He wept when he saw his son Ibrāhīm in the throes of death. Someone said to him, “Do you cry? Did you not forbid weeping?” He answered:

“I only forbade two foolish, immoral voices: one raised for the melodies of amusement and play—the pipes of Satan; and one raised at a calamity—striking the cheeks, tearing the collars, and calling out with the slogans of the Age of Ignorance.”

Thus he grouped the two kinds of voices together.

As for his explicit prohibition of such behavior during misfortunes, he said:

“He is not one of us who strikes the cheeks, tears the collar, and cries with the call of the Age of Ignorance.”

He also said, “I disown the ḥāliqa (the woman who shaves her head), the ṣāliqa (the screamer), and the shāqqa (the garment-ripper).”

He said, “What comes from the eye and the heart is from Allah, but what comes from the hand and the tongue is from Satan.”

He said, “Allah does not hold a person accountable for the tear of the eye or the sorrow of the heart, but He punishes—or shows mercy—because of this,” and he pointed to his tongue.

He said, “Whoever is wailed over will be punished on account of that wailing.”

When the women pledged allegiance to him, he required them not to wail.

He said, “If a wailing woman does not repent before she dies, she will wear on the Day of Resurrection a cuirass of scabs and a cloak of molten pitch.”

Concerning victory, calamity, and gladness he said:

“Allah has prescribed excellence in everything. So when you kill, kill well; and when you slaughter, slaughter well. Let each of you sharpen his blade and spare his animal suffering.”

He said, “The people of faith are the most restrained when they kill.”

He said, “Do not mutilate, do not betray, and do not kill a child.”

And there are many other instructions he gave regarding jihad—enjoining justice and forbidding aggression—in compliance with the words of the Exalted: