Islamic Quotes

“Renewing Islam is not by changing the religion until it fits people's desires, rather, it is by moving people away from their desires to a place that gains God's approval.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

“If a Muslim spent his life standing besides the Kaaba, oblivious to what the future of Islam requires of scientific and economic and military struggle, it will not help him the least in the sight of Allah. The building of factories is equal [in virtue] to the building of mosques.

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“The servant who has submitted his face to Allah the Almighty with sincerity and faith has become connected to Allah, glory to Him, the Lord of everything, so how can he fear His creation whose soul is connected to the world of the heavens, and whose heart has become attached to al-Firdaus so that the worldly life has become weightless and trivial to him?

Zainab al-Ghazali

“A spouse's oppression of his or her spouse is a deeper corruption and a faster road to catastrophe than a ruler's oppression of his subjects.

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“There is an equation that every Arab should memorize by heart: Arabs - Islam = zero.

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“The corruption of the ordinary people is due to the corruption of the rulers, and the corruption of the rulers is due to the corruption of the scholars (or intelligentsia), and the corruption of the scholars is due to the fact that the love of money and status has taken their hearts over, and whenever the love of the world takes over a person, he will not be able to stand up to petty criminals, so how could he face the kings and rulers?

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

“It is a servant's duty to plant good seeds and Allah will make them grow. A person never planted an apple for Allah to make an onion grow for him; you never get except what you plant.

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“If those who do not know stayed silent, there would be little disagreement between people.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

“Will mosques ever become a forge for the creation of men again?

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“I remain committed to my stance that the difficult task is changing society. As for changing governments, it happens automatically when society wants it.

Muhammad al-Ghazali

“Islam respects non-Muslims in Muslim society, and considers them in the dhimma (protection) of God, His Prophet, and the Muslims, i.e. protected under their trust and guarantee. This [word "dhimma"] is a religious term that means to the Muslim that he serves God by protecting the non-Muslims, defending them, acting kindly toward them and establishing justice with them. If they find this term hurtful, then it should not be used out of respect for their feelings, the important thing is the concept, not the name. Umar ibn al-Khattab had changed something more important when the Christians of Bani Taghlib told him they didn't like the word "jizyah" (tax) and that they wanted to pay it under the name of "sadaqah" (charity), which Umar accepted from them.

Yusuf al-Qaradhawi

“Many sheikhs and scholars live in books and do not live in reality ... because they have not read the book of life like they have read the books written by the ancients, for this reason their rulings seem to be coming out of the graves.

Yusuf al-Qaradhawi

“Today's apostates from Islam in reality are not apostates, for they inherited their Islam without thinking and without choice. Islam has not entered their hearts nor minds, if it had, it would have never left.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“We do not mix political Islam with terrorism for all Islam is based on freedom and rejects compulsion in all its shapes and forms that we see today, such as kidnapping, blowing up cars and airplanes or firing bullets at police stations. This is not Islam and not fundamentalism, it is crime committed by murderous criminals.

Islam is based on experimentation and persuasion and uses kindly invitation as its method and it does not raise a weapon except when countering an attack and it does not fight except to defend and restore someone's rights, it is the religion of mercy, affection, forgiveness, forbearance, love. It is based on peace, its greeting is peace and its soul is peace.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“America is the free atmosphere in which good and evil feast together.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Absolute truth, unmitigated virtue and pure goodness exist in the minds of the Sufis, the mad, and the dreamers, but they do not exist in our society that eats and drinks and falls ill and dies.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“I do not believe that circumstances can truly force us to do to actions that go against our consciences.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The true name of the chronic disease that has come to have a thousand and one names such as ulcers, ulcerative colitis, gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, angina, insomnia and anxiety, is "the city".

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The Shariah [Islamic law] will not come on the back of tanks. The virtues cannot be created by force and nobleness and honor cannot be created through fear. The Shariah is mercy and affection and there are no tools to achieve it except mercy and affection.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Islam combines between the materialism of Judaism and the spiritualism of Christianity, between the dry and severe justice [of the Torah] that says: "a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye", and the excessive love and forgiveness [of the Gospels] that says: "When someone hits you on the face, turn the other cheek."

