Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

NARRATIONS OF IMAM AL-ASKARI

The following maxims are related to Imam Abu Mohammed Al-Hasan bin Ali Al-Askari (peace be upon him) the pure the guide.

Imam Al-Askari’s Message to Is’haq bin Ismaeel An-Nisapuri

God cover you and us with His shelter and take care of all of your affairs through His power. I have understood your message - God compassionate you-. Thanks to God, we - the Prophet’s family- sympathize our disciples and feel delight when God’s beneficence and favors are given to them incessantly. We also count every favor that God, the Blessed the Exalted, bestows upon them. God confer upon you, Is’haq, and your examples, whom God has compassionated and led to the right, with His grace. God make His favor perfect for you by taking you to Paradise. ‘Alhamdu Lillah - All praise be to God-’ is the perfect thanks for any favor, apart from its greatness or magnitude. I praise God too much to be compared to any wording of praise all over times, for His conferment of graces upon you as He has compassionated you, saved you from destruction, and eased your course to pass the obstacle. By God, it was such an insurmountable obstacle. Its matter was too intense; its course was too difficult; its trial was too hard; it was mentioned in the ancient books. In the time of the late Imam (peace be upon him) and in my days, you have had some affairs due to which I dispraised your opinions for you have been practicing unsuccessfully.

You should know so fully, Is’haq, that he whoever quits this world with blindness will be also blind in the world to come and in terrible error. O Is’haq, it is not the sights that are affected with blindness; in fact, it is the hearts that are in the chests. This is proved in God’s conveying the saying of the wrong ones in His Book of wisdom:

He will say, "My Lord, why have you brought me back to life blind; before I could see?" The Lord will say, "This is true. But just as you forgot Our (claim) that had come to you, so, too, are you forgotten on this day. [484]

Which claim is more magnificent than the Lord’s argument against His creatures, the Lord’s representative on His lands, and the Lord’s witness on His servants after the consecution of forefathers; the prophets and forefathers; the successors of the prophets? Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon them all. Where are you taken away? Where are you directing aimlessly like animals? Are you rejecting the right and believing in the wrong? How are you denying the grace of God? Do not be like those who believe in only a part of the Book and disbelieve in the other. He whichever of you or others does so will gain nothing more than debasement in this worldly life and a long-termed agony in the permanent life to come. That is surely the greatest debasement.

God, the Benefactor the Merciful, imposed upon you these duties not out of His need for your performances of these duties. He imposed them out of His mercy for the purpose of making a distinction between the bad and the good, testing what you bear in your breasts, and examining what you have in your hearts so that you will compete with each other to attain His mercy and have different places in His Paradise. He, therefore, imposed upon you to perform the hajj and umrah, offer prayers, defray the zakat, fast, and embrace the Wilaya. He has also assigned for you an entrance to the doors of the obligatory duties and a key to His course. Without Mohammed (peace be upon him and his family) and the successors among his sons, you would have been confused, like animals, and you would have been unable to know any of the religious ordinances. How can a city be entered without its door? After He had done you the greatest favor of assigning (definite) leaders after your Prophet, God said in His Book:

On this day I have perfected your religion, completed My favors to you, and have chosen Islam as your religion. [485]

God has also made incumbent upon you to fulfill some rights for your leaders so that your wives, property, food, and drinks will be lawful for you. God says:

(Muhammad), say, "I do not ask you for any payment for my preaching to you except (your) love of (my near) relatives." [486]

You should know that whoever behaves miserly does so against his own soul only. God is Self-sufficient and you are poor. There is no god but Allah. The speech with you about what is yours and what is against you has been very long.

You would not see my handwriting and would not hear a single letter from me after the departure of the past Imam (peace be upon him) except for that God liked to perfect His favors for you. Meanwhile, you are plunging in negligence of that to which you will inevitably return and I have assigned Ibrahim bin Abda as my representative and you have received my message that was conveyed by Mohammed bin Musa An-Nisapuri. Help is sought from God only in every condition.

Beware of falling short of the duties of God lest, you will be with the losing ones. Woe and away with them who disregard the acts of obedience to God and rejected the admonitions of God’s disciples. God has ordered you to obey Him, His Apostle, and the men of authority (namely the Imams, peace be upon them).

God compassionate (you for) your weakness and negligence and help you tolerate your duties. Man is too deceived about his All-Generous Lord. Had the solid rocks understood a part of that which is mentioned in the (Holy) Book, they should have certainly been humbled and rent asunder for anxiety, fear, and return to the obedience to God. Do whatever you like, for surely “God and His Messenger will soon make your deeds public, then you will return to Him who has absolute knowledge of the unseen and the seen and He will inform you of what you have done. ”[487]

All praise is due to Allah the Lord of the worlds.

Peace be upon Mohammed and his family entirely.

Short Maxims of Imam Al-Askari

1- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Do not dispute (with others) lest you will lose splendor and do not joke (with everyone) lest you will be disrespected.

2- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
As for those who accept to sit in a place other than the first row of a session, God and His angels will bless them until they leave that session.

3- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) answer the man who asked him a miracle or a proof of Imamate:
The punishment will be doubled for those who refuted the miracle or proof of Imamate after it had been presented to them according to their demand. He who shows patience will be supplied with the support of God. People are accustomed to publicize false missives that they themselves forge.[488] We supplicate to God for guiding us (to the right). Matters are either submission or destruction. The end results of everything belong to God.

4- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) answered the man who reported to him the disagreement of Shias:
God has addressed to the intelligent exclusively. People are of different classes: some are the discerning on a way of salvation; they are holding fast to the right and clinging to the branch of the origin; they are neither doubtful not suspicious; they do not consider a shelter other than me. Some are those who have not received the right from its very people; they are like those who embarked on a ship; they ripple when the sea is wavy and calm down when the sea is calm. Some are those are dominated by the Shaitan; their one and only job is to refute the people of the right and substitute the wrong for the right out of envy. Hence, leave those who went astray to the right and left. When a shepherd wants to gather the hoard, he will not need to exert efforts for so. Beware of divulging our secrets and seeking power, for these two things drive into perdition.

5- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Within the unforgivable sins are the sins whose committers wish if they would not commit anything else.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) then said:
Polytheism of people is more hidden that the creeping of ants of a black piece of cloth in a gloomy night.

6- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
‘Bismillarrahmanirrahim - in the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful-’ is as near to the Great Name (of God) as the iris to the white of the eye.

7- In the time of Imam Al-Hasan Al-Askari (peace be upon him), some of the Shias disagreed about his Imamate; therefore, the following message was publicized carrying his signature:
No one of my fathers suffered the (affliction of the) disagreement of such a group like I did. If this matter of Imamate that you have believed in and embraced is temporary, then I doubt it. If it is as permanent as the affairs of God, then what is the meaning of this doubt?

8- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The mutual love of the pious is a reward for them. The love of the sinful to the pious is a virtue for the pious. The hate of the sinful to the pious is an advantage for the pious. The hate of the pious to the sinful is debasement for the sinful.

9- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
To greet everyone you pass by and to sit in a place other than the first class of a session are signs of modesty.

10- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Reasonless laughter is a sign of ignorance.

11- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Within the misfortunes that deal a death blow is the neighbor who overshadows any good feature that he notices and propagandizes any defect that he notices.

12- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said to his adherents (Shias):
I command you to fear God, show piety to your religion, work hard for God’s sake, tell truths only, return the deposits to their owners whether the are pious or sinful, prostrate yourselves before God for a long time, and treat your neighbors courteously. These are the matters that Mohammed (peace be upon him and his family) brought. Offer prayers in the middle of your folks, attend their funeral ceremonies, visit their ill ones, and fulfill their rights. I am pleased if people point to you and say ‘this is Shiite’, when you behave piously, tell truths only, return the deposits to their owners, and conduct courteously with people. Fear God, be good (examples) and do not be evil. Attract people’s fondness of us and save us from every awful character, for we are surely the people of every good thing that is said about us, but we are definitely not the owners of any evil thing that is imputed to us. We enjoy a (distinctive) right in the Book of God, a relation (of kinship) to the Messenger of God, and a purification whose source is God. Only can the liars claim of enjoying our distinctive features. Refer to God very much, refer to death, recite the Quran, and bless the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). A single blessing of the Prophet is ten advantages. Retain the matter of which I have commanded you. God keep you under His supervision. Peace be upon you.

13- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Very much offering of prayers and fasting is not the worship; the very worship is the very much pondering over the affairs of God.

14- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The worst servant - of God- are those who are two-faced and two-tongued; they praise their present friends and backbite the absent; they envy them for obtaining graces and disappoint them when they suffer a misfortune.

15- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Anger is the key to every evil.

16- In 260 A.H. [489] , Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said to his adherents:
We have previously ordered you to put the rings in your right hands when we were among you. Now, because you will no longer meet us (normally), we order you to put your rings in your left hands until God make your, as well as our, Question prevalent. This is surely the best proof through which you can prove your being loyal to our leadership; i.e. the leadership of the Prophet’s family.
All the attendants took their rings out of their right hands to put them in the left. The Imam (peace be upon him) then ordered:
Convey this commandment to all of our adherents (Shias).

17- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The least comfortable of people is the spiteful.

18- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The most pious of people is he who stops at suspicious matters. The best worshipper is he who performs the obligatory religious affairs duly. The most abstinent of people is he who abandons the unlawful. The most hardworking of people is he who deserts sins.

19- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
You are plunging into decreased deadlines and limited days. He who sows good will harvest delight and he who sows evil will harvest regret. Each cultivator will gain only what he has cultivates. The slow will not gain but his own share. The acquisitive will not catch that which is not his. The source of every advantage is God, and the actual protector from every evil is God, too.

20- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The faithful believer is a blessing for the believers and a claim against he disbelievers.

21- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The heart of the foolish is in his mouth and the mouth of the wise is in his heart.

22- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The guaranteed sustenance should not engage you from the ordained deed.

23- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The excessiveness of the (ritual) ablution is as same as defect.

24- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The powerful will be definitely humiliated if he ignores the right and the humble will be definitely valued if he takes in it.

25- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Fatigue is the friend of the ignorant.

26- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Nothing is above two characters: believing in God and benefiting the friends.

27- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
The babies who dare their fathers will surely treat them impiously when they attain maturity.

28- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
To show happiness before the grieved is not a sign of good mannerism.

29- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Everything that you dislike your life if you lose it is surely preferred to your life, and everything that you desire for death if it befalls you is surely eviler than death.

30- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
To educate an ignorant and to prevent a habit are two impossible actions.

31- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Modesty is an unenviable favor.

32- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Do not bestow upon anyone with matters that are difficult for him.

33- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
Those who advice their friend secretly are respecting them, and those who advice them openly are humiliating them.

34- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
God’s favors encompass every misfortune.

35- Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said:
It is so ugly for a believer to follow a passion that causes him humiliation.

This has been the end of the reports of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and the immaculate Imams (peace be upon them) regarding the characters to which we have referred and the traditions that we have specified as stipulations.

We have not referred to anything of the communications of Imam Al-Mahdi (peace be upon him) the current Claim (of God) although they are uninterruptedly retained by the prescient Shias, because we have not received communications that fit the theme of our book. Anyhow, our belief in Imam Al-Mahdi (peace be upon him) is as same as our beliefs in his forefathers; the orthodox Imams (peace be upon them). Having finished referring to the maxims of the Prophet and the Imams (peace be upon them), I, hereby, refer to some maxims that are similar and related to the topics of the previous so that the advantage will be more common and the admonitions will be extended. Allah is the endower of success. He is All-sufficient as our Guardian.

GOD’S CONFIDENTIAL TALK TO MOSES

The following are God’s confidential talks to Moses the prophet (peace be upon him) son of Imran.

1- O Moses, do not have a long expectation in this world lest your heart will be hard. The hardhearted are faraway from me. Deaden your heart with fear (of God). Your dress should be worn-out but your heart should be fresh. You should be unknown by the people of this earth but well-known for the inhabitants of the heavens. Cry to me, for the plenty of your sins, like the cry of the runaway from his enemy. Seek My help to do so, for I am surely the best One Whose help is sought.

2- O Moses, I am above the servants and they are below Me. Everyone is submissive to Me. Make yourself the supervisor on yourself. Do not depend upon even your sons in the affairs of your religion except that your son, like you, love the virtuous ones.

3- O Moses, be clean, wash yourself, and come near to My virtuous servants.

4- O Moses, be their imam in their prayers and their judge in their quarrels and maintain fair judgment among them according to that which I have revealed to you. I have certainly revealed a clear-cut judge, a luminous proof, and an illumination that explains the manners of the past ones and foretells of what will happen to the next generations.

5- O Moses, I command you, the commandment of the merciful humanistic one, with reference to the son of the virgin; Jesus son of Mary, the rider of the she-ass and the owner of the burnoose, the oil, the olive, and the mihrab. After him will come the rider of the red camel, the infallible, the pure, and the purified. In your Book, he is mentioned as the faithful reining over the (Heavenly) Books. He is genuflecting, prostrating, desiring for God, and fearful (of God). His acquaintances are the poor ones and his supporters are other peoples. In his time, there will be hardship, quakes, and massacre. His name is Ahmed and Mohammed Al-Amin (the honest). He is the descendant of the past (prophets). He believes in all the Books and attests to all of the apostles (of God). His nation will be compassionated and blessed. They will have certain hours in which they call for the prayers. Believe in him, for he is your brother.

6- O Moses, he cannot read and write. He is true servant and every place that he puts his hand on is blessed. We will bless him. Thus has it been in My (eternal) knowledge and thus have I created him. I commence the Hour (of the Resurrection) to come with him, and I terminate the keys of this world with his nation. Give your orders to the unjust Israelites not to hide his name and not to disappoint him, for they shall do it. To love him for My sake is an advantage. I am with him, with his party, and he is with My party. My party will always be the triumphant.

7- O Moses, you are My servant and I am your Lord. Do not humiliate the modest poor ones and do not envy the rich ones. Be earnest when you refer to Me, and be hopeful when you recite My reference. Let Me hear the delight of the Torah when you use a tuneful submissive voice as you recite it. Be tranquil when you refer to Me. Worship Me and do not associate anyone (or anything) with Me. I am certainly the Grand Master. I have created you from an insignificant drop of fluid, from clay that I extracted from a gametic humble land, and it became human being. I am its Creator. Blessed be My face and sacred be My made. There is nothing like Me. I am the Everlasting the Eternal Who never comes to an end.

8- O Moses, when you supplicate to Me, be fearful, apprehensive, and anxious. When you supplicate to me secretly, call on Me with a frightened heart that is full of anxiety. Enliven the days of your age with My Torah, convey My benevolent attributes to the ignorant, remind them with My favors and graces, and tell them not to go too far in their current seduction, for My punishment is painful and extremely severe.

9- O Moses, if your bond with Me is cut, you will not have any bond tied to anyone else. Worship Me and stand before Me like the humble servant. Reproach yourself. It is worthy of reproach. Do not show arrogance against the Israelites because of (your having) My Book. These words are sufficient admonisher that illuminates your heart. It is furthermore the wording of the Lord of the worlds. Blessed and Exalted be Him.

10- O Moses, whenever you call on Me, you will find Me. I will forgive what you have done. The heavens are praising me out of their fear, the angels are fretful of fearing Me, the earth is praising Me out of desire, and all the creatures are praising Me submissively. Adhere to the prayer, for I have a special consideration for it and It has a firm pledge with Me. Add to it the zakat of the offer to Me. You should defray it from your best property and food, for I accept nothing but the best when it is intended purely to Me. Insert with it the regard of the relatives. I am the Beneficent the Merciful. I created the relation of kinship from My mercy so that the servants will compassionate each other according to their relations of kinship. In the world to come, it will have a ruling authority (as it will intercede for those who have regarded it). I will surely disregard him whoever disregards it and regard him whoever regards it. Thus will I do to him who neglects My commandments.

11- O Moses, respect the beggars by means of a gentle rejection or a little donating. Those who come to ask from you are neither human beings nor jinn. They are the angels of the Beneficent whose purpose is to examine what you are doing with that on which I have made you custodian and examine how you will console (others) by means of that which I have given to you. Submit to me by way of invocation and cry to Me by wailing during reciting the (Torah) Book. You should understand that My calling to you is as same as the call of the master to his slave, so that you will attain the best of positions. This is a part of My favor to you as well as your past fathers.

12- O Moses, do not forget Me under any condition and do not be happy for the abundance of your property. To forget Me causes hardheartedness. The abundance of property brings about the plenty of sins. The earth is submissive, the heavens are submissive, and the oceans are submissive (to Me). He who disobeys Me will surely be unhappy. I am the Beneficent the Merciful. I am the Beneficent in all times. I convey hardship after comfort and comfort after hardship. I bring kings after kings consecutively. All this and My kingdom is everlasting and never-ending. Nothing in the earth or in the heavens can hide from me. How can things hide from Me when I am their only Originator? How do you not care totally for Me when you will inevitably be returned to Me?

13- O Moses, make Me your refuge, deposit with Me your treasure of good deeds, fear Me, and do not fear anything else. To Me will be the fate.

14- O Moses, resume your repentance, delay your sin, slow down while you are standing before Me in prayers, and never hope for anyone other than Me. Betake Me as the shelter against hardships and the fortress against the challenging matters.

15- O Moses, compete with the people of goodness in doing good, because goodness is good (like its name). Leave evil to the seduced ones.

16- O Moses, make your tongue follow your heart[490] and you will be safe. Refer to me very much in days and nights and you will be successful. Do not pursue the wrongdoing lest you will regret. The Fir (of Hell) is the location of wrongdoings.

17- O Moses, use nice wording with them who abstain from committing sins. Sit with them at all times, betake them as brothers in absence, and treat them seriously so that they will treat you seriously.

18- O Moses, the few that is intended purely for Me is very much. The very much that is intended for anyone (or anything) other than Me is few. The best of your days should be the coming. Hence, you should regard for the coming day and prepare your answers, for you will surely be stopped for interrogation. The long age in this (worldly) time is certainly short and the short age is long, since everything will come to an end. Act as if you can see the reward of your actions so that this will fill in you with desire for the life to come. The remaining age in this world is as same as that which passed away. Each doer should act sagaciously and experimentally. O son of Imran, think for yourself deeply so that you may win tomorrow when you will be interrogated. Therein, the wrongdoers will suffer defeat.

19- O Moses, satisfy yourself with the world and desert it, for it is not yours and you are not its. What is your concern with the abode of the unjust ones? For the good-doers only, it is the best abode.

20- O Moses, this world and its people are seditious matters for each other. Everybody sees what he is in as excellent. As for the believers, they see the world to come as excellent. They look at the world as a source of misfortune. The bliss of the world to come precluded them from enjoying the pleasures of their lives. It caused them to stay up to the last hours of night like the rider who longs for the finish line. They keep on depression and spend their nights with sadness. Blessed are those. What great bliss they will see if only the screen is removed for them!

21- O Moses, whenever you notice a rich man coming forward, you should say that he is only a sin the punishment of which is immediate. Whenever you notice a poor man coming toward you, you should say: Welcome to the slogan of the virtuous people. Do not be arrogant and unjust and do not be the friend of the unjust ones.

22- O Moses, an age the last of which is censured is not (a proper) age, no matter how long it takes. It is harmless for you to be saved from the consequence of that which has not reached you.

23- O Moses, The (Divine) Book has declared your fate clearly openly. How can eyes sleep after that? How can any people enjoy their lives unless they are negligent and pursuing their passions consecutively? For a less matter, the truthful are anxious.

24- O Moses, order My servants to supplicate to Me, regardless of their conditions, after they believe in Me. I am surely the most merciful among the merciful ones. I answer the prayers of the distressed ones, remove the hardship, change the condition, bring about comfort, thank the few (deed), reward abundantly, and enrich the poor. I am the Everlasting, the All-mighty, and the All-powerful. You should receive any wrongdoer who seeks your refuge and comes under your shade with: Welcome, you have resided in the widest yard; the yard of the Lord of the worlds. In addition, you should seek (My) forgiveness to them. Behave as if you are one of them. Do not puff up against them for the favors that I have bestowed upon you. Tell them that they should ask Me for My favor and mercy, for no one possess them except Me. I am the Master of the great favor, haven of the wrongdoers, sitter of the distressed ones, and forgiver of the guilty.[491] You are occupying the place that I like; therefore, supplicate to Me with a pure heart and honest tongue. Be as exactly as I ordered you to be: comply with My orders and do not be haughty against My servants for that which you have not originated for yourself. Seek nearness to Me, for I am near to you. I have not ordained you to do what is heavy for you; I only ask you to pray to me so that I will answer you, to ask Me so that I will give you, and to approach to Me through the things that I have supplied you with their interpretation and I am responsible for revealing them perfectly.

25- O Moses, look down to the ground, for it will soon be your grave. Raise your sight toward the heavens, for there is surely a great kingdom. Weep for yourself as long as you are (living) in this world. Beware of perdition and destructions. Do not be deceived by the illusory pleasures of this world. Do not accede to wrongness and do not be unjust, for I am waylaying the unjust until I retaliate for the oppressed ones.

26- O Moses, the single good deed is rewarded tenfold, while perdition comes from the single bad deed. Do not associate others with Me. It is illicit for you to associate anything with me. Be as close as possible then aim at the target. Supplicate to Me like the supplication of the desirous for that which is with Me and the regretful for what he had committed. Blackness of night is erased by daylight and, in the same manner, the good deeds erase the evildoings. Gloomy of night covers up the light of day and, in the same manner, the evildoings blacken the good deeds.