An excellent advice oi mam sadiq (a)t o his followers presented on the martyrdom anniversary of the imam (a) 25th shawwal, 1427 16th nove...
An excellent advice oi mam sadiq (a)t o his followers
presented on the martyrdom anniversary of the imam (a)
25th shawwal, 1427
16th november, 2006
translated and compiled by:
h.i. maulana syed mohammed zaki baqri
presented by:
amys
at al-mahdi (a) islamic centre
the council of islamic guidance
510 concession 3 road
pickering, ontario
l1x 2r4
ismail bin jabir says: “imam sadiq (a) wrote a letter to his friends and commanded them to go through it. they should make it as a title of their lives.” the friends and the followers kept it in their prayer rooms and they would read it after the salat.
ismail bin mukhallad sarraj also stressed that this letter of advice to the followers is from imam sadiq (a).
in the name of allah, the beneficent, the merciful.
seek from your lord wellbeing for yourselves and always be cool and peaceful. be modest, meek, and be away from that which your excellent predecessors have been away. let not your tongue indulge in lying, accusation, and be contaminated with sins. protecting your tongue from that which your lord has prohibited is good for you in the eyes of your lord. polluting it with that which your lord has forbidden will bring for you annihilation and cause animosity of your lord; on the day of judgment it will make you deaf, dumb and blind, as he has promised in his holy book:
«صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْىٌ فَهُمْ لاَ يَرْجِعُونَ “deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return”. (2:18) «صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْىٌ فَهُمْ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ»deaf, dumb, and blind, they are void of wisdom.” (2:171) «وَلاَ يُؤْذَنُ لَهُمْ فَيَعْتَذِرُونَ؛ » "nor are they given permission to apologize” (77:36)
don’t ever allow yourself to do some thing which is forbidden by your lord. be quiet until there is reward from your lord or you might lose the benefit of the hereafter.
praise and glorify your lord in abundance, cry out in his threshold. seek the excellence from him, the excellence which cannot be comprehended by any one. occupy yourself in improvement of your tongue in these actions. keep it away from the useless sayings. if a speaker dies with out repentance for the false utterances which have been uttered, they will remain in hell fire for ever. indulge in profuse supplication; for the seeker of wishes there is no much better source like that of an invocation and crying out for their needs. look for what ever he encouraged you (in his book), answer to his call so that you may be successful and will be away from the chastisement. alas do not be attracted to those things which have been prohibited to you; whoever breaks the curtain of forbidden things the lord will put a curtain between them and the sustenance and pleasures of heaven.
what a wrong perspective of the person who commits a sin, follows the pleasure of this fast diminishing, short lived worldly life and prefers it to the everlasting life of the hereafter.
shame on to such people! unlucky, wrong and judgmental, they will be ill fated in the presence of their lord on the day of resurrection. seek refuge in your lord, lest he include you with these kinds of groups on the day of judgment. he may put into that situation which they are engrossed in. we and you have no power unless our lord is merciful and bountiful on us.
o the people of salvation! be careful of your duties towards allah! your lord will never complete your provisions until you bear the pain as the pious people before you have been put on so that you are tested through yourselves and your wealth. you will see persecutions from the enemies of allah. bear it with patience, they will humiliate you, but you should put out the fire of your anger in order to reach the excellence of pleasure of allah and for the everlasting abode. to the extent they may call your faith wrong and accuse you of falsehood and in such kinds of situations you should be showing forbearance as these tidings have been ascended to the prophet (s) through gabriel: «فَاصْبِرْ كَمَا صَبَرَ أُوْلُوا الْعَزْمِ مِنْ الرُّسُلِ وَلاَ تَسْتَعْجِلْ لَهُمْ، “therefore, be patient like the messengers before you who possessed strength and resorted to patience.” (46:35) and says: «وَلَقَد ْ كُذِّبَتْ رُسُلٌ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فَصَبَرُوا عَلَى مَا كُذِّبُوا وَأُوذُوا حَتَّى أَتَاهُمْ نَصْرُنَا وَلاَ مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللّهِ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكَ مِنْ نَبَإِ الْمُرْسَلِينَ، “messengers before you have been rejected, and they steadfastly persevered in the face of rejection. they were persecuted until our victory came to them. such is allah's system that will never change. the history of my messengers thus sets the precedents for you.” (6:34)
in such situations always reflect and clearly understand don’t ever over look; whoever neglects these things and all of the commandments of allah neglects which has been commanded in the holy quran you have forsaken the religion of allah. whoever forsakes his religion, and disobeys him has invoked his anger and the almighty will put his face in hell disgracefully.
