The Speeches & Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad by Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (classic english novels TXT) 📕
- Author: Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah
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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.
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 dreamt, 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 Lebīd, 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.
Whoso pursueth the road of 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 worshipper is like that of the full moon over all the stars.
Hearing is not like seeing: verily God acquainted Moses of his tribe’s worshipping 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 amongst his friends; and the best of neighbours near God is the best person in his own neighbourhood.
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.
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 towards 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 an one done, and such an 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 an one about whom ye ask is dead.” And as they do not see him amongst 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 extraordinary 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 towards 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.”
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 afterwards 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 burnt 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
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