Wednesday, December 28, 2011

How some of the pious feared Allah

Abu Bakr Siddiq RadiyAllah Anhu said, “ I wish I were no more than a hair on the side of a believing servant”. Whenever he got up to do the prayer he would be trembling like a leaf out of fear of Allah.

Umar bin Khattab RadiyAllah anhu was once reading Surat-Tur and when he came to the verse
Surely the doom of your Lord will surely come to pass (52: 7)
And he wept so intensely that he fell ill so that people came to see how he was.

When Umar radiyAllah anhu was on his death bed he told his son, “Put my cheek next to the earth so that Allah may forgive me.” Then he said, “ I am doomed if Allah does not forgive me” he repeated the same words three times and then he died.

When Umar used to read the Quran at night and read an Ayah that filled him with fear, he would stay indoors for days on end so that people come to visit him, thinking that he was ill. His frequent weeping etched two dark lines on his face.

Ibn Abbas once told Umar ,”Allah has brought many countries into the Muslim Ummah through you, And through you many victories has been won. Umar replied, “All I desire is to be saved, I desire neither reward nor punishment”.

Uthman bin Affan RadiyAllah anhu used to cry until his beard was soaked each time that he stood at a grave. He used to say , “ If I were standing between the garden and the Fire, not knowing in which one of the two I would end up I would rather be turned into ashes before I learned my fate.”

Abu Darda RadiyAllhu anhu used to say “If you knew what you will encounter after your death you would never eat with any appetite, nor drink thirstily, nor enter houses to shelter but you would go to open spaces and beat your breast and weep at your lot. I wish I were a tree to be cut up and destroyed.

Ibn Abbas RadiyAllah anhu had skin under his eyes which looked like worn out sandal leather , due to his frequent weeping.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah honor him, was once overwhelmed with sadness after completing the dawn prayer; He said, " Never did i see anything like the companions of the Messenger of Allah. Their hair was disheveled. Their faces were pale, they were covered in dust, and the space between their eyes looked like the knees of goats. They had spent their night in prayer and in recitation of the Quran either on their feet or in prostration. When the dawn came they would spend it in remembrance of Allah,swaying like a tree on a stormy day, with tears flowing from their eyes till their clothes soaked. By Allah it seem to me the people around me now have passed the night in fast asleep." Then he got up and was never seen laughing until he was stabbed to death by Ibn Muljim.

Musa ibn Mas'ud said: "Whenever we sat in the company of Sufyaan at Tawri, we would feel as if the Fire had surrounded us because of the fear and panic we could see in his eyes."

Al Hasan al Basri was once described as follows "Whenever he aproached us it would seem as if he has only just returned from the burial of his best friend, and when he sat in a company , it was as if he was a prisoner sentenced to death by having his head cut off. And when ever the Fire was mentioned it would be as it had been created especially for him".

It has been related that Zurarah ibn Abu awfa led some people in dawn prayer and recited surah Al-Mudhathir from the Quran. When he reached the words
For when the trumpet sound that will be that day-a Day of distress (74:8-9)
He gasped and fell dead.

Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al- As is reported to have said, “Weep , and if you cannot weep then pretend to weep, I swear by Him in Whose Hand my life is, that if any of you really knew you would plead until your voice went, and pray until your back is broken".


Source : The purification of the soul by Ahmed Farid

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