Author: Al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee
Source: Jaami' Al-'Uloom wal-Hikam, hadeeth no. 47
On the authority of Al-Miqdaam ibn Maadiy-Karib who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah saying:
"No human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach. Sufficient for any son of Aadam are some morsels to keep his back straight. But if it must be, then one third for his food, one third for his drink and one third for his breath." [Ahmad, At-Tirmidhee, An-Nasaa'ee, Ibn Maajah - hadeeth saheeh.]
1. Ibn Masaweh, a Muslim doctor, said after reading this hadeeth:
"If the people only used these words, they would avoid all diseases and maladies and the clinics and pharmacies would be idle."
2. Another doctor, Al-Harith ibn Kalada said:
"That which has killed mankind is the introduction of food on top of food before it has been digested."
3. As for spiritual benefits: humbleness of heart, strength of understanding, lessening of lower desires, lessening of personal opinions and anger, while overeating induces the opposites of all of those. Al-Hasan Al-Basree said:
"O, son of Adam, eat with one third of your stomach and drink with one third and leave one third of your stomach to breathe so that you may think."
4. Ibn Umar: A man said to Ibn Umar:
"Shouldn't I bring you some jawarish?" Ibn Umar said: "What is that?" He said: "Something which aids in digesting your food after you eat." Ibn Umar said: "I have not eaten to being full for four months. That is not because I am not able to do so, but I was with a group of people who were hungry more than they were full."
5. Not reaching your goals: Muhammad ibn Wasi said:
"Whoever eats little will understand and make others understand and will be clear and humble. Overeating weighs a person down and keeps him from much of what he wants [to accomplish]."
6. Al-Hasan Al-Basree:
"The test of Aadam, alayhis-salaam, was food and it is your test until Qiyama."
And, it used to be said:
"Whoever takes control of his stomach gets control of all good deeds."
And:
"Wisdom does not reside in a full stomach."
One day, Al-Hasan offered some food to his companion who said: "I have eaten until I am no longer able to eat." To which Al-Hasan said:
"SubhaanAllaah! Does a Muslim eat until he is no longer able to eat?"
7. Allaah grants this world to those whom He loves and those He does not love but only grants hunger to those whom he loves.
8. Ash-Shaafi'ee said:
"I have not filled myself in sixteen years because filling oneself makes the body heavy, removes clear understanding, induces sleep and makes one weak for worship."
9. In Bukhaaree and Muslim:
"The believer eats with one stomach while the kafir eats with seven stomachs."
Meaning: The believer eats with the manners of Islam and in moderation, while the kafir eats based on desires and gluttony and so he eats with seven stomachs.
10. Also:
"Food for one is enough for two and food for two is enough for three and food for three is enough for four."
11. Also: From Aa'ishah:
"The family of Muhammad (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) never filled themselves with wheat bread three days in a row from the time he came to Madeenah until he passed away."
12. A Muslim should not merely follow his appetites. Allaah said:
"Then, they were followed by generations who neglected the prayer and followed their appetites. They will encounter a pit of fire except for those who repent..." [Maryam 59-60]
13. The best generations did not:
"The best generation is my generation, followed by the one after them then the one after them. Then will come a people who bear witness but are not asked to bear witness, who swear oaths but do not fulfill them and fatness will appear among them." [Bukhaaree and Muslim]
14. From Abee Barza that the Prophet (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) said:
"My greatest fear for you is the appetites of transgression with regard to your stomachs and your privates and the inclinations which lead astray." [Ahmad and others and its narrators are people of saheeh]
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Monday, December 24, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Are you ready to change?
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Eyes of a Child
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
My youngest child has these deep blue eyes. If you tell him something that attracts his attention, he’ll stop and look at you with those piercing blue eyes for a moment, as though he’s trying to make up his mind whether or not you’re telling him something of real value.
Every day, his eyes are on me. Along with his two older siblings and his mother, I’m one of the people that he’s constantly using as a role model for figuring out the world.
If he sees me enjoying tomatoes, he’s willing to give them a try.
If he sees me brushing my teeth, he’ll head to the other bathroom to retrieve his own toothbrush.
If he sees me shaving, he’s ready to slap some shaving cream on his cheeks.
