You can’t please everyone

He who thinks that he is free from the criticism of people is a mad man, for even the Lord of the Worlds Himself has been wrongfully criticized.

Imam Al-Shafi’i (RA)

You will never be able to please everyone, rather rectify what is between you and God and do not care about the people.

Imam Al-Shafi’i (RA)

If you do ninety-nine things correct, and one thing incorrect, people will ignore the ninety-nine, and spread the one mistake.

Imam Al-Shafi’i (RA)

If you focused all your efforts into pleasing people, you’d never succeed, so be sincere to God in your actions and intentions.

Imam Al-Shafi’i (RA)

Let not your tongue mention the shame of another, for you yourself are covered in shame and all men have tongues.

Imam Al-Shafi’i (RA)

Open hearts and minds

God will open the hearts of whomever He wants to guide to Islam, but He will tighten the chest of one whom He has led astray, as though he was climbing high up into the sky. Thus, God places wickedness on those who do not accept the faith.

Qur’an 6:125

One whose chest (heart and mind) is left open for Islam (submission to His will) shall receive light from God. Woe to those whose hearts have become like stone against the remembrance of God. They are clearly in error.

Qur’an 39:22

An orderly universe

I’m not an atheist, and I do not think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but does not know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.

Albert Einstein

But what I see as I write is that I am lucky to be alive and so are you. We live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning green and gold harvest festival of a planet… what are the odds of a planet picked at random would have these complaisant properties?

Richard Dawkins