The story of Abu Muslim at-Turki

A Turkish brother who lived all his life in Britain, but, who lived a life of a Kafir. He was married to an English woman, and he did not used to pray and did not used to practice anything of Islam. And then Allah guided him to the Straight Path, and when he heard of Bosnia, he said to himself that: 

"I must go to Bosnia and I must repent and I must fight against the Kuffar as maybe Allah will forgive me for what I have done in the past." 

In one operation against the Croats, the Ameer did not pick him due to his age; and he began to cry...not weep, but wail like a baby until he forced the Ameer to let him take part in the operation. He was shot by a machine gun bullet in his arm which broke the bone and metal had to be placed in his arm for a period of six months. Abu-Muslim, he used to exercise his arm a lot, and after 45 days, the doctor said that they could remove the metal. Everyone was surprised, at how  "...the metal could be removed after 45 days.."
He had a dream before one of the large operations in which he saw the Rasulallah (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and so Abu-Muslim began to kiss his feet. Rasulallah(sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said to him:
"Do not kiss my feet."  Then he began to kiss his hands and Rasulallah said:  "Do not kiss my hands."  And Rasulallah (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) asked him:  "What do you want?"  Abu-Muslim said:  "Ya Rasulallah (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam). Make dua’ that tomorrow in the operation I am killed Shaheed."

Before the operation, the Ameer, Abul-Harith (ra), was picking the people to take part in this operation. He refused Abu-Muslim to take part and said to him: 

"You are still injured." 

A brother who was present there, said that Abu-Muslim cried and cried like a baby and said to the Ameer:  "Fear Allah." 

The brothers there said to him:  "Do not shout and cry so loud, as maybe the Serbs, they will hear you." 

Abu-Muslim replied:  "By Allah, if you do not put me in this operation, I will cry so loudly that the whole country will hear me." ,  he said to the Ameer:  "Put me in this operation, even at the back as the last one." 

The Ameer said to him  "Are you sure? I will put you at the back.."
 
He (Abu-Muslim) said:  "Put me anywhere in this operation,...right at the back...but include me in this operation." 

And so he went and he took part in this operation; and even though he was at the end, the course of the fighting changed, so that the back became the front, and he was killed,...the second one in this operation by a bullet in his heart. The body was returned by the Croats after three months. It was smelling of musk, and no change had come on his body. And all the brothers there, said that his body had become more beautiful and white since the last time they saw him. 


Source: In the hearts of green birds

God-consciousness of Sufyan ath-thawri

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhàb said: "I never saw princes and rich men sit more meekly than in the gathering of Sufyàn al-Thawrï."

 Qabïsa said that no-one sat with Sufyàn except they remembered death.

Yusuf ibn Asbat. narrates that he once handed Sufyàn the ablution-pot in the evening and left him holding it pensively. At dawn, he had not moved and said: "I am still thinking about the next life." 

Ibn Mahdï said: "Night after night I would catch sight of Sufyàn sitting up and calling out: 'The Fire! The Fire! I cannot sleep nor feel pleasure anymore because I think of the Fire."

 Abu Nu'aym said that Sufyàn would be useless for days whenever this state overtook him.

Shuja' bin Walid said: "I performed the Hajj with Sufyan, and he would come and go with his tongue never ceasing to command the good and forbid the evil."

 When al-Mahdi came into power, he sent for Sufyan. When Sufyan entered, al-Mahdi removed his ring and threw it at Sufyan and said: "O Aba 'Abdillah, this is my ring. Work for this nation according to the Qur'an and the Sunnah." So, Sufyan took the ring and said: "Do you permit me to speak, O Commander of the Believers? Can I speak with your promise not to harm me?" He said: "Yes." So, Sufyan said: "Do not send for me again until I come to you myself, and do not give me anything unless I ask you for something." So, al-Mahdi become enraged and wanted to kill him, but his assistant reminded him that he had promised not to harm Sufyan. So, Sufyan was kicked out of the palace and his companions asked him: "What made you refuse? He only asked you to work according to the Qur'an and Sunnah!" So, Sufyan belittled their intellects due to their missing the point and he ran away as a fugitive to al-Basrah.

al-Mahdi later said : "I was unable to look at Sufyan out of haya' and intimidation from him."

Sufyan would reach states of anxiety about the Day of Judgment in which he urinated blood. He said: "I may see something against which I ought to speak out but I do not, then I urinate blood." 

Sufyan also said: "I felt the fear of God to a point I wondered how I could still be alive, then I would say to myself: I have a fixed term of life, but I wish it were made lighter for me. My fear is such that I fear losing my mind."

Sufyan once went to Abu Ja'far when they were at Mina and said to him: "Fear Allah! You are in this position and have this power due to the swords of the Muhajirin and Ansar, and their sons are dying of hunger! 'Umar made the Hajj and spent only fifteen dinars, and he used to shade himself under the trees!" So, Abu Ja'far said: "Do you want me to be like you?" Sufyan said: "No. Just be below what you are and above what I am." Abu Ja'far said: "Get out."

It was also related from Ibn Abi Hatim that there was a blind man who used to sit with Sufyan. When it was Ramadan, the man would go lead the people in prayer, and they would give him clothes and gifts as a reward for this. So, Sufyan said: "On the Day of Resurrection, the people of the Qur'an will come with their Qur'an, and it will be said to the likes of this person: 'You have already received your reward previously.'" So, the man said to him: "O Aba 'Abdillah, you say this while I am sitting right next to you?" Sufyan replied: "I fear that it will be said to me on the Day of Resurrection that you were sitting next to me and I did not advise you."

