A Moslem can not obtain (after righteousness) anything better than a
well-disposed, beautiful wife: such a wife as, when ordered by her
husband to do anything, obeyeth; and if her husband look at her, is
happy; and if her husband swear by her to do a thing, she doth it to
make his oath true; and if he be absent from her, she wisheth him well
in her own person by guarding herself from inchastity, and taketh care
of his property.
Verily the best of women are those who are content with little.
Admonish your wives with kindness; for women were created out of a
crooked rib of Adam, therefore if ye wish to straighten it, ye will
break it; and if ye let it alone, it will be always crooked.
Every woman who dieth, and her husband is pleased with her, shall enter
into paradise.
That which is lawful but disliked by God is divorce.
A woman may be married by four qualifications: one, on account of
her money; another, on account of the nobility of her pedigree;
another, on account of her beauty; a fourth, on account of her faith;
therefore look out for religious women, but if ye do it from any other
consideration, may your hands be rubbed in dirt.
A widow shall not be married until she be consulted; nor shall a virgin
be married until her consent be asked, whose consent is by her silence.
When the Prophet was informed that the people of Persia had made the
daughter of Chosroes their queen, he said, The tribe that constitutes a
woman its ruler will not find redemption.
Do not prevent your women from coming to the mosque; but their homes
are better for them.
O assembly of women, give alms, although it be of your gold and silver
ornaments; for verily ye are mostly of hell on the day of resurrection.
When ye return from a journey and enter your town at night, go not to
your houses, so that your wives may have time to comb their disheveled
hair.
God has ordained that your brothers should be your slaves: therefore
him whom God hath ordained to be the slave of his brother, his brother
must give him of the food which he eateth himself, and of the clothes
wherewith he clotheth himself, and not order him to do anything beyond
his power, and if he doth order such a work, he must himself assist him
in doing it.
He who beateth his slave without fault, or slappeth him in the face,
his atonement for this is freeing him.
A man who behaveth ill to his slave will not enter into paradise.
Forgive thy servant seventy times a day.
_Of Dumb Animals_
Fear God in respect of animals: ride them when they are fit to be
ridden, and get off when they are tired.
A man came before the Prophet with a carpet, and said, "O Prophet! I
passed through a wood, and heard the voices of the young of birds; and
I took and put them into my carpet; and their mother came fluttering
round my head, and I uncovered the young, and the mother fell down upon
them, then I wrapped them up in my carpet; and there are the young
which I have." Then the Prophet said, "Put them down." And when he did
so, their mother joined them: and the Prophet said, "Do you wonder at
the affection of the mother toward her young? I swear by him who hath
sent me, verily God is more loving to his servants than the mother to
these young birds. Return them to the place from which ye took them,
and let their mother be with them."
Verily there are rewards for our doing good to dumb animals, and giving
them water to drink. An adulteress was forgiven who passed by a dog at
a well; for the dog was holding out his tongue from thirst, which was
near killing him; and the woman took off her hoot, and tied it to the
end of her garment, and drew water for the dog, and gave him to drink;
and she was forgiven for that act.
_Of Hospitality_
When a man cometh into his house and remembereth God and repeateth his
name at eating his meals, the devil saith to his followers, "Here is no
place for you to stay in to-night, nor is there any supper for you."
And when a man cometh into his house without remembering God's name,
the devil saith to his followers, "You have got a place to spend the
night in."
Whosoever believeth in God and the day of resurrection must respect his
guest, and the time of being kind to him is one day and one night, and
the period of entertaining him is three days, and after that, if he
doth it longer, he benefiteth him more. It is not right for a guest to
stay in the house of the host so long as to inconvenience him.
I heard this, that God is pure, and loveth purity; and God is liberal,
and loveth liberality; God is munificent, and loveth munificence: then
keep the courts of your house clean, and do not be like Jews who do not
clean the courts of their houses.
_Of Government_
Government is a trust from God, and verily government will be at the
day of resurrection a cause of inquiry, unless he who hath taken it be
worthy of it and have acted justly and done good.
Verily a king is God's shadow upon the earth; and every one oppressed
turneth to him: then when the king doeth justice, for him are rewards
and gratitude from his subjects: but, if the king oppresseth, on him is
his sin, and for the oppressed resignation.
That is the best of men who disliketh power. Beware! ye are all
guardians; and ye will be asked about your subjects: then the leader
is the guardian of the subject, and he will be asked respecting the
subject; and a man is a shepherd to his own family, and will be asked
how they behaved, and his conduct to them; and a wife is guardian to
her husband's house and children, and will be interrogated about them;
and a slave is a shepherd to his master's property, and will be asked
about it, whether he took good care of it or not.
