Islamic Quotes

Knowledge no longer exists
if one has ignored the attributes
of the Almighty Great Creator.
- Ibn Hazm

If you have knowledge or something, let others light their candles with it.

Many things in life will catch your eye but few will catch your heart. Pursue those.

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi

We must learn to live together as brothers
or perish together as fools.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Both a swimmer and a drowned man are in the water; the latter is borne by the water and controlled by it, while the swimmer is borne along by his own power and of his own volition. Every movement made by the drowned man -- indeed, every act and word that issue from him -- comes from the water, not from him... The saints are like this. They have died before death. - Jalaluddin al-Rumi [from 'Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi']

The glance is a poisoned arrow of shaytan. Whoever lowers his gaze for Allah, He will bestow upon him a refreshing sweetness which he will find in his heart on the day that he meets Him.
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)

The heart, in its journey to Allah, Majestic is He, is like that of a bird;Love is its head, and fear and hope are its two wings. When the head and two wings are sound, the bird flies gracefully; if the head is severed, the bird dies; if the bird loses one of its wings, it then becomes a target for every hunter or predator.
- Ibn al Qayyim

I was once like you, enlightened and "rational",
I too scoffed at lovers,
Now I am drunk, crazed, thin with misery.
No one is safe! Watch out.
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi

I love God: I have no time left In which to hate the devil.
- Rabia al Basri
[From: Doorkeeper of the heart: versions of Rabia / [translated by] Charles Upton. Putney, Vt.: Threshold Books, c1988]

Truly in the heart there is a void that can not be removed except with the company of Allah. And in it there is a sadness that can not be removed except with the happiness of knowing Allah and being true to Him. And in it thereis an emptiness that can not be filled except with love for Him and by turning to Him and always remembering Him And if a person were given all of the world and what is in it, it would not fill this emptiness.

Those that follow a religion that cannot create a civilisation, will create a civilisation that cannot follow a religion.

Iman is not something that I just "perform" in a place of worship.
Iman is life.
Iman is how I interact with Allah during all the breaths that I take.
- Shaykh Habib 'Ali al Jifri

Someone told Imam Abu Hanifah, "In the mosque there is a circle (Halaqah) in which the people are looking at fiqh." He asked, "Do they have a head (i.e. a teacher)?" The man replied, "No." The Imam said, "These will never gain knowledge of fiqh."
[Reported by al-Khateeb al-Baghdadi, through his isnad, in 'al-Faqeeh wal-Mutafaqqih']

Imam Malik was asked, "Can knowledge be taken from a man who has not ([to his credit any) seeking (of knowledge) nor sitting (with scholars)?" He said, "No."
[Reported by as-Suyuti in 'Is'af al-Mubatta']

Imam al-Shafi' said, "Whoever takes knowledge from books loses the regulations." (man akhadha al-'ilma min al-kutubi Dayya'a al-aHkaama).
[Reported by al-Nawawi in the introduction to 'al-Majmu']

'Abdullah, the son of Imam Ahmad, said, "My father said : 'Knowledge is only that in which one says : So-and-so told us . . . . And, al-Mansur asked my father to discuss [something] with Ibn Abi Du'ad, but he turned his face away, saying, 'How can I discuss with someone whom I have not seen at the door of a single scholar?!'"
[Reported by Qadi 'Iyad in 'al-Ilma']

Were you to put your complete trust in Allah, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They issue forth hungry in the morning and return filled in the evening.
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
[Reported by Umar in at-Tirmidhi]

Behold and see as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you must be
Perpare for death and follow me.
- A tombstone inscription from a cemetery in New-York

Narrated Abdullah bin Amr (radiAllahu anhu), a man asked the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
'Whose Islam is good or what sort of deeds of Islam are good.'
The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) replied,
'To feed others and to greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know.'

Everyone who is taken by death asks for more time, while everyone who still has time makes excuses for procrastination.
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllah anhu)

Greed takes a person to the watering place but gets him back without letting him drink. It undertakes resposibility but does not fulfill it. Often the drinker gets choked before quenching his thirst. The greater the worth of a thing yearned for, the greater is the grief for its loss. Desires blind the eyes of understanding. The destined share would reach him who does not approach it.
- Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)

There is no joy for someone who has no sorrow.
There is no pleasure for the one who has no patience
No bliss for someone with no misery
and no rest for the one with no fatigue.
When someone is a little tired,
he has long rest.
When he endures the difficulty of steadfastness for a time,
that leads him to eternal life.
All that the people of eternal bliss
are in is steadfastness for a time.
- Ibn al-Qayyim

I am amazed at the people who take care of themselves by eating food out of fear of dying, yet do not protect themselves from sins out of fear of the Fire.
- Ibn Shubrumah [Siyar A'lam an-Nubala. - Vol 6, Page 348]

The heart, in its journey to Allah, Majestic is He, is like that of a bird; Love is its head, and fear and hope are its two wings. When the head and two wings are sound, the bird flies gracefully; if the head is severed, the bird dies; if the bird loses one of its wings, it then becomes a target for every hunter or predator.
- Ibn al-Qayyim

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King

A'isha (radiAllahu anha) narrated two verses (couplets)
'if the friends of Zulaikha could see the blessed face of Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam),
they would have cut their hearts instead of their hands'
[Sham'il at-Tirmidhi] Habeebah al-'Adawiyyah prayed Isha then she would stand on the roof of her house and would say,
"O my Lord,
the stars have come out,
people have gone to sleep,
and kings have closed their doors,
but Your door is open.
Every lover is alone with his lover,
but here I am standing before You."

Then she would start to pray and talk to her Lord until the time of suhoor. When the time of suhoor would come she would say,
"O Allah, this night is ending,
the day is coming,
and I wish I knew
whether You have accepted
the night of worship from me,
so that I could congratulate myself,
or if it has been rejected,
so that I might console myself."

Your Remedy is within you, but you do not sense it.
Your Sickness is from you, but you do not percieve it.
You Presume you are a small entity,
But within you is enfolded the entire universe.
You are indeed the evident book,
By whose alphabet the hidden becomes the manifest.
Therefore, you have no need to look beyond yourself,
What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.
- Ali ibn abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)

The world is held up by Four pillars:
The Wisdom of the Learned;
the Justice of the Great;
the Prayers of The Righteous;
and the Valour of the Brave.
- Inscription at entrance of University of Granada in Muslim Spain.

There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That�s a good religion.
- Malcolm X
[from 'Message to the Grass Roots', speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965)].

There are many challenges, and every challenge is an opportunity, not a shackle!
- Professor Khurshid Ahmed

Indeed this discipline of ours is from cradle to grave. Whoever intends to leave this knowledge of ours for one moment, let him leave it now!
- Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan ash-Shaybani

"When you come upon the meadows of the Garden, graze in them." He was asked, "What are the meadows of the Garden?" "Circles of dhikr," he replied.
- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
[reported by Anas - at-Tirmidhi]

Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said;
Leave me to my companions, for by the One in whose hands is my soul, if you were to spend in charity the like of the mount of Uhud in gold you would not match their actions. -
Ahmed and considered to be Sahih

Allah! Allah! My companions! Allah! Allah! My companions! Do not take them as targets, for whoever loves them, by my love for them I will love them and whoever hates them, I will hate them and whoever harms them has harmed me and who harms me has harmed Allah and whoever harms Allah I fear He will take him. -
Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) [at-Tirmidhi]

If Allah wishes for good for a man of my nation he throws love of my companions into his heart. - Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) [al-Daylami]

My companions are like stars, you will be guided by whichever one you follow.-
Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
[Musnad of Imam Abu Hanifa, al-Baihaqi and al-Daylami]

I am amazed concerning the Hellfire - how does the one who could flee from it sleep? And I am amazed concerning the Jannah - how does the one who desires it sleep? For by Allah! If you neither desire Paradise, nor fear the Hellfire, then you are destroyed and grievous will be your sorrow, interminable your sadness and without limit your tears; you will be amongst the wretched, the punished ones. So if you claim that you are amongst those who seek refuge from the Fire and desire Paradise, then strive for that which you seek and do not be misled by your worldly desires.
- a pious slave

Fight your tongue.
The tongue is quick to kill a man.
The tongue is the posting of the heart.