o, those who tasted the mercy of allah! know that he has completed his favors to you. know that almighty has not given anyone permission to seek the commands of religion through desires, self perspective, and analogy (qiyas). the almighty has revealed and explained everything in his book quran. in order to have knowledge of the quran the almighty has given some people an ability to interpret this holy book; he has not let these people interpret this according to their own desires. the lord has made them free from this knowledge, these are the very people about them he has called the “possessors of the message” (ahluz zikr). he had commanded humanity to follow them, whomsoever he willed guide them. these are those who possess the knowledge of the quran and with the permission of their lord they guide people towards the right path according to the abilities of the seekers. no one has the right to turn their faces against those whom the lord has given knowledge. these are the very people who turn their faces against those their lord called them as “possessors of the message” (ahluz zikr), to whom he has given the knowledge of the quran. it is incumbent to seek knowledge from these people; they follow and act upon their own caprice and analogy (qiyas); to the extent that satan has influence on them, they say kafir (non-believers) to the possessors of the knowledge of the quran and belief, and those who deny (ahluz zikr) them they call as believers (momin). numerously they change the lawful of almighty to unlawful and unlawful to lawful.
all of this is the fruits of their caprice, although the prophet of allah before his death clearly advise them to follow them (ahlul bait). they said: “after the almighty has taken his messenger back from us, after all his advice, it is up to us to change according to the need of demands of people although it might be against guidelines of almighty and his messenger.” no one openly became brave against the commands of the almighty like these people; they thought it can be done this way. by allah, the right of lord upon the creature is that they should follow the commands of him in the life of the prophet (s) and after his life. the enemies of allah could say to those who became follower of mohammad (s) also acted upon his analogy (qiyas). if any one says affirmatively to this, by allah he accused him of being a liar and he is in an abyss of misguidance; if they say no and accept that no muslim has right to follow his own opinion, and analogy (qiyas), he has accepted his own fault. they accepted the clear argument that after the demise of the prophet (s) one should follow the command of the almighty and he also is true in his sayings, says:
«وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلاَّ رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ أَفَإِيْن مَّاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ انقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَىآ أَعْقَـبِكُمْ وَمَن يَنقَلِبْ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ فَلَن يَضُرَّ اللَّهَ شَيْـءًا وَسَيَجْزِى اللَّهُ الشَّـكِرِينَ؛
“muhammad was no more than a messenger like the messengers before him. should he die or get killed, would you turn back on your heels? anyone who turns back on his heels does not hurt allah in the least. allah rewards those who are appreciative.” (3:144)
this is to know that one should obey the almighty during and after the life of the prophet (s); likewise in the life of the prophet (s) no one has the right to follow according to his caprice, opinion and analogy (qiyas) which could contradict the command of the lord and prophet mohammad (s). similarly it is not right to follow his own caprice, opinion and analogy (qiyas) after the life of prophet mohammad (s).
always invoke allah copiously! almighty loves those who invoke him and he has promised to fulfill their wishes. supplications of the believers are considered to be an act of worship and he increases the sustenance of the heaven. during the day and night as much as you can worship allah; he has promised that those who remember him, he also remembers them in good. always put on efforts in his obedience! his obedience will make him available for you, whatever from almighty with efforts in his remembrance and keeping aloof from the apparent and hidden of the quran. almighty allah said: «وَذَرُوا ظَاهِرَ الاْءِثْمِ وَبَاطِنَهُ؛ “you shall avoid obvious sins, as well as the hidden ones.” (6:120)
you should know and avoid the unlawful things of the almighty which are commanded as forbidden things and are clearly seen and explained in the traditions of the prophet (s). don’t ever follow your own desires and personal opinion which will lead you towards misguidance. indeed the most misguided in the eyes of almighty are those who follow their own caprice and opinion not his guidance. as much as you can do good you should do it: indeed whatever good you do it will reflect to yourself and what ever bad you do will reflect to yourself. be humble with others but never let others will, govern upon you in such a way that you could be disobeying the commands of allah.
be careful in the presence of others using foul language against the enemies of almighty, they hear your utterance and in order to counter you they might blaspheme your lord. it is good for you to know the intensity of their animosity towards almighty. whoever blasphemes the guardians of almighty indeed has blasphemed the lord. who is worse in the eyes of almighty then those who blaspheme the lord and his guardians? thus you should deal with them with calmness and obey your lord; ولاحول ولاقوة الا باللّه “there is no power and strength but the power of allah.”
o, our followers! beware that allah is watchful of your lives! you should cling to the traditions of the prophet (s) and the imams (a) after him. whoever follows them has guided himself and whoever keeps away from them has gone astray. our father prophet of allah (s) said: “keeping up to the true traditions although it might be little, is dear in the eyes of allah and also beneficial than struggling a lot in following the innovations and self desires and caprices. following the innovations, desires and caprices without the guidance of allah is misguidance and each misguidance is an innovation and place of each innovation is hell fire. one will never receive the favors of allah until following the command of allah and perseverance and seeking his pleasures; perseverance and seeking his pleasures is an evidence of obeying lord.
you should know and act upon allah’s commands whether it might be likable or dislikable; you should be pleased with it. the almighty will never act upon that which is not suitable for him for a person who is not showing the perseverance and pleasure of almighty.
offer your prayers on time, especially the middle prayer as your lord has advised you and the believers and to those before you in the heavenly books. “you shall consistently observe the contact prayers, especially the middle prayer, and devote yourselves totally to allah.” (2:238)
be good to the needy muslims, who ever sees them and shows pride over them will go away from the religion of allah, he will make such a person despised and will not see good. our father prophet of allah (s) said: “allah has bestowed upon me his favors and commanded to be good to the afflicted muslims. know that whoever disgraces a muslim allah will afflict him of the disgrace so that people will be despising him and the lord also despises him.” be fearful of allah regarding the needy muslims; their right on you is that you should be friendly with them; indeed the allah (s) has commanded his prophet (s) to be friendly with them. thus almighty will never be pleased with those who are not friendly with those to whom the lord has commanded to be respectful, has disregarded the command of allah and his messenger (s) and whoever dies in this status will be one of the misguided ones.
be away from pride and haughtiness, haughtiness (takabbur) is the embellishment of the lord. whoever embellishes himself with his lord; he will break his back and on the day judgment disgrace him.
don’t ever be cruel to each other cruelty is not a quality of good people. whoever transgresses and misbehaves, indeed the lord will pay him back what he has done. the almighty lends his hands to the oppressed, and whoever gets the help of the lord will be successful.
don’t ever be jealous between each other, jealousy is a root of kufr.
don’t ever be cruel towards an oppressed muslim, if you are, he will curse you; his curse will be granted by his lord. prophet of allah (s) many at times mentioned that: “no doubt the supplication of an oppressed will be accepted”.
you should help each other; our father prophet of allah (s) has been said: “help of a muslim is greater recompense than one month of fasting with seclusion (`eitikaf) in the great masjid al-haram.
don’t be hard on a muslim who cannot pay the debt. prophet of allah (s) said: “a muslim has no right to be harsh on a person who owes a debt, whoever gives respite to a debtor the almighty will give shadow them on the day and there is no shadow but shadow of the lord.”
o, the receivers of the mercy of lord you have been given rank on others! don’t ever delay the right of your lord on you days on days and hours on hours. whoever hastens to pay the rights of his lord, almighty is capable of paying his due in this world and in hereafter. whoever delays his duty towards his lord, he is capable of abandoning his sustenance. whomever abandons his sustenance will never be able to attain it. pay your due which has been prescribed by your lord so that your sustenance becomes clean and usable which has been promised by your lord, there shall be increase in your provisions; no one is aware of the intensity of favors of lord of the worlds.
o people! be fearful of allah, so that you may not put your imam in distress and make his job harder. whoever makes the duty of the imam difficult is not amongst the good followers of him; and he is not one of those who know the virtues of the imam and acknowledge his rights and knows his position. whoever does this in the presence of the imam has made his job difficult and put him in distress, he will curse upon them. whenever the imam curses because of the burden which has been put on him by the enemies allah; his curse will fall on that person from his lord. curse of the lord from him and his angels and messengers will fall on those who became cause of this curse.
you shi’as! you should know that the almighty’s tradition upon the pious has been that whoever are friends with the true believer will meet his lord; he should love his lord, and messengers and whoever became closer to them. he should be away from their enemies, although he might have received some favors from them. neither close rank angels, messenger nor those who are lower in ranks will understand the essence of favors of their lord. don’t you hear the virtue which has been given to the followers of the guide imams; in fact they are the believers:
«وَمَنْ يُطِعْ اللّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُوْلَئِكَ رَفِيقا؛
“those who obey god and the messenger belong with those blessed by god - the prophets, the saints, the martyrs, and the righteous. these are the best company.” (4:69). this is the rank of the followers of the guided imams, thus how can we comprehend the rank of those who have been favored by almighty.
if any one wants his belief to be completed and become a true believer he/she should attain the status of taqwa (fear of allah) according to the manner that which is prescribed for the believers; almighty, not only his authority over us but also he commanded us to accept the authority of his prophet (s) and imams of the believers, they should:
1. establish prayers
2. pay of the alms (zakat)
3. they should give goodly loan (qarzul hasanah) in the path of allah.