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“A good society is not made up of a group of zeroes, but a group of people, and a little individualism is necessary for men to be distinguishable from animals, and for society to be distinguishable from a herd.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“I say that the [following of the] Shariah (Islamic law) is obligatory [on the Muslims] and that it is truth, but the road to it is not just punishment, but reform first. There needs to be positive reform that makes good behavior possible before we punish those who leave said behavior.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Political Islam is an invitation and an intimation whose goal is to reach the general public and wants to impart the Islamic program in all its attributes and expanse and openness to the average Muslims who think that Islam is nothing other than prayer and fasting. We say to them that it is a way of life, a way of behavior, knowledge, action, noble principles, mercy, justice, kindness toward the weak, help toward the poor, council among the rulers and the participation of the people in decision-making.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Humans can increase their degree of freedom through knowledge. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali says: "Man has choice in what he knows and is choice-less and externally controlled in what he doesn't know", which means that whenever his knowledge expands, his freedom increases.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“No group should claim that it alone conforms to Islam's fundamentals and that it alone possesses perfect Islam and the final word on every issue. Every group should listen to the rest with open hearts, without firing bullets, and without throwing accusations, and without nullifying each other's opinions.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The true Muslim tries to understand people but does not make judgments on them, and he may call them to what is good and right, but he does not impose his opinion upon them. As for reckoning and taking people to account, that solely belongs to God.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“God created us to give to us, not to take away from us.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Worship of God begins only with knowledge of God and His infinitely high status. And knowledge of God starts with knowledge of the ego and its infinitely low status.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Your vehicle to God is your prayer mat. The only safe spot on this ruined earth is the prayer mat.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“If you do not know God except during good times, then you do not worship Him, you worship yourself.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Israel without American and European support is like a fetus whose umblical cord is cut, for it has no power of its own, rather its power is borrowed, and Israel without Arab division loses its future.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Leave your self behind. Leave your worries, leave your knowledge, leave your work, leave your name behind. Leave all the appearances of this material world. What do you end up with? Your desire becomes God, your goal becomes God, your worry becomes God, your remembrance becomes God, your speech becomes God, and your thought becomes God.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Why does God let the tyrant perform his tyranny, the murderer to murder and the robber to rob? It is because God wants us to be free, and freedom requires the possibility of doing wrong. There is no meaning in freedom if we do not have the right to experiment, err, and do what is right, and to choose between sinning and being virtuous.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Truthfulness is a rare thing, and the truly honest person is almost non-existent. Rather, we begin with lies the moment we get up in the morning, even before opening our mouths.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Do not deceive us by the false notion that there is no Islam without Islamic rule for it is a statement that holds the appearance of good while containing great evil. Islam is present everywhere in the world east and west and it is as present as faith is deep, without needing to be propped up by ceremony and formalities. Close this door from which enter opportunists and schemers and those with evil intentions. It is an attractive but false statement that everyone uses as a Trojan Horse to enter the house of Islam from its gates to destroy it from the inside while wearing the dress of the caliphate and repeating prayer words of the saints. It is the mask used by the new enemies of Islam.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Religion is a feeling prior to being a theory based on proofs, and it is a state of the heart prior to being a state of the mind.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“It is courageous to be fearful of God

