Shaykh Sulayman ar-Ruhayli حفظه الله:

“No believer has prepared for the month of Ramadan with anything greater than abundant fasting in Sha’ban, frequent recitation of the Qur’an in it, the fear of Allah, sincere repentance from sins, reducing excessive speech, accustoming the soul to abandoning distractions and diversions such as social media, sincere determination to benefit from the month of goodness, and reminding the soul of its swift departure.”

*📖From the Shaykh’s X account*

Ibn Umar reported: A man came to the Prophet ‎ﷺ and he said

“O Messenger of Allah, I have committed a great sin. Is there any repentance for me?”

The Prophet ‎ﷺ said, “Is your mother with you?” The man said no.

The Prophet said, “Is your mother’s sister with you?” The man said yes.

The Prophet said, “Be good to her.”

*📖Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1904*

The Prophet ‎ﷺ said:

“The maternal aunt is of the same status as the mother.”

*📖 Abu Dawud 2278*

The Prophet‎ ‎ﷺ said:

“Be mindful of Allah, you will find Him in front of you.

Seek nearness to Allah during prosperity; He will know you in adversity.

You should know that whatever misses you was not to reach you; and whatever reaches you was not to miss you.

You should know also, that help comes with perseverance and that relief comes after distress and that certainly, with difficulty comes ease.”

?Collected by Ahmad in al-Musnad 1/307

One of wise ones said,

‘Do not befriend a person who is disobedient to his parents because he will never be good to you, as he has not been good to someone who has a greater right than you.’

*?* At Their Feet: Piety Towards Parents pg 66

The Prophet ‎ﷺ said:

“Do not belittle any form of righteousness, and even if you did not find any good deed except meeting your brother with a smiling face, then do so.”

?Sahih Muslim & at-Tirmidhi

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رضي الله عنه said that the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ said:

“Beware of the belittled sins, because they gather on a person until they destroy him.”

He then said that the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ gave them an example:

“This is the example of people who set up camp on a flat land, and then their servants came. One of them collected some wood and another man collected some wood until they collected a great deal. They then started a fire and cooked what they put on it.”

?Ahmad 1:204

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رضي الله عنه came out to his companions and said:

“You are the removal of my sorrow.”

[?روضة العقلاء]

It’s said that Imam Shafi’ said, if it wasn’t for Qiyam al-Layl and his companions, he wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the Dunya another day.

Whoever wishes to attain the levels of the strangers, let him bear with patience the harm he will meet from his parents, his wife, his brothers and relatives.

If one were to ask, how can they harm me seeing as I am beloved to them and they to me?

It was said in reply:

You have opposed them in their love of this world and their great desire for it. They, in order to attain this world, do not care what they lose of their religion; if you follow them in this, they will love you; if you oppose them and instead traverse the path to the Hereafter by following the truth, they will behave coarsely towards you.

Your parents will be pained and angry at your actions, your wife will vexed at you and seek separation, and your brothers and relatives will rarely meet you.

You will be, amongst them, saddened and disturbed, and it is then that you will look at yourself with the eye of a stranger and you will understand the circumstances of all strangers like yourself, you will feel isolated from your brothers and relatives, and you will find yourself alone traversing the path to Allah.

Be patient for just a few days, bear the ignominy of this world for a few minutes, partake scarcely of this lowly life, you will find that this leads you to the Abode of well-being, its land is pure, its gardens resplendent, its fruits bountiful and its rivers sweet; therein will you have all the soul desires and all the eye takes delight in, therein will you abide for eternity.

? The Journey of the Strangers pg 42-43