Striving in Worship
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Identifier: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=463
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Subject: character
Title: Striving in Worship
Created on: Wed Dec 26 13:31:17 -0500 2007
Updated on: Wed Dec 26 13:31:17 -0500 2007
Version: 1
Abstract: ... ompetes with you in the matters of this life then throw it back at him." Whenever he missed a Salah in congregation, ibn `Umar radhiallahu `anhu used to fast one day, pray for one whole night and free a slave. Abu Musa al-Ash`ari used to apply himself so much in worship at the end of his life that he was told, "Why don't you slow down and be gentle with yourself?" He replied, "When the horses are released for a race and are close to the finish line, they give all the strength they have. What is left of my life is less than that." He maintained the same level of devotion and worship until he died. Mawriq al-`Ajli said, "I did not find an example, for the believer in this life, better than a man on a plank in the sea, imploring, 'O Lord, O Lord', hoping that Allah would save him." Usamah said, "Whenever you see Sufyan ath-Thawri, it is as if you see someone in a ship fearing to drown. One would often hear him say, 'O Lord save me, save me!" Fatimah bint Abdil Malik, the wife of the Khalifah `Umar ibn `Abdil-Aziz said, "I have never seen a person offering a salah or fasting more than he did, or a person fearing the Lord more than him. After offering Salat-ul-Isha, he would sit down and cry until he becomes sleepy, then he would wake up again and continue crying until sleep overtakes him." Amir ibn Abdullah was once asked, "How can you tolerate being awake all night, and thirsty in the intense heat of the day?" He replied, "Is it anything more than postponing the food of the day to nighttime, and the sleep of the night to daytime? This is not a big matter." When the night came, he would say, "Remembrance of the heat of hellfire has taken sleepiness from me." And he would not sleep until dawn. Ahmad ibn Harb said, "I wonder how the one who knows that above him, paradise is being embellished, and below him, the hell-fire is being kindled, and yet sleeps between them!" Waqi` said, "Al Amash was almost seventy years old and he never missed the first takbirah (for salah in the masjid).&nb... [Full Article...]
