It is reported that Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
If you want your ṣalāh to benefit you, say (to yourself): perhaps I will never pray another (my life will end before the next prayer).
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Qaṣr Al-ʾAmal article 104.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
If you see a man amongst you having committed a sin, do not supplicate Allāh against him and do not revile him; instead, pray to Allāh to cure him and accept his repentance, for when we used to see a man die upon something good, we would have hope for him, and when we used to see a man die upon wrongdoing, we would fear for him.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Kitāb Al-Tawbah article 112.
It is reported that ʿAlī b. Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b.ʾAbī Ṭālib – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
No man speaks well about another while not knowing it to be true except that he is also likely to speak badly about him without knowing it to be true. And two people do not accompany each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh except that it is likely they will part from each other doing something that is not obedience to Allāh.
Abū Bakr Al-Daynūrī, Al-Mujālasah wa Jawāhir Al-ʿIlm 5:274 article 2118.
It is reported that Mālik b. Dīnār – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
Since I have come to know people, I do not rejoice when they praise and I do not dislike it when they blame, for those that praise go to excess in praise and those that blame go to excess in blaming. When the scholar learns knowledge in order to act, it humbles him; but if he learns it for something other than action, it only makes him more boastful.
Al-Dhahbī, Siyar ʾAʿlām Al-Nubalāʾ 5:362.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Fulfil what Allāh has obligated you to do and you will be from the most devout of people, stay away from what Allāh has forbidden you and you will be from the most careful of people, and be satisfied with what Allāh has apportioned for you and you will be from the richest of people.
Hannād b. Al-Sarī, Al-Zuhd, article 1032.
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī said:
Son of Ādam, you will never find the reality of īmān as long as you fault people for doing what you yourself are guilty of, until you clear yourself of that fault and correct it. Then, you will not correct a fault in yourself except that you will notice another, so your occupation will become correcting yourself, and this is the most beloved thing to Allāh, when you are like this.
Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baġdādī, Al-Muntakhab min Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqāʾiq, article 41.
It is reported from Imām Al-Shāfiʿī:
There were two men who used to visit Al-Aʿmash, one who was concerned with ḥadīth and one who was not. One day Al-Aʿmash became angry with the man who studied ḥadīth, so the other said to him, “If he ever got angry with me like he got angry with you I would never go back to him.” To this Al-Aʿmash said, “In that case he would be a fool like you, leaving what benefits him because of my bad character (behaviour).”
Al-Khaṭīb, Al-Jāmiʿ li Akhlāq Al-Rāwī 1:338.
It is also reported from Imām Al-Shāfiʿī:
It was said to Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah, “People come to you from around the world, and [sometimes] you get angry with them? They might depart and leave you.” He replied, “In that case they would be fools like you, leaving what benefits them because of my bad character (behaviour).”
Op. cit. p339.
It is reported that Muʿāfā b. ʿImrān said:
The one who gets angry against a scholar is like someone who gets angry with the pillars of a mosque.
Ibid.
It is reported that ʿAbdullāh b. Masʿūd – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
Verily a man continues to be truthful until he is written with Allāh as a true believer (ṣiddīq); and he persists in truthfulness until there is not even the space of a needle for sinfulness left in his heart to settle. And a man lies and persists in lying until there is not even the space of a needle for goodness in his heart to settle.
Wakīʿ b. Al-Jarrāḥ, Al-Zuhd ḥadīth 398.
ʿAṭāʾ b. Yasār reports:
A man once came to Ibn ʿAbbās and said, “I proposed to a woman and she refused to marry me, then someone else proposed to her and she wanted to marry him; so I became jealous and killed her. Can I repent from this?” [Ibn ʿAbbās] asked, “Is your mother alive?” He replied, “No.” So he said, “Repent (tawbah) to Allāh the mighty and majestic, and worship him as much as you can.”
ʿAṭāʾ said, “So I went and asked Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘Why did you ask him if his mother was alive?’ He replied, ‘I do not know of any action that brings one closer to Allāh than dutifulness to the mother.'”
Al-Bukhārī, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad ḥadīth 4. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī. See Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, Chapter on Dutifulness to the Mother; Al-Ṣaḥīḥah 6:711 ḥadīth 2799.
It is reported that ʿUmar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
There are three types of men and three types of women. As for the women, then [one] is the chaste, Muslim, gentle, loving and childbearing woman. She helps her family in difficult situations and does not help situations to overcome her family. Rarely will you find such women. Another is a vessel, she does nothing more than bear children. The third type is a shackle, Allāh puts her around the neck of whomever he wills, and when he wills to remove it, he removes it. Men are [also] three kinds. [The first is] a chaste, easy, gentle man who possesses opinion (insight) and is worthy of being consulted; and when a matter befalls him, he follows his insight, and approaches matters as they should be. [The second is] a man who has no opinions of his own, and when a matter befalls him he goes to the one who does have insight and should be consulted, and he adopts his opinion on the matter. The third is a man who is confused, lost and aimless; he neither follows (seeks) guidance, nor obeys any guide.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān 10:39 ḥadīth 7131.