Quotes from Hamza Yusuf

A hadith states, "Anxiety is half of aging." Another hadith states, "Righteousness will lengthen your life.

People may claim to be "free," yet they cannot control themselves from gluttony in the presence of food or from illicit sexual relations when the opportunity presents itself. Such a notion of freedom is devoid of substance.

Desire is an attempt to fill the void

Imam Mawl?d then says that one should hasten "to fulfill [God's] command" and be "wary of the subtle encroachment of bad manners," namely, faults that one is unaware of. A hadith states, "One of you will say a word and give it no consideration, though it will drag the person [who uttered it] through Hellfire for 70 years.

We live in a fast-food culture, in which we are led to believe that we need to have everything now; it is a culture that causes people to lose a sense of a future worth waiting for.

the Prophet laughed and said, "If you, ?Umar, went down one path, Satan would take another.

Purifying the heart is a process. First, one must understand the necessity of having courtesy with God and the importance of fulfilling its requirements, as noted above. Second, one must be aware of the diseases of the heart—aware of their existence, their ailments, and the deleterious complications and troubles that ensue from them, and recognize that these diseases prevent one from attaining this courtesy.

This implies that purification is a lifelong process, not something that is applied once and then forgotten. Purity of heart never survives a passive relationship. One must always guard his or her heart.

One sign of these conditions is the ease with which people enter into debt and live contentedly with it. People are consciously living beyond their means in order to maintain the appearance of affluence. This is a product of wantonness: willingly falling headlong into debt in order to achieve a certain material standard of living.

Imam Ab? al?asan al-Sh?dhil?, a thirteenth century scholar, once prayed, "O God, make my bad actions the bad actions of those whom You love, and do not make my good actions the good actions of those with whom You are displeased.

There is an inward and outward state in every human soul, with the inward being im?n (the condition of the faith) and the outward being isl?m (the manifestation or practice of the faith). When the two come together inwardly and outwardly, the resulting balance is a truly beautiful human being, one generally called a mu?sin, one whose worship and character are excellent.

It is of the extraordinary insights of Imam Malik that the first section of his Muwatta'*, which precedes even the section on ritual purity, is on the times of the prayer. It is the times of prayer that obligate purity. Observing the times of prayer is the first thing we do when we wake and the last thing we do before retiring to bed; it is done in the middle of the day and in its decline. It is an unrelenting reminder of to whom we belong, why we are here, and where we are going.

When people are completely immersed in the material world, believing that this world is all that matters and all that exists and that they are not accountable for their actions, they affect a spiritual death of their hearts.

The heart also needs to breathe, and the breath of the heart is none other than the remembrance of God. Without it, the spiritual heart dies. The very purpose of revelation and of scripture is to remind us that our hearts need to be nourished.

When one is content, little will suffice. But without contentment, nothing suffices.

One aspect of traditional medicine related to a spiritual cosmology—whether this tradition was Greek, Chinese, or Arab—is the belief that too much food harms the spiritual heart and, in fact, could kill it. It was commonly believed that people who eat in abundance become hardhearted.

The Prophet said that the highest form of struggle (jih?d) is to speak the truth in the face of a tyrant.

The hadith states that the second sign of wretchedness is a lack of modesty or shame. Among the words revealed to humanity are, "If you feel no shame, do what you will.

Freedom has real meaning when, for example, a situation of temptation arises and one remains God-fearing, steadfast, and in control of one's actions.

Isn't it interesting, that a black man, who is a Muslim, and has the name 'Muhammad', is the most beloved athlete in the world?

Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, a thirteenth century scholar, said that it is possible for anyone to have sincerity in what one does and in what one believes, irrespective of creed.

The Imam posits that the treatment of wantonness is to intentionally experience hunger and to reflect seriously on death and the Hereafter.

Dignity and honor are gifts: "[O God], You exalt whomever You will, and You debase whomever You will" (QURAN, 3:26). Proofs of this Divine law abound. There are many accounts, for example, of people who were once in positions of authority and wealth, who then find themselves paupers completely stripped of their former glory, reduced, in many instances, to wards of the state. God is powerful over all things, and all good, authority, and provision are in His hand, not ours.

Vücudumuzdaki hücreler oksijene ihtiyaç duyarlar, bu yüzden nefes al?r?z ve nefesimiz kesilirse ya?ayamay?z. ??te bunun gibi, kalbin de teneffüse ihtiyac? vard?r ve kalbin nefesi Allah'? "anmaktan" ba?ka bir ?ey de?ildir. O olmadan manevi kalp hayatta kalamaz. ??te vahyin ve kutsal metinlerin varl?k sebebi de, bize kalplerimizin beslenmeye muhtaç oldu?u gerçe?ini hat?rlatmakt?r.