Assalam Alaikum

Faith appears as a white spot in the heart. So whenever faith increases in magnitude, the whiteness increases. When faith is completed, the entire heart becomes white.

-

Amirul Mou’mineen Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS)

[Kanz al-`Ummal, no. 1734]

(via thethinkerr)

Religion, it must be understood, is not faith. Religion is the story of faith. It is an institutionalized system of symbols and metaphors (read rituals and myths) that provides a common language with which a community of faith can share with each other their numinous encounter with the Divine Presence. Religion is concerned not with genuine history, but with sacred history, which does not course through time like a river. Rather, sacred history is like a hallowed tree whose roots dig deep into primordial time and whose branches weave in and out of genuine history with little concern for the boundaries of space and time. Indeed, it is precisely at those moments when sacred and genuine history collide that religions are born. […] Still, we must never forget that as indispensable and historically valuable as the Quran and traditions of the Prophet may be, they are nevertheless grounded in mythology. It is a shame that this word, myth, which originally signified nothing more than stories of the supernatural, has come to be regarded as synonymous with falsehood, when in fact myths are always true. By their very nature, myths inhere both legitimacy and credibility. Whatever truths they convey have little to do with historical fact. To ask whether Moses actually parted the Red Sea, or whether Jesus truly raised Lazarus from the dead, or whether the word of God indeed poured through the lips of Muhammad, is to ask totally irrelevant questions.The only question that matters with regard to a religion and its mythology is “What do these stories mean?

- Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, pages xvii - xviii. (via eibmorb)

At the extremity of hardship comes relief, and at the tightening of the chains of tribulation comes ease.

- Imam Ali (a.s)

(Source: seekiinggrace)

Blessed is he whose own faults keep him from seeing the faults of others.

- Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (رضي الله عنه)

(Source: farcae)