“Life never lets you get too comfortable

it has to remind you that you don't belong here."

— anonymous

no

"i would kill for you" "i would die for you" okay but would you forgive me if i forgot something important for the 51204th time in a row even though i tried my best to remember

Some of the Salaf, if one of them intended to supplicate for himself; then he would supplicate for his Muslim brother with that supplication, because it is answered, and he attains the like of that.

— Imam an-Nawawi | Sharh Sahih Muslim, 17/51

Behave well in your private life and Allah will make your public life excellent.

Take care of what is between you and Allaah, and he will take care of what is between you and the people.

Work for your Hereafter and Allaah will suffice your affairs in this world.

Sell your worldly life for your Hereafter and you will profit in them both together, and do not sell your Hereafter for your worldly life or you will lose them both together.

—Sufyan ath-Thawri رحمه الله Ḥilyat al-Awliyā 7/35

How Do We Know What the Best of Deeds Are?

Abu Suleiman ad-Darani رحمه الله said:

(All of) the best of deeds are in (direct) opposition to the desires of the soul.

[as-Siyar, Abu Nu’aym (rahimahullah), 10/183, Abu Suleiman ad-Darani (rahimahullah)]

رضا الناس غاية لا تدرك

‎ورضا الله غاية لا تترك

فأدرك ما لا تترك و اترك ما لا تدرك

Pleasing people is a goal no one can achieve,

and pleasing God is a goal that one must not leave',

So achieve what can't be left,

and leave what can't be achieved

A man said to ‘Aamir ibn al-Qays رحمه الله:

“Pray (make du’a) for me”

‘Aamir replied to him and said to the man:

“Obey Allah then pray (make du’a) to Him He will accept it from you.”

[Hilayat al-Awliyaa’, 93/2]

‎“There is no relationship between Allaah and anyone except through obedience to Him.”

‎— Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab رضي الله عنه | Taareekh At-Tabaree, 4/306]

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Poor Folk (translated by C. J. Hogarth)

“I do not believe that things will turn out well; but the idea that they might — that is of vital importance.”

— Theodor Adorno

Ya Allāh! Make me pleased with Your Divine Will

and bless me in Your Divine Decree,

so that I neither love that what You have delayed should occur quickly, nor that what You have made to occur quickly is delayed.

Mission no hoarding :3

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

—Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Core strength of happiness?

Gratitude

I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.

– Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

— George Eliot

The heart, it hoards— how I know this—

— Kevin Young, from “The Stair,” Poetry (vol. 222, no. 4, July / August 2023)