[lollypopz]

Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani said:

"Abstinence from unlawful things is incumbent on you otherwise the rope of destruction is coiled round you. You can never get out of its tangle unless God covers you with His mercy. There is an authentic report of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that the foundation of religion is abstinence from unlawful things and its destruction is in greed, and that whoever goes round a protected pastureland is only too likely to help himself to it as cattle pasturing freely by the side of a cornfield are only too likely to stretch their mouth towards it. It is unlikely that the cornfield would remain safe from them.

Umar Ibn Khattab (may God be pleased with him) is reported to have said:

"We used to abstain from nine-tenth of lawful things in the fear lest we should fall in the zone of unlawful things."

It is reported of Abu Bakr Siddiq (may God be pleased with him) that he said:

"We used to avoid seventy doors of permissible things for fear of getting involved in sin."

These exalted personages did so just to be away from any proximity to unlawful things; and in doing so they acted on the saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):

"Beware! verily every king has a protected pasture-land and the pasture-land of God is His forbidden things.""

[35th discourse, Futuh al-Ghaib]