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“People understand religion as if it is a group of commandments and prohibitions and laws containing punishments and the difference between the permissible and the prohibited, even though all of these are worldly matters. As for religion, it is something else, deeper, greater and farther than these.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Try to make your actions harmonious with your words and your behavior the same as what you preach. If your human nature overcomes you and your desire defeats you for a moment, do not despair but ask for help and call to your Lord and say: "Your help, O Lord!" and He will say: "I am here for you, my servant" and He will take you with His hand from the darkness of your soul to the light that comes from being in His presence.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“On earth there is enough to satisfy the needs of all people, but not enough to satisfy their greed.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Happy homes make no noise.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Life is a journey toward knowing Allah.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“We need to admit that we Muslims have failed in inviting others to our religion and we have not made the world aware of Islam with its exalted principles and transcendental meanings. We have been the worst advertisement for Islam and the worst image for how a Muslim should be. And we, regardless of the treasures of energy and the great amount of wealth that the Bestower has given us (we have inherited the richest area in the world with its natural resources), we have stayed behind in science, economy, politics and democracy, and we didn't learn from our Quran how to deal with enemies and rivals.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Umar ibn al-Khattab understood the punishment prescribed for stealing in the Quran, yet never cut a hand in the year of the famine regardless of the clarity of the text. Umar did not do this in contradiction to the Quranic text, rather he did it out of obedience and understanding and comprehension of what's in it and perceiving the soul of the Shariah (Islamic law) over the text.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Thankfulness consists of deeds, it does not consist of [simply] saying "alhamdulillah" by the tongue.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“It is almost a rule that the heart does not mend except through pain, and does not recover and regain its tenderness except through suffering.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The false revolutionary is the one who tries to change everything other than himself or herself.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Even though the Torah says "A tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye", we see Israel taking an entire set of teeth for a tooth.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Gamal Abdel Nasser used to fight in the Congo and Yemen and raise flags of nationalism and communism everywhere from the Atlantic ocean to the Persian gulf, and used to hail slogans speaking to every Egyptian citizen: "Raise your head brother!" But the poor deceived citizen could not have raised his head from the gutters, from the lashes of the intelligence agency and fear of the prisons and the sword of the overwatch and the eyes of the searchers. An atmosphere took over in which only hypocrites could grow, and the slogan became obedience and allegiance before knowledge and competence. Values deteriorated. Production fell and everywhere was pandemonium. Abdel Nasser lived for twenty years in an empty media racket and failed publicity and communist projects. The citizen woke up to a defeat that broke his back, an economic collapse, a hundred thousand dead under the sands of the Sinai, and military equipment turned to scrap. The country was lost, and the citizens were lost.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The bigger the goal is, the longer the road will be.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“There is always a solution, there is always a way out, so long as there is faith.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“On the road of fate you do not meet anything except yourself: Be a liar and lies will come to you, be one who steals and crime will surround you. Whatever path you take, your fate will be nothing other than your own image.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Continuity kills perception, for our minds are inherently incapable of perceiving continuous stimuli.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Search for your faith when you are experiencing doubt and anxiety, and when you find your faith, you will find yourself.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Let every one of us return to his heart in an hour of solitude and ask his heart. His heart will lead him to the answer to everything, for God has placed in our hearts that compass that never errs, which is called the fitrah [God-inspired inner nature of humans] and instinct.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“This life, all of it, is nothing but a single chapter of a novel with numerous chapters, and death is not the end of the adventure, it is the beginning of it.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Fasting is a spiritual exercise, a tiring of the body, and a subversion of the animal element in man.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“There is no shame in being poor, but it is a crime to be backward and ignorant.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“God is closer to those who try to understand Him than those who have a blind faith in Him.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“You are not little in the sight of your Lord nor unimportant, for He breathed His spirit into you, made the angels bow down to you, made the elements and the cosmos subservient to you, gave you immortality, and gave you freedom. If you wish, you can be a godly person, and if you wish, you can be a servant of Satan. Where in any of this is there anything trivial or unimportant?

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“On the outside, I have a border and a ceiling that ends at my body. But on the inside, I have neither a ceiling nor a limit to my depth.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Boredom is nature's punishment for those who do not do [useful] work.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“The biggest problem any one of us could fall into is to be controlled by...anything.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“If you could enter the heart of another person, you'd feel sorry for him or her.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Everything will go away and disappear. It is we who give it value and importance, and then suffer pain and torment for the sake of its supposed importance.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Work and strive toward God by seeking knowledge, not by growing beards, shortening garments, wearing sandals and obsessing over appearances and secondary things, for the first verse that was revealed of your Book was: "Read!"

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Modern warfare is to make your enemy kills himself with his own hands instead of going to the trouble of killing him yourself.

[Explaining how Western powers sow war and destruction in the Middle East.]

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Gratitude toward a blessing means refraining from using the blessing to disobey the One that gave it to you.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“If thirst for water indicates the existence of water, in a similar way thirst for justice indicates the existence of justice, and since there is no justice in this world, this is indicates the presence of an afterlife, the home of true justice.

Wahiduddin Khan

“O Lord, I beseech you by my weakness and Your strength, and I call on You by my powerlessness and Your power, to create a way out of my darkness into my light, and out of my light into Your Light, You are infinite and pure, none is worthy of worship besides You.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Regret is the voice of the fitrah [our God-inspired inner self] in the moment of error.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“If you want to understand a human being, look at his action during a moment of free choice, and you will be surprised. You may see a saint committing adultery, a prostitute praying, a doctor drinking poison. You may see your friend stabbing you and your enemy saving you, and you may see a servant mighty in status by his actions, and a master baser than the basest servant by his works.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“It is in our nature to not believe except in what we can see and touch. But this is arrogance, for how few are the things we see, and how little are the things we perceive in this world!

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“God, the Generous, has allowed us to enter His presence at any time without appointment, and to remain in His presence for as long as we want to ask Him whatever we can ask. Simply by spreading a prayer mat and saying "God is Great", we are in His presence, able to ask whatever we like. Where is the king that allows us to enter his presence at any time, and to remain in his presence however long we like?

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Hatred costs more than love, for it is an unnatural feeling, an opposing state like the movement of objects against the earth's gravity; it requires extra force and uses up more fuel.

Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

“Therefore when they [the Muslims] showed ingratitude toward the blessings that Allah had given them, He caused them to undergo severe torment under the hands of the Mongols in Baghdad, and in the Crusades when Westerners violently took over Muslim lands. Even today, they continue to take away and divide their homelands and rain fire and brimstone on them. Meanwhile the Muslims are busy with entertainment and error. Whenever a calamity or crisis befalls them, they say it is God's decree, without acknowledging the causes and without seeing the wisdom behind it, and without actively seeking to find a cure.

Sheikh Ahmad Mustafa al-Maraghi

“In recent times, the "complete" Muslim is sometimes considered to be the one who dedicates himself solely to worship and doesn't engage in anything else, staying in his place of prayer and not leaving it, keeping to the required dhikrs and wirds (prayer words). This image is absolutely unlike the image of the life of the Prophet and his companions who followed him. While worship was a part of the book of their lives, struggle for the sake of Allah filled its pages, struggle for freeing society from false beliefs and superstitions, struggle for establishing correct beliefs, freeing it from oppressors and tyrants, protecting the weak and establishing justice among people.

Similarly, the life of a Muslim who dedicates himself solely to struggle and social activism, if it lacks worship and a deep connection to Allah, is lacking and malformed in comparison to the picture of a wholesome Islamic way of life.

Muhammad al-Mubarak (d. 1981)

“A disputing group of Muslims asked him [the Imam Hasan al-Banna] about the taraweeh prayer (the voluntary prayer done on the nights of Ramadan), whether it is composed of 20 units, like it is common in Meccca and Medina and other places, and which is recommended by the Four Schools of Jurisprudence, or of 8 units, like some Salafi evangelists insist? The people of the village who asked this question were on the verge of fighting on this issue.

The Sheikh's ruling was that the taraweeh prayer is a voluntary act, while the unity of the Muslim community is obligatory, so how can an obligatory act be ignored for the sake of a voluntary act? [He advised that] it is better and more pious if they pray alone in their homes instead of disputing and fighting over the topic.

Yusuf al-Qaradhawi

“When Allah (subhanahu wa Ta’ala) puts barakah (His blessings) in something, it will come beyond your expectations- never underestimate the power of one good deed!

Nouman Ali Khan

“The minutes of life slip through like grains of a sandglass with no stopping or slowing down. Make each one count in the best possible way.

Mufti Ismail Menk

“We know that “I love you” is easy to say but difficult to prove yet we still fall for mere words and complain when we are hurt.

Mufti Ismail Menk

“Those who are patient achieve much more in the long run than those who are not.

Mufti Ismail Menk

“Your past is just that. Past!
Never let it prevent you from moving on in the right direction.

Mufti Ismail Menk

“Whoever makes a habit out of istighfar (seeking God's forgiveness), Allah will facilitate for him his provision, ease for him his matters, and protect his status and strength.

Ibn Khathir

“There is no end or limit in reward for a deed which has found acceptance with Allah.

Ibrahim an-Nakha`i

“The first stage of sincerity is that your private and public state should be the same.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

“Whoever does not recognize his mother except on one day of the year, then he is undutiful to her; and whoever keeps ties, gives gifts, and acts kindly toward her everyday, then there is no point to a Mother’s Day, as Mother's Day is an occasion for the undutiful and unkind ones.

Abdul Aziz bin Marzuq at-Tarifi

“Umar [ibn al-Khattab] was asked about those who strongly desire to commit a sin but refrain from it. Umar said: "Those are the ones whose hearts Allah has tested for al-taqwaa (consciousness of Allah), for them is forgiveness and a tremendous reward." [Quran 49:13]

Yusuf al-Qaradhawi

“Remembrance of Allah with the tongue is a good thing, and what is better is the remembrance of Allah when one is about to commit a sin, and this preventing him from committing it.

Maimun bin Mihraan

“Worshipers never performed an act of worship better than staying away from that which Allah forbade them.

al-Hasan bin Ali (Grandson of the Prophet ﷺ)

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Islamic Quotes

Top Collections Under Islamic Quotes

View all collections under Islamic Quotes ►

Islamic Quotes By Topic1754 artworks

Yasmin Mogahed Quotes443 artworks

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Quotes255 artworks

Yasir Qadhi Quotes212 artworks

Quotes About Allah203 artworks

Quotes About Dunya (Worldly Life)197 artworks

View all collections under Islamic Quotes ►

Largest Collections

Islamic Quotes By Topic
1754 artworks

Yasmin Mogahed Quotes
443 artworks

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Quotes
255 artworks

Yasir Qadhi Quotes
212 artworks

Quotes About Allah
203 artworks

Quotes About Dunya (Worldly Life)
197 artworks