4. to be away from all kinds of filthiness and dirtiness open or hidden
be careful of doing that which the lord has made unlawful (haram) open or hidden. indeed almighty allah says:
«وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا اللّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ اللّهُ
“if they fall in sin or wrong their souls, they remember allah and ask forgiveness for their sins - and who forgives the sins except allah”. (3:135) meaning, the believers before you when they committed sins unknowingly realized they have committed a sin against their lord and abandoned a good deed, then sincerely seek the pardon of almighty and return back to doing the opposite of what they did. this is the meaning of the sayings of the lord: “and they do not persist in sins, knowingly.” (3:135) you should know that the commands of prohibitions of almighty, what ever he commanded you should obey it, and whatever he prohibited you should abandon it. whoever follows the almighty is his servant and receives his favors. whatever has been prohibited by him and is not followed he has disregarded his commands and if he dies in such a non obeying status the lord will put him into the hell fire with his head down.
you should know that almighty has no association neither his creatures nor his close rank angels and messenger but by commanding on them. if you want to become a true believer you should try to follow the command of the lord, no power but the power of allah. «و لاقوة الاّ باللّه»
you should be aware that islam is submission and submission is islam. whoever is submitted to him is truly a muslim and whoever is not submitted he is not a muslim. whoever wants to reach the peak of excellence he should obey the command of his lord; whoever has accepted the command he has reached the peak of excellence.
be careful that you do not commit sins, whoever commits sins he has done harm to himself; between the good deed and bad deed no third person exist. effect of the good doers in the presence of their lord is heaven and punishment of the bad deeds is the hell fire. you should make yourself in obeying your lord and keep aloof from the sins; you should know that no one can defend on behalf of you in front of the lord, neither the close rank angel nor the high rank messenger. thus whoever likes to receive the intersession of the interceder for him, he should be seeking the pleasure of almighty. none can attain the pleasure of almighty unless he obeys him, obeys his messenger and the successors of the messengers from the family of prophet mohammad (s). disobeying them will be counted as disobeying their lord as little it may be of their virtue is not been denied.
beware! the deniers are the liars and liars are the hypocrites. almighty has said whose saying is the truth says about the hypocrites:
«إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِي الدَّرْكِ الاْءَسْفَلِ مِنْ النَّارِ وَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُمْ نَصِيرا
“the hypocrites will be committed to the lowest pit of hell, and you will find no one to help them.” (4:145)
those of you who have committed to the command of the almighty and are fearful of none but him; should not be fearful of those the almighty has not recognized as truthful as they do not possess truth. for whom your lord has not recognized as people of truth and legitimate, these are with out any doubt among human and jinn devils; human devils have a lot of deceitfulness, treachery they do whisper in each other so that if they could attract and deviate those who are with the blessings of their lord committed to their religion from their religion. the religion which has not been prescribed for the human devils; human devils with their tactic would like to make equal between the enemies of allah and people of truth in doubt and uncertainty. as almighty has said in his book:
«وَدُّواْ لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُواْ فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَآءً فَلاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ مِنْهُمْ أَوْلِيَآءَ حَتَّى يُهَاجِرُواْ فِى سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَخُذُوهُمْ وَاقْتُلُوهُمْ حَيْثُ وَجَدتُّمُوهُمْ وَلاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ مِنْهُمْ وَلِيًّا وَلاَ نَصِيرًا
“they wish that you disbelieve as they have disbelieved, then you become equal. do not consider them friends, unless they mobilize along with you in the cause of allah. if they turn against you, you shall fight them, and you may kill them when you encounter them in war. you shall not accept them as friends, or allies.” (4:89) almighty, has prohibited his friends to be friends of his enemy.
tricks of human devils should never make you fearful and stop you from your duties of helping the truth which is in your characteristic. you should defend skillfully against their wickedness; this should be done with the intention to seek nearness of your lord. no need to manifest your religions principles to them, because there is no good from them for you. they will be enemies of you if they hear anything from you; they use their entire pretext to propagate and try their best to annihilate you; what ever little weakness you have they try to stand against you, in the vulgar administration they do not give your rights. you should know your stand when it comes to comparing with people of falsehood. it is not appropriate for the people of truth to follow the customs of the falsehood. almighty has not made equal people of truth and people of falsehood; don’t you understand the clear argument of the holy quran:
«أَمْ نَجْعَلُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ كَالْمُفْسِدِينَ فِي الاْءَرْضِ أَمْ نَجْعَلُ الْمُتَّقِينَ كَالْفُجَّارِ؛
“shall we treat those who believe and lead a righteous life as we treat those who commit evil on earth? shall we treat the righteous as we treat the wicked?” (38:28) you should be putting yourself in greater position than the people of falsehood; you should never show to the people falsehood that your are nearer to almighty allah the exalted to him belongs loftiest similitude, and to your leader (imam) to whom you believe, in such a case you might be under the anger of your lord and you will parish.
o, people of integrity! you should never be away from the commands of your lord, always be his humble servants; to the extent if you disobey him, he might amend his favors. you should for sake of your lord be friends of those who possess beliefs like you; you should be enemies for the sake of your lord of those who are your foes. don’t ever refuse those who are your fellow believers; be away from those who turn their face from your faith and with you and with your fellow believers they show animosity.
this is our method of teaching and instruction of your lord; keep it, reflect and think over it and don’t ever put it aside. whatever is good for your guidance act upon it and whatever goes along with your desires and caprices throw it out far. never feel great against your lord! you should know that no one is greater than him; you should be making his religion great, for the sake of allah you should go on the straight path, don’t ever go back otherwise you will be a loser. may allah protect from boasting against him: «ولاقوّة لنا ولكم الاّ باللّه» “we and you do not posses any power but power belongs to allah.”
have perseverance against the calamities of this world; it is better for you to show steadfastness in the presence of the continuous trials of this world, there is a greater reward in the hereafter from the master of the worlds in obeying almighty and his authority and authority of those about whom he has commanded to be friends and followers of them (the imams (a)). you should be disobeying those who you are forbidden to obey although you might get lofty and haughty life (by obeying the wrong leaders). almighty allah has guided you in the quran by giving the signs and commanded you to obey them:
«وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْهِمْ فِعْلَ الْخَيْرَاتِ وَإِقَامَةِ الصَّلاَةِ وَإِيتَاءَ الزَّكَاةِ وَكَانُوا لَنَا عَابِدِينَ؛
“we made them imams who guided in accordance with our commandments, and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the contact prayers (salat) and the obligatory charity (zakat). to us, they were devoted worshipers.”(21:73) almighty has commanded to obey these whose friendship and guardianship has been made compulsory. he has commanded not to go into guardianship and ask you to disobey misguidance ones. almighty allah has prophesied about the forth coming government of his deputies (imams (a)) who are in the progeny of the prophet of allah, mohammed (s); you should be with the prophet mohammad (s) and the messengers before him. thus you should ponder upon those stories of the prophets, their followers and their trials in the quran. you should besiege to your lord to give you perseverance during the duration of trials, calamities and happiness as it has been granted by him to the prophets and messengers. you should never go into the trap of the people of falsehood to seek their pleasures. it is upon you to act upon the pious people’s dignity, their tranquility, their forbearance, their humbleness and their modesty from the forbidden things of the lord; their sincerity and struggle in attaining his pleasures (riza) by acting on his obeying him. if you don’t do this you will not attain the status of those high rank people in the presence of your lord.
you should know that if allah wants to bestow upon his servant a favor he expands his heart with which one accepts the truth of islam; when this blessing has been given his tongue will open for speaking the truth and he will lovingly act upon his beliefs; once these three things has been given by the lord, his religions will be safe and if he dies in such a status he will be with the virtuous. if allah doest want a servant to reach to the good, he will leave him on his own; such a person speaks with his tongue but his heart is not there, he never inspires him to do good deed; when this status falls upon him and dies in such a status he will be in the eyes of the lord regarded as a hypocrite; it will become proof when his conviction of truth with his tongue with that which almighty has not inspired him to accept the truth and act upon it. if you want to be with the virtuous people, you should besiege to allah to open your chest in acceptance of islam, and your tongue for the utterance of truth, you should keep this status until your last moment of life.
«و لاقوة الا باللّه والحمدللّه رب العالمين».. there is no power but the power of allah and all praises belong to him the lord of the worlds. 1
1. al-kafi mohammad bin yaqoub kulaini. vol. 8 page 267-276 (rawzatul kafi vol. 8 page 5-12)
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