The silent charity

Muhammad bin ‘Isa related that a young man would often go to Abdullah bin Mubarak; he studied under him, carried out certain errands for him, and would listen to him relate Hadith narrations. One day, Abdullah went to the city where the young man was living, and when he didn’t find him he asked after him. He was told that the young man was imprisoned for a loan that he could not repay. Abdullah said, “And how much does he owe?” He was told that the young man owed 10000 dirhams. Abdullah searched out the creditor, and when he found him, he gave him 10000 dirhams, but he made the man take an oath that he wouldn’t inform anyone as long as he (i.e. Abdullah) was alive that he gave him the money.

When the young man was released from prison, it was said to him, “Abdullah bin Mubarak was here and was asking after you, but he has already left.” The young man hurried off in search for him and when he found him, Abdullah asked, “Young man, where were you? I could not find you.” He said, “Yes, I was imprisoned because of a debt that I could not pay.” He said, “Then how were you released?” He said, “A man came and paid my debt for me, yet I do not know who he is.” Abdullah said, “Young man, praise Allah for the blessing of having your debt repaid.” And the creditor never informed anyone of what really happened until after Abdullah died.

It has been related that Abu Jafar Ak-Hadhdha said, “I heard Ibn Uyainah say: If your inner reality is the same as your outward appearance and deeds, that that is uprightness; if your inner reality is better than your outward appearance, then that is superiority; and if your outward appearance is better than your inner reality, then that is wrongdoing.”

Source: Gems and Jewels Compiled by: Abdul-Malik Mujahid

The salaf fear of hypocrisy

Ibn Sireen said: There is nothing I fear more than this verse (interpretation of the meaning): “And of mankind, there are some (hypocrites) who say: ‘We believe in Allaah and the Last Day,’ while in fact they believe not” [al-Baqarah 2:8].

Ayyoob said: Every verse in the Qur’aan which mentions hypocrisy I fear lest it apply to me.

Mu’aawiyah ibn Qurrah said: ‘Umar used to fear it, so how I can feel safe from it?

Imam Ahmad was asked: What do you say about one who does not fear hypocrisy for himself? He said: Who can feel safe from hypocrisy? 

It was narrated that Hanzalah al-Usaydi said: Abu Bakr met me and said: How are you, O Hanzalah? I said: Hanzalah has become a hypocrite. He said: Subhaan Allaah! What are you saying? I said: When we are with the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) he reminds us of the Fire and the Garden until it is as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but when we depart from the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), we attend to our wives and children and businesses, and we forget a great deal. Abu Bakr said: By Allaah, we experience something similar. Abu Bakr and I went and entered upon the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and I said: Hanzalah has become a hypocrite, O Messenger of Allaah. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Why is that?” I said: O Messenger of Allaah, when we are with you, you remind us of the Fire and the Garden until it is as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but when we depart from you, we attend to our wives and children and businesses, and we forget a great deal. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if you continued as you are when you are with me, and continued to remember (Paradise and Hell), the angels would shake hands with you in your homes and on the streets. But, O Hanzalah, there is a time for this and a time for that” (he said it) three times.

Narrated by Muslim (2750). 

Ibn Abi Mulaykah said: I met thirty of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), all of whom feared being hypocrites, and none of them ever said that he had faith equivalent to that of Jibreel and Mikaa’eel. 

al-Ja’d Abu ‘Uthmaan said: I said to Abu Raja’ al-‘Attaaridi: Did you meet anyone whom I met of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) who feared falling into hypocrisy? He said: Yes. Praise be to Allaah I met some of the prominent ones among them, and they used to fear it a great deal.

He entered Paradise without making a single Prostration

Just prior to the conquest of khaybar, a black, Abyssinian slave who resided in Khaybar, was busy herding sheep for his master. ‎When he  saw the citizens of Khaybar taking their weapons, he ‎asked some of them, “What are you intending to do?” They said, "We are about to fight the one who claims he is a Prophet.”The slave suddenly remembered having heard about a prophet.

Being interested in the prophet's message, the slave secretly ‎steered his herd to the Muslim encampment and asked the ‎Messenger of Allah ( )“What do you say? and to what is the you are inviting (people) to follow?” The Prophet ()replied: “I am inviting ‎‎(people) to Islam, to bear witness that none has the right to be ‎worshiped but Allah, and that I am indeed the Messenger of ‎Allah, and to worship none save Allah.” The slave said, “What ‎will I have if I bear witness and believe in Allah The Possessor of Might and Majesty?” The Prophet ( )said: “If you die upon that (upon Islam), you will have Paradise.” The slave embraced Islam and said, “O Messenger of Allah, verily these sheep ‎are trust with me(i.e, they are not mine,so what should I do with them)". The Messenger of Allah ()said: “Release them from your care and send them off through Al-Hasbaa, verily Allah will then ‎fulfill your trust for you.” He did as he was told, and the ‎sheep returned to their master –  who correctly deduced that his ‎slave had embraced Islam and joined the ranks of Muslim army.

Prior to the commencement of the fighting, the Messenger of Allah( )stood up before the people,  admonished them and ‎encouraged them to perform Jihad. During the course of the fighting, one of the people who died was the black Abyssinian slave. The Muslims carried him to their encampment and he was ‎placed in a large tent. It is related that the Prophet ( ) said to his ‎Companions: “Verily, Allah has honored this slave and steered him to Khaybar (for a purpose); I indeed saw beside his ‎head two of the fair Maidens (Hoor al-Ayn who have wide beautiful eyes) of Paradise , and that despite the fact he ‎never performed a single prostration for Allah in prayer.”1

1: Refer to Zaad Al-Ma'ad (3/323, 324), As Seerah An-Nabawiyyah (3/39) and Ibn Katheer's Al Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah