Islamic Quotes

Live for this life as though you live in it forever and live for the life to come as though you die tomorrow
- 'Amr ibn al 'Aas


The death of the self lies in the life of the heart
- Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (rahimullah)


Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.


If you are proud of your descent from virtuous ancestors, how empty their virtue will leave your hands if you yourself are not virtuous. How little pride your ancestors will have in you in this world and the next if you do no good! All men are children of Adam whom Allah created by His own Hands, giving him paradise for a dwelling place and letting His angels bow down before him. But how little is the advantage from this since all the vices dwell in mankind and all the wicked impious people are among their number.
- Ibn Hazm
[Kitab al-Akhlaq wa al-Siyar fi Mudawat al-Nufus]


Historically whoever advocates truth always suffers. I am just a fighter for the truth. Our truths are universal
- Merve Kavaci (former Turkish Parliamentarian - who was prevented from taking oath in Parliament because of her hijab)


When you want to mention your companion's faults, remember your own faults
- Ibn Abbas (radiAllahu anhu)


Everything in this world happens for a reason yet nothing in this world comes free�Hard work, endurance, determination, persistence, and strong will are key� But without faith you can only go so far before you lose yourself� We are all hearts, minds, bodies, and souls searching for something - you are not the only one� So search, and you shall discover, look, and you shall certainly find, read and you shall only behold that the most logical of all answers was always right there before your very eyes�
- Moez Masoud
(TV presenter of 'Parables in the Qur�an' and 'Stairway to Paradise')


I once saw a Christian monk gaunt through self-sacrifice and doubled over by the fear of God. I asked him to show me the path of God. He replied, "If you knew God you would know the way to Him. I worship Him although I do not know Him; you disobey Him though you know Him. With knowledge comes fear, yet you are self-assured; with heresy ignorance, yet I feel fear within me." His words moved me so deeply that since then I have refrained from wrongdoing.
- Abd'Allah bin Mubarak al-Marwazi, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"


Man who is created alone should be aware that he will also die alone. Yet during his life, he lives almost addicted to posessions...
the only assest one can take with him when one dies is one's belief or disbelief
- Harun Yahya (famous Turkish author)


Whoever travels without a guide, needs two hundred years for a two-day journey.
- Jalaluddin Rumi


Astride a horse I am not, nor camel-like carry a load,
Subjects I have none, nor follow any sultan's code;
I worry not for what exists, nor fret for what is lost,
I breathe with extreme ease, and live at very little cost.
- Saadi al-Shiraz


How many lessons there are and how little they are taken
- Ali ibn abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)


Who are we to wish for Paradise? It will be enough if God spares us his wrath.
- Imam Abu Hanifah (rahimullah)


When offended always consider the source.....


Patience is a virtue that few have earned...


The life of this world and the hereafter, in the heart of a person are like the two scales of a balance,
when one becomes heavier, the other becomes lighter
- 'Amr ibn Abdullah


Your souls are precious and can only be equal to the price of Paradise, therefore sell them only at that price
- Ali ibn abu-Talib (radiAllahu anhu)


Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.


In the time of the Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam), tasawwuf was a reality without a name.
Today tasawwuf is a name, but few know its reality.


No one who possesses snow would find any hardship in exchanging it for jewels and pearls. This world is like snow exposed to sun, which continues to melt until it disappears altogether, while the next life is like a precious stone that never passes away.
- abu Hamid al-Ghazali


Fight against your ego with the four swords of training:
eat little,
sleep little,
speak little,
and be patient when people harm you...
Then the ego will walk the paths of obedience, like a fleeing horseman in the field of battle.
- Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi


A human-being is not a human-being while his tendencies include self-indulgence, covetousness, temper and attacking other people
- Abu Hamid al-Ghazali


On Being thankful
It is said that once Hasan al-Basri had a very sharp headache, so he tied a bandana over his head. Rabia Basri saw him and inquired the cause for the bandana, to which Hasan al-Basri told her of the headache.
Rabia Basri asked him if this headache is something he gets often. Hasan al-Basri replied that Allah has blessed him with good health and it is after many years that he had a headache this severe.

"Is it not strange that Allah gave you good health for years, and then when He afflicts you with some pain, you wear a banner on your head to advertise your pain?"

Hasan al-Basri says that after that day he never ever complained of any harship he faced.