There is no prince who oppresseth the subject and dieth, but God
forbiddeth paradise to him.
If a negro slave is appointed to rule over you, hear him, and obey him,
though his head should be like a dried grape.
There is no obedience due to sinful commands, nor to any other than
what is lawful.
O Prophet of God, if we have princes over us, wanting our rights, and
withholding our rights from us, then what do you order us? He said,
"Ye must hear them and obey their orders: it is on them to be just and
good, and on you to be obedient and submissive."
He is not strong or powerful who throws people down, but he is strong
who withholds himself from anger.
When one of you getteth angry, he must sit down, and if his anger goeth
away from sitting, so much the better; if not, let him lie down.
_Of Vanities and Sundry Matters_
The angels are not with the company with which is a dog, nor with the
company with which is a bell.
A bell is the devil's musical instrument.
The angels do not enter a house in which is a dog, nor that in which
there are pictures.
Every painter is in hell fire; and God will appoint a person at the day
of resurrection for every picture he shall have drawn, to punish him,
and they will punish him in hell. Then if you must make pictures, make
them of trees and things without souls.
Whosoever shall tell a dream, not having dreamed, shall be put to
the trouble at the day of resurrection of joining two barleycorns;
and he can by no means do it; and he will be punished. And whosoever
listeneth to others' conversation, who dislike to be heard by him,
and avoid him, boiling lead will be poured into his ears at the day
of resurrection. And whosoever draweth a picture shall be punished by
ordering him to breathe a spirit into it, and this he can never do, and
so he will be punished as long as God wills.
O servants of God, use medicine: because God hath not created a pain
without a remedy for it, to be the means of curing it, except age; for
that is a pain without a remedy.
He who is not loving to God's creatures and to his own children, God
will not be loving to him.
The truest words spoken by any poet are those of Lebid, who said, "Know
that everything is vanity except God."
Verily he who believeth fighteth with his sword and tongue: I swear by
God, verily abuse of infidels in verse is worse to them than arrows.
Meekness and shame are two branches of faith, and vain talking and
embellishing are two branches of hypocrisy.
The calamity of knowledge is forgetfulness, and to lose knowledge is
this, to speak of it to the unworthy.
Who pursueth the road to knowledge, God will direct him to the road of
paradise; and verily the angels spread their arms to receive him who
seeketh after knowledge; and everything in heaven and earth will ask
grace for him; and verily the superiority of a learned man over a mere
worshiper is like that of the full moon over all the stars.
Hearing is not like seeing: verily God acquainted Moses of his tribe's
worshiping a calf, but he did not throw down the tables; but when Moses
went to his tribe, and saw with his eyes the calf they had made, he
threw down the tables and broke them.
Be not extravagant in praising me, as the Christians are in praising
Jesus, Mary's Son, by calling him God, and the Son of God; I am only
the Lord's servant; then call me the servant of God, and his messenger.
It was asked, "O Messenger of God, what relation is most worthy of
doing good to?" He said, "Your mother"; this he repeated thrice:
"and after her your father, and after him your other relations by
propinquity."
God's pleasure is in a father's pleasure, and God's displeasure is a
father's displeasure.
Verily one of you is a mirror to his brother: Then if he see a vice in
his brother he must tell him to get rid of it.
The best person near God is the best among his friends; and the best of
neighbors near God is the best person in his own neighborhood.
Deliberation in undertaking is pleasing to God, and haste is pleasing
to the devil.
The heart of the old is always young in two things: in love for the
world, and length of hope.
_Of Death_
Wish not for death any one of you; either a doer of good works,
for peradventure he may increase them by an increase of life; or
an offender, for perhaps he may obtain the forgiveness of God by
repentance.
When the soul is taken from the body, the eyes follow it, and look
toward it: on this account the eyes remain open.
When a believer is nearly dead, angels of mercy come, clothed in white
silk garments, and say to the soul of the dying man, "Come out, O
thou who art satisfied with God, and with whom he is satisfied; come
out to rest, which is with God, and the sustenance of God's mercy and
compassion, and to the Lord, who is not angry." Then the soul cometh
out like the smell of the best musk, so that verily it is handed from
one angel to another, till they bring it to the doors of the celestial
regions. Then the angels say, "What a wonderful, pleasant smell this is
which is come to you from the earth!" Then they bring it to the souls
of the faithful, and they are very happy at its coming; more than ye
are at the coming of one of your family after a long journey. And the
souls of the faithful ask it, "What hath such a one done, and such a
one? how are they?" and they mention the names of their friends who are
left in the world. And some of them say, "Let it alone; do not ask it,
because it was grieved in the world, and came from thence aggrieved;
ask it when it is at rest." Then the soul saith when it is at ease,
"Verily such a one about whom ye ask is dead." And as they do not see
him among themselves, they say to one another, "Surely he was carried
to his mother, which is hell fire."
