Haste and procrastination

The Sheikh says he whispers 'as one who loves': four things which, if a person avoids them, will by God's leave spare him a great misfortune. ^{1 2 3}

He holds that haste breeds regret and is disliked in everything except repenting of sin, paying a debt, marrying off a daughter when a suitor of good character and religion comes, and anything that pleases God; he criticises 'later' (sawfa), which he calls the capital of the bankrupt, like a girl who postpones the hijab until she has done the pilgrimage or reached forty. ^{3 4 5} He relates that al-Hajjaj invited a Bedouin to his food, and he said one better than you invited me to fast and I am fasting; when told the food was good, he said: neither your baker nor your cook made it good, but health did (needs_source: the report as the Sheikh tells it). ^{5 6} He holds that 'children of the internet and Google' are used to haste in information and cannot bear to hear a conversation through, that haste after envy is what made the son of Adam kill his brother, and advises an angry husband to go to his room and shut the door rather than let words leave his mouth. ^{7 8 9}

He mentions the hadith guaranteeing a house on the outskirts of Paradise to one who abandons wrangling even when in the right, and says that when he quotes a verse or hadith to someone who denies it, he falls silent as if he did not know, because he is forbidden to dispute; he holds that wrangling breeds confusion. ^{10 11}

He holds that procrastination, excessive delay in deciding, especially in good deeds, breeds humiliation, citing the command to hasten to forgiveness and how Musa hastened to meet his Lord ten days before the appointed time, saying 'I hastened to You, my Lord, that You be pleased'; he mentions those who are slow to give charity, attend a lesson or read the Qur'an but quick when they hear of ten dinars. ^{11 12 13 14 15 16}

He holds that vanity breeds hatred because the vain man is arrogant, likening the arrogant to a man on a mountain top who sees people as ants, and telling him: people see you as an ant on top of the mountain too. ^{16 17} See: vanity.