Inspiration from Past & Present
Many small actions are made great by the intentions behind them. Many great actions, on the other hand, are made small because the intentions behind them are lacking.
—pious predecessors
(Read on pg 11, Ibn Rajab, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ghazali, The Purification of the Soul. Al-Firdous Ltd. London:1993.)
Forsaking action for the sake of other people is to seek their admiration. To act for the sake of their admiration is to associate others with Allah. Devotion is when Allah frees you from both of these states.
—al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Iyāḍ [d. 187H]
(Read on pg 6-7, Ibn Rajab, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ghazali, The Purification of the Soul. Al-Firdous Ltd. London:1993.)
It is much harder for the people of action to purify their intentions than it is to execute any of their actions.
—Ayyub
(Read on pg 6, Ibn Rajab, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ghazali, The Purification of the Soul. Al-Firdous Ltd. London:1993.)
How can a road, even a straight road, not be intimately connected to the contours of the landscape it is traversing?
—Yahya Michot
Ibn Taymiyyah Against Extremisms. Dar Albouraq. Beirut, Lebanon. 2012. See pg. xxiv.