Words of Wisdom

As a poet said:

"Use a sweet tongue, courtesy and gentleness,

and thou may manage to guide an elephant with a hair."

Such is the power of gentleness.

Force more often than not is futile

because it offers a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

Force is met with resistance,

it represses, suppresses and oppresses.

Gentleness addresses the problem, it alleviates, mitigates and obviates the pain of others.

Respect is earned, just as trust is.

Should you abuse either, your reward will be neither.

Isn't it true that only those with faults complain about the faults of others?

Gentleness is the mark of the spiritual person,

one who sees the commonality of all.

"Teach me to feel another's woe,

to hide the fault I see,

that mercy I to others show,

that mercy show to me."

To become who you want,

you must first become who you are.

Whether good or bad and whether right or wrong,

our actions affect others.

Whenever you are tempted by this world,
picture a derelict covered with filth
whose noxious odor is intolerable.

Reviled you will shut your senses to the offensive sight.

In the like manner stay away from
abomination of sin that may deface your purity.

The Lord shall bless you with much bounty;
therefore let not the cares of this world drive your peace away.

- Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jillani, Futhul Ghaib, p. 20

"The key to sincerity is Qiyaamul-Layl, because only the sincere wake and stand when others are lying asleep."

[Imam al-Haddad]

Fear not the path of the Truth

because of the lack of people walking on it.

"Remembrance of Allah is to the heart what water is to fish. What happens to a fish when it is taken out of water?"

[Ibn Tamiyaa]

'The tear of the sinner is more beloved to God than the arrogance of the righteous man'.

[Ibn Ata'illah]