Ibn al_Qayyim said:

''Know that the greatest of losses is for you to be preoccupied with one who will bring you nothing but a loss in your time with Allah – the Mighty and Majestic – and being cut off from Him, a wasting your time with the person, a weakening of your energy, and the dispersing of your resolve. So, if you are tested with this – and you must be tested with this – deal with him according to how Allah would wish, and be patient with him as much as possible. Get closer to Allah and His Pleasure by way of this person, and make your getting together with him something to benefit from, not something to incur a loss from.

Be with him as if you are a man who is on a road who was stopped by another man, who then asks you to take him on your journey. Make sure that you are the one who gives him a ride, and that he is not the one giving you the ride. If he refuses, and there is nothing to gain from travelling with him, do not stop for him, bid him farewell, and do not even turn back to look at him, as he is a highway robber, regardless of who he really is. So, save your heart, be wary of how you spend your days and nights, and do not let the Sun set before you arrive at your destination.''.”

['al-Wabil as-Sayyib'; p. 45]

Abdullah bin Mubarak related that it was said to Hamdun bin Ahmad, "Why is the speech of our pious predecessors more beneficial than our speech ?

He replied, "Because they spoke for the honor of Islam, for the salvation of the soul, and for the pleasure of the Most Merciful, However we speak to honor ourselves, to seek out the world, and to please creation".

Asma'i said that Abdul Malik once delivered a very profound sermon, during which he began to weep while begging Allah : "O Lord, my sins are great but a small amount of Your forgiveness is greater than them. O Allah, forgive the greatness of my sins with a little of Your mercy. "

Asma'i said that when these words reached Hasan Basri, he too began to cry, stating that if ever words were uttered that should be inscribed in gold, these would be those words.

Stand firm against evil thoughts, for if you fail to do so, they will become ideas,
if you do not, they will become desires, so fight against them.

If you do, they will become a form of determination and intention,
if you do not resist, they will become actions,
and if you do not follow them up with their opposite,
they will become habits that will be hard to quit." -

Ibn al-Qayyim rahimullah

Ibn Mas`ood, radiallahu `anhu, said:

"True knowledge is not measured in relationship to how much you memorize and then narrate, but rather, true knowledge is an expression of piety [protecting oneself from what Allah prohibited and acting upon what He mandated]." Also, "Study and act upon what you learn."

[Related by Abu Na`eem]

If you can be unknown, be so; it doesn’t matter if you are not known and it doesn’t matter if you are not praised. It doesn’t matter if you are blameworthy according to people if you are praiseworthy with Allâh the Mighty and Majestic.

Reported by Al-Fudayl b. ‘Ayyâd

If I am afflicted with a calamity, I praise Allah for it four times: I praise Him because it wasn’t worse than it was, I praise Him when He gives me the patience to bear it, I praise Him for enabling me to say al-istirjâa (‘To Allah we belong and to him we will return’ see Al-Baqarah:154-156 ) in hope of a great reward, and I praise Him for not making it a calamity in my religion

-Shurayh –May Allah have mercy on him