His idea of good behavior is coming, in large part, from me.
John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach and one of my personal heroes, once said, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
It can be easy for me to try to behave well when my little blue-eyed boy is around. I can try to act like a good role model when he’s around. I can think more deliberately about my action when he’s watching me.
Children are too smart for that, though. They see the character behind the curtain. I certainly remember realizing that there were people who would do one thing when eyes were on them and then do another when no one else was around, and I was smart enough to know that the things they did when no one was around was the true reflection of who they were.
It’s not enough to behave well when my child is watching. I must have the character from which good behavior comes naturally.
For example, the best way to show my child that you can have a lot of fun at home with whatever you have on hand is to have a lot of fun at home with whatever you have on hand.
If I want my child to see that adults read books and discuss ideas, the best way to do that is to normally read books and discuss ideas as part of my life.
If I want my child to see that life doesn’t revolve around spending money and you don’t have to throw out cash in order to enjoy life, the best way to do that is to live a life where that’s the normal course of events and not a special “money free weekend.”
If it’s an act, it doesn’t work.
Few things are harder than working on who you are and striving to improve it. People are creatures of habit and impulse. It is extremely difficult to change those fundamental things.
In some ways, I’m lucky. When I want to push myself to change things about who I am, I simply have to think about those big blue eyes that are watching me all the time. That’s a pretty strong motivator.
Couple that motivation with a strong sense of what better choices are and soon I’ll end up changing who I am. Those better choices come naturally if they’re repeated enough.
The things we want to change seem very hard at times. Through the eyes of a child, though, they’re not difficult at all. If you work on just changing who you are a little bit, you no longer have to face the difficult decision to not spend money or to not smoke or to not curse over and over again throughout the day.
In the eyes of a child, character trumps everything else. Work on your character and your habits follow.
My youngest child has these deep blue eyes. If you tell him something that attracts his attention, he’ll stop and look at you with those piercing blue eyes for a moment, as though he’s trying to make up his mind whether or not you’re telling him something of real value.
Every day, his eyes are on me. Along with his two older siblings and his mother, I’m one of the people that he’s constantly using as a role model for figuring out the world.
If he sees me enjoying tomatoes, he’s willing to give them a try.
If he sees me brushing my teeth, he’ll head to the other bathroom to retrieve his own toothbrush.
If he sees me shaving, he’s ready to slap some shaving cream on his cheeks.
His idea of good behavior is coming, in large part, from me.
John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach and one of my personal heroes, once said, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
It can be easy for me to try to behave well when my little blue-eyed boy is around. I can try to act like a good role model when he’s around. I can think more deliberately about my action when he’s watching me.
Children are too smart for that, though. They see the character behind the curtain. I certainly remember realizing that there were people who would do one thing when eyes were on them and then do another when no one else was around, and I was smart enough to know that the things they did when no one was around was the true reflection of who they were.
It’s not enough to behave well when my child is watching. I must have the character from which good behavior comes naturally.
For example, the best way to show my child that you can have a lot of fun at home with whatever you have on hand is to have a lot of fun at home with whatever you have on hand.
If I want my child to see that adults read books and discuss ideas, the best way to do that is to normally read books and discuss ideas as part of my life.
If I want my child to see that life doesn’t revolve around spending money and you don’t have to throw out cash in order to enjoy life, the best way to do that is to live a life where that’s the normal course of events and not a special “money free weekend.”
If it’s an act, it doesn’t work.
Few things are harder than working on who you are and striving to improve it. People are creatures of habit and impulse. It is extremely difficult to change those fundamental things.
In some ways, I’m lucky. When I want to push myself to change things about who I am, I simply have to think about those big blue eyes that are watching me all the time. That’s a pretty strong motivator.
Couple that motivation with a strong sense of what better choices are and soon I’ll end up changing who I am. Those better choices come naturally if they’re repeated enough.
The things we want to change seem very hard at times. Through the eyes of a child, though, they’re not difficult at all. If you work on just changing who you are a little bit, you no longer have to face the difficult decision to not spend money or to not smoke or to not curse over and over again throughout the day.
In the eyes of a child, character trumps everything else. Work on your character and your habits follow.
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