Fruits of belief in this life
Faith in the great creator of the world, who is good, kind; and faith in resurrection and everlasting life in the world of hereafter, after death and faith inprophethood
and truth of divine prophets imparts freshness, beauty, purity, illumination and a special sort of contentment. We would mention some of the fruits of faith in the following paragraphs:
1. Hope
A believer, on the basis of faith and the true promises that the Almighty Allah has made to him, his heart is always brimming with hope and anticipation and is always hopeful of His mercy, beneficence and kindness. A believer considers Almighty Allah as the most powerful, the most wise and the most kind and therefore during difficulties and hardships he seeks refuge from Him and asks Him to fulfill his needs and is always in expectation of the unseen help of the Lord. A believer makes efforts to solve his problems but at the same time he is certain that the Almighty Allah is the helper of believers. A believer does not consider himself to be alone and helpless in the world; on the contrary, he is always full of hope and is certain about receiving divine help. Despair and hopelessness, which are the worst types of circumstances in the world, have no place in the heart of the believer. Why should he be hopeless when he has faith in a wise and a powerful Lord, who is the owner of the existing world? Why should he despair when he believes in a God, to whom he is connected; who is the source of all powers, perfections and excellence? He considers such a God as the supporter of men who try to tread the path of truth, well being and justice and He has faith in their final success and is always in expectation of it. Since the believer has faith in the grace and unending mercy of Allah, he does not allow himself to fall into despair and hopelessness. And the beautiful effulgence of hope is always alive in him.
But what is the condition of the disbeliever? He has no faith in God, whose refuge he might seek in hardships and difficulties; after that he cannot resort to the apparent causes and factors and face of difficulties and hardships of his life and he sees himself helpless and without any refuge. He becomes worried and falls into the valley of hopelessness and despair. He considers all to be strangers and considers himself to be despicable, helpless and defeated and despair and hopelessness take hold of his soul like the incurable disease of leprosy.
2. Optimism about the end of life
Since the believer has faith in resurrection and the world of the hereafter, he does not fear death and is optimistic about the final end of his life. A believer has faith that he would not be annihilated with death; on the contrary, he would be transferred from this world to the beautiful and everlasting world of the hereafter. A believer considers this world as the harvest field of the hereafter and takes this world to be a place of efforts and struggle and abode of developing human perfections, so that he may become eligible for success in hereafter. For a believer, this world is a place for performing good deeds under the shade of belief in God, and a medium of spiritual maturity and perfection. He considers himself to be responsible and is content that even his smallest deed would not remain without recompense. And that he would receive complete rewards for all his deeds in the hereafter. Nor is a believer afraid of death, on the contrary he considers death in the path of Allah, Jihad for Allah, and martyrdom as the greatest blessing and he accepts it willingly and eagerly, so that he may be able to live forever in the neighborhood of divine mercy and near the righteous servants of the Almighty Allah.
A believer does not consider this life to be aimless and he does not feel any aimlessness; on the contrary, he considers it to be a period of his perfection and self building and to gain eligibility for success in hereafter. Therefore it is this optimism, which impels him to make efforts to perfect his self to obtain rewards of his good deeds and perfects his self in serving others. A believer does not consider righteousness, truthfulness, trustworthiness, doing good to others, justice, sacrifice, loyalty and other good qualities to be useless. On the contrary he is certain that none of them would be wasted or remain without recompense; and that he would see their results in the hereafter.
But what is the condition of the disbeliever? Is he optimistic about the end of his life? Since the disbeliever has no faith in resurrection, he expects that his life will end in annihilation and nothingness. He considers life to be useless and aimless. In the view of disbelievers, his life began from nothing; he grows and goes higher and higher, leaving childhood behind. And during youth, his physical structure and faculties are is at their peak and the youth lives in the highest point of life. However, it is a pity that this form and strength is soon gone and after sometime he falls into decadence, pain and to the lowest level. Diseases, difficulties and old age come to him one after another and he falls down from the peak into decline and after bearing pains, hardships and old age, finally staggers to nothingness and falls into decadence. His useless body is then buried under the dust. What a horrible end it is! What a useless life it was! Is there anything more terrible than nothingness and annihilation?
During old age, the disbeliever sees that the deeds of all his life are fruitless and useless and no matter how much he tries and laments, he would have to pass away, die and become annihilated. Is it possible for him to be optimistic in such circumstances? How can such a person perform good deeds? For what? And for what purpose? When he has no faith in reward and punishment of the hereafter? In what hope would he do a good turn? How can loyalty, sacrifice and martyrdom be justified for such persons?
That is why he is always fearful and worried about death and he cannot have good expectation from it. Because in every moment he is anxious of death - which in his view is annihilation - and which is more painful than hundreds of strikes with an iron rod.
3. Recognition of duty
Man is always confronted by different problems (individual, social, moral, political and…) that he is compelled to select a stance and decide on a proper reaction to them. If he has faith in religion and correct belief, he derives his duty from that school; he is clear about his duties and had no doubt and hesitation about them at all. If he does not have faith in any school of thought, he would be confused about performing his duties and he would always be pulled here and there.
The believer: He is having servitude (sincere worship) and special submission; he has taken his path, aim and stance from God and His prophets and is following a special program. And in every new circumstance, he derives his duty from the religion of God (divine program) and fulfills his duty with optimism, satisfaction and interest; and since he has perfect faith in his chosen path and aim, he makes sacrifices in order to fulfill his duties and with inclination and eagerness hastens to welcome martyrdom. A believer considers himself and the whole world to be owned by the Almighty Allah and has faith that since Allah, the Mighty and Sublime has bestowed success and perfection to man, He has sent to him the program of success (religion) through the prophets and has given him the choice to act upon it. A believer has faith that his obedience of laws of religion will convey him to definite success. He considers himself to be having freedom of choice and responsibility of his future and with perfect certainty and without any doubt or perplexity and from the aspect of insight of his duties that he has taken from his religion and school and on which he acts.
However, what is the condition of the disbeliever? Since he did not accept truth and had no faith in any religion, he is always confused and in doubt; he does not know which path to choose and in which direction he should move. He is a prisoner of selfish desires and sensuality; sometimes he is pulled in one direction and sometimes in the other. Whichever way he chooses and whichever work he begins, he has no certainty whether it is in his interest or harmful to him.
He is not able to choose and follow a clear aim which would guarantee his genuine success since he did not accept Allah and the religion of Allah. Other schools deceived him and since he did not accept the right guidance of the prophets and divine saints, he was trapped by imposters, cheaters and liars.
4. Satisfaction
The believer has the cognition of his God and has perfect faith in his knowledge, power, mercy and grace. He considers the Almighty to be master and owner of all existing things and knows that His power and will is in force everywhere. He considers Allah to be present everywhere and that He is aware of everything. A believer has faith that God intends well being of man and that He is beneficent and merciful and never deprives them of His blessings. That is why he has peace of mind and has no worry and anxiety. The remembrance of God is with him and he is always inclined to Him. The believer has entrusted the boat of his existence to the Almighty Allah and he has faith that He would take him through all whirlpools, horrifying waves and storms and finally give him deliverance. And he is sure to reach the banks of success in the end.
The believer is cognizant of the aim of his life and is confident of his destination that if he walks on that path he would definitely reach his aim and everlasting success. Therefore he has peace of mind and a deep confidence in it. Why should he not be confident, when he is having the Almighty Allah as his support; the God who is the source of all goodness? Why should he have any worry, when he is sure that he is having the unseen help of the Lord and that he is not helpless and alone?
But what is the condition of the disbeliever? In his view, this world and its phenomena are like a sea raging with storms, in which waves of hardships of calamites attack from every direction. Neither he has a ship which might save him and nor is there any aware and caring savior for him. The phenomena of the world in his view are unrelated, aimless and haphazard. The disbeliever finds himself to be weak and helpless in this stormy sea and he is surrounded by waves from all sides. He is an exhausted swimmer who does not see any favorable and strong savior; he shakes due to the surging of waves and considers every call to be a call of the enemy and there is nothing with which he can assure himself. In such a way that he sees himself exposed to death and destruction. How can he rest in peace when the depths of his heart are full of grief, sorrows, defeats, enmities, malice, fear of diseases, poverty, indifference, unkindness, fear of old age and death…? How can the disbeliever have peace? When he has not managed to procure for himself a powerful and favorable refuge for himself in the world on which he could have relied and through which he could have comforted his anxious heart.
Since the disbeliever does not have a true and strong belief, he also does not have a right and determined aim in his life so that he may make continuous efforts in that path. Because he considers himself and worldly phenomena to be aimless, how can he choose a valuable established aim? How can he comfort himself when he believes that the final end would be accompanied with destruction and annihilation? Since the disbeliever has no faith in the world of the hereafter, he sees his future to be dark; he trembles at the thought of death and always lives in anxiety.
5. Patience and determination
Man, throughout his life is surrounded by difficulties, hardships, sorrows, pains, deprivations, failures, illnesses, weakness and…is confronted by the question that how their occurrence affects his life in retributive manner. Some of these phenomena are preventable and some are not, some accidents that occur are such that they are redeemable and some are not and in all these stages and in bearing all these things, the believer and disbeliever would not be same.
The believer, who is supported by strength of faith and gains from guidance of prophets, would be better than others in preventing these accidents and in decreasing their number. In the same way, the believer with regard to events that come to pass and are curable through the help of the unlimited divine power and support of unseen helps, and with patience and forbearance is best to find the solution of those problems and to make efforts in this regard; from this aspect he is better than others to overpower the difficulties and hardships of life.
Since the believer has a clear aim and religious perspective, he makes efforts to fulfill his duties in all circumstances and he can be more determined than others in face of hardships and to solve those problems. In this path he is not fearful of any power and is firm like a mountain.
What is the stance of a believer with regard to events which are normally unavoidable? Happenings like old age, incurable diseases, coincidences, unforeseen events, sudden deaths of relatives are common; the religious faith of man makes him steadfast in these calamities. The believer is so patient and forbearing in these circumstances that it seems they are pleasant happenings. The believer knows that worldly incidents are not without any calculation or program and in case man treads the path of fulfilling his duties, he can benefit from all pleasant and unpleasant events in order to perfect his self and moral qualities to achieve success in the hereafter. A believer is such that in all these incidents he assumes a stance of absolute serenity and is satisfied and patient with divine destiny and believes that this patience and satisfaction, along with efforts and struggle would lead to the development of self and maturity of his personal excellences; and he does not pay attention to any harm, because he would be rewarded by the merciful Lord in the hereafter for his patience, contentment, efforts and struggle.
It is due to this faith and belief that a believer welcomes hardships and calamities with open arms and does not complain in any way; he is more stable than a mountain and as much as he can he tries to solve those problems.
Summarily, the believer on the basis of his faith in Allah and the world of hereafter, his faith in divine prophets, and deriving the program of his life from the prophets and their successors, is having the following qualities:
1. He is in control of his passions and selfish desires and is patient; therefore he refrains from actions, which may cause defeat, disgrace and misfortune.
2. With confidence that he is having the unseen help of the Lord of the worlds, he is patient in making efforts to fulfill his obligations and is patient in his struggles and effort; he confronts the difficulties of life with perseverance and steadfastness.
3. He confronts the hardships and tries to solve them with patience and complete steadfastness.
4. In face of extremely serious difficulties, he does not lose his self control and is patient and forbearing for the sake of divine pleasure and proximity to God.
But what is the condition of the disbeliever?
How can a disbeliever have such patience and steadfastness? When he has not gained from the fruits of the lofty tree of faith; the disbeliever is a captive of base selfish desires and these desires pull him all the time. The disbeliever is degraded before his selfish desires and he cannot control them properly and is unable to gain immunity from deviation. A disbeliever does not have any point of reliance when confronted with hardships that he could be steadfast; and that is why he loses his patience and steadfastness when surrounded by difficulties and hardships and despairs of achieving the aim. The disbeliever loses his patience and steadfastness in face of unavoidable difficulties, like old age and some diseases and near to death or at the death of his relatives or loss of property. He finds that no avenues is open for him and he falls into grief and sorrow and is seen complaining about it fervently. Therefore the disbeliever is very much disgusted and anxious when such incidents occur but he cannot do anything.
The disbeliever who had no aim in his life, except the fulfillment of base desires, worldly success and eating, drinking and sleeping…how can he remain patient and steadfast in the hardships and sorrows of life that befall everyone?
6. Safety of the body and soul
Since the believer steps forward from the aspect of insight and bases his actions on the foundation of certainty in Allah and truthfulness of His promise he has more peace of mind and is less afflicted with diseases of the soul. He does not lose control of himself and does not allow himself to become anxious and worried and as a result, he is safe from some physical diseases, which are also causes of spiritual illnesses. By the strength of faith and attention to values of faith, the cure of believing persons is faster than others, because the soul and body have complimentary influence on each other.
Moreover, since the believer has access to the firm guidance of divine prophets with regard to the safety of body and soul, he believes in their well being; he makes use of those instructions and in this way assures the health of his body and soul.
But what is the condition of the disbeliever? Since the disbeliever does not have faith in the wise and powerful God, and considers the existence of his self and the whole world as aimless, he has a feeling of hollowness, aimlessness and confusion. That is why he is not steadfast and does not have contentment of the soul and the most insignificant accident tends to cast him into despair and anxiety and also leads to the worst physical ailments. In the same way, it is possible that weakness of soul may lead to sinfulness so that he may conceal his inner worry and apprehension. The disbeliever is more prone to diseases of the soul, anxiety and inner apprehension as well as physical diseases.
Also, the disbeliever does not have faith in guidance of prophets based on the firm message of God with regard to physical and spiritual health and the most beneficial manners that believers usually follow. They have no faith in them; therefore they give up hope in face of problems and hardships and most fall into diseases of the soul or the body.
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Author: Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini
