Yahya b. Mu’ad said:

“The body becomes sick due to ailments, and the hearts become sick due to sins.

So just as the body does not find pleasure in eating while it is sick, likewise the heart does not experience the sweetness of worship alongside sins.”

‎ابن الجوزي، ذم الهوى ١/٦٨

Benefits of olives.

• It’s useful to remove poison from the body.
• It empties the bowel and drives away worms.
• Olive oil that’s extracted with water is less hot [in the body], is gentler and more beneficial.
• All kinds of olive oil smoothen the body and delay graying of hair.
• Salty olive water prevents blistering of burns and strengthens the gums.
• Its leaves help in curing erysipelas [a type of skin infection] and dirty sores and many other problems!

Source: Ibn al-Qayyim’s Zaad al-Ma’ad

How can I realize the greatness of my sin?

• Knowing the greatness of the affair.
• Knowing the greatness of the one who lays down the order and who he’s disobeying.
• Belief in one being held to account for what one does whether good or bad.

Source: Madarij as-Salikeen by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (v. 1, p. 203)

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaimeen said: “O my brother who’s fallen into sins, don’t despair from the mercy of your Lord, for indeed the door to repentance is open until the sun rises from the west!”

Source: Sifat Salat an-Nabi (pp. 49-51)

Ibn al-Qayyim said: “If Allaah intends good for the needy slave, He tests him with something in order to bring him down and to lower his neck in humiliation and to decrease his importance to himself.”

Source: Wabil as-Sayyib (p. 15)

Uthmān رضي الله عنه said:

“Allāh only gave you this world so that you may seek out [by way of it] the Hereafter. And He did not give it to you so that you could rely on it!”

[Al-Bidāyah Wa An-Nihāyah: 7/241]

‎﴾يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ﴿

Translation: O people! We created you from a male and a female, and made you races and tribes, so that you may know one another. The best among you in the sight of Allaah is the most righteous.

Commentary: So Allaah made clear in this noble verse that people have been made into nations and tribes so that they may come to know each other, not for them to boast and have pride over one another.

And Allaah considered the noblest of them to be the one with the most piety and fear of Him!

Source: Ibn Taymiyyah’s Fatawa (v. 3, p. 456)

Prophet ﷺ said,

“Be on your guard against committing oppression, for oppression is a darkness on the Day of Resurrection, and be on your guard against stinginess for stinginess destroyed those who were before you, as it incited them to shed blood and make lawful what was unlawful for them.”

[Muslim 2578]

Malik Ibn Dinar رحمه الله said:

"O people of the Quran, what has the Quran planted in your hearts? For the Quran is the spring of the hearts just as the rain is the spring of the earth."

الجامع لأحكام القرآن 16/52

وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكۡرَهُواْ شَيۡـًٔا وَهُوَ خَيۡرٌ لَّكُمْۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تُحِبُّواْ شَيۡـًٔا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعۡلَمُ وَأَنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ

and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know. (2:216)

—

Al-Allaamah al-Uthaymeen (rahimahullah):

Do not dislike something which Allah has chosen (decreed), for indeed Allah has chosen something which has a tremendous benefit in it, you are just not aware of it!

[Sharh Riyadh as-Saaliheen v.3 pg.309]

The Beauty of Silence

Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi (rahimahullah) stated:
How beautiful is silence with regards to sensitive/touchy issues! How many times have we witnessed those who were destroyed by their speech! Yet, we have never seen anyone, whom it has reached us about, who was destroyed by his silence.

[Ar-Rasad'il; pg. 402, V.1 | Translated by Abu Afnaan Muhammad Abdullah]

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhaab (rahimahullah) said:

“What is the worth of the religion to you? What is Allah’s pleasure and Paradise worth to you? What is Allah’s Hell and wrath worth to you? Flee with your religion, for Paradise and Hell are in front of you.”

[Abdul-Mushin ibn Baaz in Rasaail al-Imaam Muhammad ibn Abdil-Wahhaab al-Shakhsiyyah: Diraasah Daawiyyah, vol. 1, pp. 126-127]

✒ Be Gentle With Your Brother

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : يبصر أحدكم القذى في عين أخيه وينسى الجذع في عينه

The Messenger of Allāh Ṣallallāhu-'Alaihi Wa Sallam said: “One of you sees the speck in his brother's eye but forgets the trunk (of tree) in his (own) eye.”

[سلسلة الأحاديث الصحيحة ٣٣، صححه الألباني]

In the last part of surah Aal 'Imran, Allah describes the people of understanding by saying:

[الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ]

"Those who remember Allah while standing, sitting, and on their sides, and who reflect of the creation of the heavens and the earth, saying: O our Lord, You did not create all this for nothing! Exalted are You! So protect us from the punishment of the fire!" [191]

In his tafsir, Imam al-Baghawi wrote:

[قال ابن عون : الفكرة تذهب الغفلة وتحدث للقلب الخشية كما يحدث الماء للزرع النبات ]

Ibn 'Awn said: Reflection drives off heedlessness and brings about reverential fear to one's heart in the same way that water brings about growth to a plant.

[Tafsir al-Baghawi 2/152]

Sheikh Ibn Baaz رحمه الله said,

“Celebrating the twenty seventh night of Rajab which many people believed to be the night that the Isra' and the Mi’raj occurred is an innovation. Also performing any specific acts of worship on that night is impermissible.”

[Al Tabdhir min al-Bida, pg. 4]

Shaykh Abdus Salam al-Shuway'ir حفظه الله:

Do not criticise others and pretend that you are complete, as if you are not a sinner or wrongdoer.

Look into your faults before looking at the faults of others. And if you strive in rectifying yourself, Allah will give you success in saying a word which will rectify others.

[شرح الوصية الصغرى]

Shaykh Muqbil Bin Hadi al-Wadi’i (rahimahullah):

Our sins are more harmful upon us than America, and those who govern us.

[Kitab Ghaar al-Ashritah, 2/170, Shaykh Muqbil Bin Hadi al-Wadi’i (rahimahullah)]