And verily when an infidel is near death, angels of punishment
come to him, clothed in sackcloth, and say to his soul, "Come out,
thou discontented, and with whom God is displeased; come to God's
punishments." Then it cometh out with a disagreeable smell, worse than
the worst stench of a dead body, until they bring it upon the earth,
and they say, "What an extraordinarily bad smell this is"; till they
bring it to the souls of the infidels.
A bier was passing, and the Prophet stood up for it; and we stood with
him and said, "O Prophet! verily this bier is of a Jewish woman; we
must not respect it." Then the Prophet said, "Verily death is dreadful:
therefore when ye see a bier, stand up."
Do not abuse or speak ill of the dead, because they have arrived at
what they sent before them; they have received the rewards of their
actions; if the reward is good, you must not mention them as sinful;
and if it is bad, perhaps they may be forgiven, but if not, your
mentioning their badness is of no use.
Sit not upon graves, nor say your prayers fronting them.
Whoso consoleth one in misfortune, for him is a reward equal to that of
the sufferer.
Whoso comforteth a woman who has lost her child will be covered with a
garment in paradise.
The Prophet passed by graves in Medina, and turned his face toward
them, and said, "Peace be to you, O people of the graves. God forgive
us and you! Ye have passed on before us, and we are following you."
_Of the State after Death_
To whomsoever God giveth wealth, and he doth not perform the charity
due from it, his wealth will be made into the shape of a serpent on
the day of resurrection, which shall not have any hair upon its head,
and this is a sign of its poison and long life, and it hath two
black spots upon its eyes, and it will be twisted round his neck like
a chain on the day of resurrection; then the serpent will seize the
man's jaw-bones, and will say, "I am thy wealth, the charity for which
thou didst not give, and I am thy treasure, from which thou didst not
separate any alms."
The Prophet asked us, "Did any one of you dream?" We said, "No." He
said, "But I did. Two men came to me and took hold of my hands, and
carried me to a pure land: and behold, there was a man sitting and
another standing: the first had an iron hook in his hand, and was
hooking the other in the lip, and split it to the back of the neck, and
then did the same with the other lip. While this was doing the first
healed, and the man kept on from one lip to the other. I said, 'What
is this?' They said, 'Move on,' and we did so till we reached a man
sleeping on his back, and another standing at his head with a stone in
his hand, with which he was breaking the other's head, and afterward
rolled the stone about and then followed it, and had not yet returned,
when the man's head was healed and well. Then he broke it again, and
I said, 'What is this?' They said, 'Walk on'; and we walked, till we
came to a hole like an oven, with its top narrow and its bottom wide,
and fire was burning under it, and there were naked men and women in
it; and when the fire burned high the people mounted also, and when the
fire subsided they subsided also. Then I said, 'What is this?' They
said, 'Move on'; and we went on till we came to a river of blood, with
a man standing in the middle of it, and another man on the bank, with
stones in his hands: and when the man in the river attempted to come
out, the other threw stones in his face, and made him return. And I
said, 'What is this'? They said, 'Advance'; and we moved forward, till
we arrived at a green garden, in which was a large tree, and an old man
and children sitting on the roots of it, and near it was a man lighting
a fire. Then I was carried upon the tree, and put into a house which
was in the middle of it—a better house I have never seen: and there
were old men, young men, women, and children. After that they brought
me out of the house and carried me to the top of the tree, and put me
into a better house, where were old men and young men. And I said to my
two conductors, 'Verily ye have shown me a great many things to-night,
then inform me of what I have seen.' They said, 'Yes: as to the man
whom you saw with split lips, he was a liar, and will be treated in
that way till the day of resurrection; and the person you saw getting
his head broken is a man whom God taught the Koran, and he did not
repeat it in the night, nor practise what is in it by day, and he will
be treated as you saw till the day of resurrection; and the people you
saw in the oven are adulterers; and those you saw in the river are
receivers of usury; and the old man you saw under the tree is Abraham;
and the children around them are the children of men: and the person
who was lighting the fire was Malik, the keeper of hell; and the first
house you entered was for the common believers; and as to the second
house, it is for the martyrs: and we who conducted you are one of us
Gabriel, and the other Michael; then raise up your head'; and I did
so, and saw above it as it were a cloud: and they said, 'That is your
dwelling.' I said, 'Call it here, that I may enter it'; and they said,
'Verily your life remaineth, but when you have completed it, you will
come into your house.'"
