child something and the child then take it outside, and a poor person see it and go weeping to his family, or an orphan see it and go weeping to his family.

It is narrated from Sufyan (may Allah have mercy on him) that a person cannot be counted a faqih (one with understanding of the religion) until he comes to regard affliction as a blessing and ease as an affliction.

Sufyan (may Allah have mercy on him) said: People used to like to gladden themselves.

Malik bin Dinar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: A heart in which there is no grief is like a ruined house.

Budayl bin Maysarah al-Uqayli or Matar al-Warraq (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Whoever comes to know his Lord loves Him, and whoever sees the world with the eye of the heart renounces it. The believer does not become heedless until he occupies himself with idle pursuits; when he reflects, he grieves.

Abu Husayn (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The likeness of one who snatches property from an orphan and clothes a widow with it is that of one who earns by unlawful means and spends in unlawful ways.

Amr bin Qays (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Allah Almighty commands punishment concerning the inhabitants of the earth, and the angels say: "O Allah! There are children among them."

Thabit said: Whenever a person remembers death frequently, it is seen in his deeds.

Thabit used to pray: "O Allah, if anyone is granted permission to pray in the grave, then grant me permission to pray in my grave."

Humayd (may Allah have mercy on him) said: We used to visit Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), and Thabit would be with us. Whenever he passed by a mosque, he would pray in it. When we came to Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), he would ask: "Where is Thabit? Where is Thabit? Where is Thabit? He is a person whom I love."

Hammad narrates from his father that Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said (but he did not say, "I was present"): "Everything has a key, and Thabit is one of the keys of good."