Mohammed Jawad Ali

“The 18th century Sufi Shaykh Ali Al-Jamal, said, "If people knew how many secrets and benefits are to be found in need, they would have no other need than to be in need.”
― Michael Sugich, Signs on the Horizons: Meetings with Men of Knowledge and Illumination

“the event of the ‘golden calf ’ stands for love of this-worldly things as objects of worship (v. 51). This event happened soon after the great blessing of Bani Israel’s deliverance from the Pharaoh. The Book and the covenant had yet to come. This love, when it competes with and overwhelms the love for Allah, is the root cause of decadence.”
― Khurram Murad, Key to al-Baqarah: The Longest Surah of the Qur'an

“Jamsetji said: ‘I can afford to give but I prefer to lend’, as thereby the scholarships could go on in perpetuity, there being no pressure to return the money (no interest). He also did so presumably because self-respect and self-esteem are essential for self-actualization.”
― R.M. Lala, For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata

“Where is it,’ thought Raskolnikov. ‘Where is it I’ve read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he’d only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!... How true it is! Good God, how true! Man is a vile creature!... And vile is he who calls him vile for that,’ he added a moment later.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Originals: Crime and Punishment