When God created paradise, he said to Gabriel, "Go and look at it";
then Gabriel went and looked at it and at the things which God had
prepared for the people of it. After that Gabriel came and said, "O my
Lord! I swear by thy glory no one will hear a description of paradise
but will be ambitious of entering it." After that God surrounded
paradise with distress and troubles, and said, "O Gabriel, go and look
at paradise." And he went and looked, and then returned and said, "O my
Lord, I fear that verily no one will enter it." And when God created
hell fire he said to Gabriel, "Go and take a look at it." And he went
and looked at it, and returned and said, "O my Lord, I swear by thy
glory that no one who shall hear a description of hell fire will wish
to enter it." Then God surrounded it with sins, desires, and vices;
after that he said to Gabriel, "Go and look at hell fire," and he went
and looked at it, and said, "O my Lord, I swear by thy glory I am
afraid that every one will enter hell, because sins are so sweet that
there is none but will incline to them."
If ye knew what I know of the condition of the resurrection and
futurity, verily ye would weep much and laugh little.
Then I said, "O messenger of God! shall we perish while the virtuous
are among us?" He said, Yes, when the wickedness shall be excessive,
verily there will be tribes of my sects that will consider the wearing
of silks and drinking liquor lawful, and will listen to the lute: and
there will be men with magnificent houses, and their milch-animals will
come to them in the evening, full of milk, and a man will come begging
a little and they will say, Come to-morrow. Then God will quickly
send a punishment upon them, and will change others into the shape of
monkeys and swine, unto the day of resurrection.
Verily among the signs of the resurrection will be the taking away of
knowledge from among men; and their being in great ignorance and much
wickedness and much drinking of liquor, and diminution of men, and
there being many women; to such a degree that there will be fifty women
to one man, and he will work for a livelihood for the women.
How can I be happy, when Israfil hath put the trumpet to his mouth
to blow it, leaning his ear toward the true God for orders, and hath
already knit his brow, waiting in expectation of orders to blow it?
_Of Destiny_
The hearts of men are at the disposal of God like unto one heart,
and he turneth them about in any way that he pleaseth. O Director of
hearts, turn our hearts to obey thee.
The first thing which God created was a pen, and he said to it,
"Write." It said, "What shall I write?" And God said, "Write down the
quantity of every separate thing to be created." And it wrote all that
was and all that will be to eternity.
There is not one among you whose sitting-place is not written by God,
whether in the fire or in paradise. The companions said, "O Prophet!
since God hath appointed our place, may we confide in this and abandon
our religious and moral duty?" He said, "No, because the happy will do
good works, and those who are of the miserable will do bad works."
The Prophet of God said that Adam and Moses (in the world of spirits)
maintained a debate before God, and Adam got the better of Moses; who
said, "Thou art that Adam whom God created by the power of his hands,
and breathed into thee from his own spirit, and made the angels bow
before thee, and gave thee an habitation in his own paradise: after
that thou threwest man upon the earth, from the fault which thou
committedst." Adam said, "Thou art that Moses whom God elected for his
prophecy, and to converse with, and he gave to thee twelve tables, in
which are explained everything, and God made thee his confidant, and
the bearer of his secrets: then how long was the Bible written before
I was created?" Moses said, "Forty years." Then Adam said, "Didst thou
see in the Bible that Adam disobeyed God?" He said, "Yes." Adam said,
"Dost thou then reproach me on a matter which God wrote in the Bible
forty years before creating me?"
Ayesha relates that the Prophet said to her, "Do you know, O Ayesha!
the excellence of this night?" (the fifteenth of Ramadan). I said,
"What is it, O Prophet?" He said, "One thing in this night is, that
all the children of Adam to be born in the year are written down; and
also those who are to die in it, and all the actions of the children
of Adam are carried up to heaven in this night; and their allowances
are sent down." Then I said, "O Prophet, do none enter Paradise except
by God's mercy?" He said, "No, none enter except by God's favor": this
he said thrice. I said, "You, also, O Prophet! will you not enter into
paradise, excepting by God's compassion?" Then the Prophet put his hand
on his head, and said, "I shall not enter, except God cover me with his
mercy": this he said thrice.
A man asked the Prophet what was the mark whereby a man might know
the reality of his faith. He said, "If thou derive pleasure from the
good which thou hast done, and be grieved for the evil which thou hast
committed, thou art a true believer." The man said, "What doth a fault
really consist in?" He said, "When anything pricketh thy conscience,
forsake it."
I am no more than man: when I order you anything with respect to
religion, receive it; and when I order you about the affairs of the
world, then I am nothing more than man.