Prayer is that which enables the soul to realize its divinity. Through prayer human beings worship absolute truth, and seek an eternal reward. Prayer is the foundation-stone of religion; and religion is the means by which the soul is purified of all that pollutes it. Prayer is the worship of the first cause of all things, the supreme ruler of all the world, the source of all strength. Prayer is the adoration of the one whose being is necessary.
- Ibn Sina, �Kitab al-Najat�
[ from "366 Readings From Islam," trans. Robert Van der Weyer]


I am a burning candle;
You are the morning light,
If I do not see You, I burn;
if I see You, I vanish.
This is my condition
in separation and closeness.
I can bear neither separation nor proximity.
- Sufi poem


If something is meant to go elsewhere,
it will never come your way,
but if it is yours by destiny,
from you it cannot flee.


Your children are not your children:
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which
You cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
But seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
- Khalil Jibran


Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possiblity.


Beware of this world, for it is sweet and tempting
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)


When you resolve to become pious, the devil in your nature cries out at you, "Tread not those paths, O confused one; distress and poverty will overcome you. You will be despised, let down by friends, you will regret it." Dread of the devil has bound their souls; the cries of the devil are the drover of the damned; the call of the Lord is a guardian of the saints.
- Jalaluddin Rumi
[Mathnawi]


So many Muslims are concerned about 'iman' (faith) as a conception and as a point of argument in debates, but few Muslims even comprehend the depth of 'iman' which is total conviction (yaqeen).
It is the latter which the Sahabahs sought, attained, and through which, gained victory.
- Shaykh Hasan Ali


The Muslims have got Islam as a legacy, hence they fail to recognise its value
- Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall


How should Spring bring forth a garden on hard stone?
Become earth, you may grow flowers of many colours.
For you have been a heart-breaking rock.
Once, for the sake of experiment, be earth!
- Jalaluddin Rumi
Soften your heart [I, 1911-2]


O my son, let not the cock be more clever than you - it calls at the early hours of dawn while you are asleep
- Prophet Luqman (alayhis salam), advising his son


Sincerity is not achieved until people do not see and until he fails to think of people.
- a sufi


Your Nafs is just like a suckling child. If you do not take the pains to wean him, he will yearn for his mother's breast even when he's grown up. Therefore you should not try to satisfy your lust by indulging in sins. This will only increase the desire for more sins. The same is the case with the disease of gluttony. The more a person eats, the more his hunger increases.
- Imam Busairi


(Offer greetings to each other) and rancor will disappear. Give gifts to each other and love each other, and hatred will disappear.
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
[Al-Muwatta Vol 47, Hadith 16]


Your nafs (soul/desires) is your first battlefield. If you are victorious over it, then you will find the other battlefields easier.
- Imam Hasan al Banna


Anyone who rises above the things of this world, to wich you kneel, is mightier than you.
- Ibn Hazm


If there is someone in need whom you wish to help, whether the initiative came from him or from you, do no more than he expects of you, not what you might personally wish to do. If you overstep the mark, you will not deserve thanks, but blame from him and others and you will attract hostility, not friendship.
- Ibn Hazm
[Kitab al-Akhlaaq wa al-Siyar]


It is striking that today, we Muslims read so many books and still have no result of any revival;
yet the sahabahs revived a great portion of the world by reading only ONE book in their time:
the Holy Qur'an.
The fact is that they did not just read it
but practiced every bit of it.
It was enough then - and is still enough today.
- Shaykh Hasan Ali


Every man dies, but not every man truly lives


If someone devotes himself entirely to Allah (awj), He will provide him with everything he needs, and if a person devotes himself entirely to this world, Allah will leave him in its core
- Muhyuddin, Abdul-Qadir Jilani


Among the principles of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah lie the attitude of peace and purity of their heart and tongue towards the Sahaba (Companions) of the Prophet (saw).
- ibn Taymiyyah
['Fundamental Beliefs of Islam' Sharh al-Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyah]


Islam is a way of life which opens the heart to the meaning of existence. Thus any increase of outward splendor is usually a sign of a decrease in inward illumination
- Ahmad Thompson [from 'Islam in Andalus']


You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom
- El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)


If you want to talk to Allah,
perform Salah.
If you want Allah to talk to you,
read Qur'an.


Verily, the next life is better for you than this life
- Qur'an, 93:4


Action is the biggest measurement of knowledge


All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen


Dont despair. Allah is there.
- Mutma'inaa


There is only what He wills.
So leave your cares and abandon them.
Leave your preoccupations
which distract you and you will have rest.
- Yaqut al-'Arishi