MAXIMS OF IMAM AL-HUSSEIN
The following sayings are related to the pious Imam, the Prophet’s grandson, the martyr Abu Abdillah Al-Hussein bin Ali (peace be upon them).
Imam Al-Hussein’s sermon
Regarding enjoining good and forbidding evil
O people, take lessons from the matters that God has cited as warnings for His disciples when he dispraised the rabbis in His saying:
Why did the men of God and rabbis not forbid them from following their sinful words and their consuming of unlawful gains?
The unbelievers among the Israelites, because of their disobedience and transgression, were condemned by David and Jesus, the son of Mary, for their disobedience; they were transgressors. They did not prevent each other from committing sins nor would they themselves stay away from them. Evil was what they had done!
God dishonored them because they did not forbid the wrongdoers from doing evil and committing sins while they were among them, for they had desired for gaining more gifts from the wrongdoers and they had feared them. God says:
Do not be afraid of people but have fear of Me.
The believers, both male and female, are each other's guardians. They try to make others do good and prevent them from committing sins.
God has begun with enjoining good and forbidding evil because He has known that if these two matters are carried out thoroughly, all the other obligatory duties, including the easy and the difficult, will be carried out thoroughly. This is because enjoining good and forbidding evil is advocacy to Islam, restoration of the grievances, opposition of the wrongdoer, (just) allotment of the booty and the spoils, and taking the alms to put them in their proper places.
You are the company that are famous for knowledge, mentioned in goodness, renowned with advice, and respected by people through God. The masters stand in awe of you, the weak honor you, and those whom you have not done favors and who do not need you prefer you to others. You intercede for settling people’s needs when they are deprived. You walk in the ways with gravity of kings and dignity of celebrities. You have attained all these just because you are expected to fulfill the rights of God; yet, you omitted most of His rights when you disregarded the rights of the Imams, threw away the rights of the weak, and sought only your claimed rights. You have not spent any wealth, risked your souls for their Creator, or opposed your clan for sake of God. You are looking forward to gaining Paradise, the neighborhood of God’s apostles, and the salvation from His punishment. I anticipate you, who hope God, will suffer a form of God’s retribution because you, through the favors of God, have attained such a rank by which you are preferred to other. You are respected among people by means of God. However, you notice that the traditions of God are omitted, but you do not move for it, while you may move when any of your fathers’ traditions is violated. The traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) are broken. The blind, the deaf, and the chronically ill are left without help in the cities. You neither behave mercifully nor do you use your positions. You do not aid those who assume such deeds and you achieve your safety from the wrongdoers (or the unjust rulers) by means of flattery and cajolery. God has warned you against all these conducts but you are negligent while you will be responsible more than the others because you enjoy the positions of scholars. Had you only felt of so! Moreover, the courses of affairs and rulings are under the control of the scholars who are the keepers of the legal and the illegal affairs of God. This standing is surely seized from you just because you have gone in different direction away from the right and disagreed about the Sunna after the clear exposition of the evidences. If you tolerated the harm and bore the burdens for God’s sake, all the affairs of God would arrive at your hands, emanate from you, and devolve upon you. But you have made the unjust rulers occupy your positions and handed over the affairs of God to them. They are acting suspiciously and pursuing their passions. Your escape from death and adherence to this life, which will sooner or later leave you, gave them a free hand on doing so. Thus, you forsook the weak ones some of whom were enslaved compulsorily and others were suffering under the control of the straits of livelihood. The unjust rulers therefore are rolling in royalty with their own opinions and disgracing others by their own passions as they follow the examples of the evil and dare the All-omnipotent (God). In every country, they are assigning an eloquent orator on the pulpits of God. Lands are vacant for them as their hands are prevailing everything and people are taken as their slaves because they lack the power to defend themselves. They are either a transgressing tyrant or a domineering, coarse to the weak, and obeyed who does not acknowledge the Initiator the Recreator. How strange this is! I should astonish at such affairs when the lands are prevailed by tyrannical cheaters, wrongful bribers, or unmerciful governors. God is the judge in our question of disputation and His judgment will pass over our controversy.
O Allah, You know that it was not a matter of conflict for power or request of the worldly wreckage (that made me say so), but it was just for showing the signs of Your religion and spreading betterment on Your lands so that the wronged servants will be secured and Your ordinances, traditions, and laws will be acted.
Because you had not supported or treated us fairly, the wrongdoers overcame you and wrought towards extinguishing the illumination of your Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). God is sufficient protector for us. Upon Him we depend, to Him we refer, and to Him will be our return.
Imam Al-Hussein’s Admonition
I advise you to adhere to God-fearing, warn you against the difficult days, and show you the signs of God. The feared (death) is about to come with its frightful arrival, drastic befalling, and horrible taste. It will lap your souls and impede you from acting. As long as you enjoy sound physiques and enough time, take the initiative in acting because you may suffer the sudden visit of death that takes you from the surface of the earth to its inside, from its highest point to the lowest, from its affability to its loneliness, from its ease and light to its gloom, and from its wideness to its narrowness where the intimate friend cannot be visited, the ill cannot be called on, and the seeker of help cannot be aided.
God may help you and us stand the horrors of that day, save you and us from His punishment, and grant you and us the profuse reward.
O servants of God, if that was your target and the end of your advance, it would be sufficient for one to find a work that empties his griefs, engages him from his world, and increases his fatigue for seeking escape from it. How it will be then when man is subject to what he earned and detained for judgment? There will be no supporter to protect and no helper to preserve. On that day, the belief of any soul will be of no avail to it unless some good deeds have been done with it, or it has been formed before the coming of such a day. Tell them, “Wait and we, too, are waiting.”
I command you to fear God because He has guaranteed for those who fear him to take them from what they detest to what they like and to provide them with sustenance in a way that they will not even notice. Beware of being one of those who concern for people’s sins and feel safety from the punishment for their own sins. God, the Blessed the Exalted, will not be cheated in matters regarding His Paradise and no one will get what He has in possession except through obedience to Him, if He wills.
Imam Al-Hussein’s Message to People of Al-Kufa
when he noticed their disappointment after he had begun his march to them
So then, fie and grief be on you, O group. When you appealed for our help grievously and we hurried for your help exhaustingly, you unsheathed against us a sword that had been in our right hands and ignited against us the fire that we had struck against your and our enemy. You therefore formed groups surrounding your allies and became the support of your enemies although they did not spread justice among you and you lost any hope in them. In addition, you noticed no heresy or new opinion that came out of us. Why did you - woe to you!- not leave us when swords were sheathed, malice was hidden, and the decision was not taken. But you hurried to the sedition like locusts and fell on it like the falling of butterflies (in fire). Damn and away with the idols of the umma, irregulars of the parties, deserters of the Book, expectorants of the Shaitan, distorters of the meanings, extinguishers of the traditions, avowers of the bastards, and the mockers who divided the Quran believing in some parts and rejecting others. By God I swear, your disloyalty is expected because it is entwined with your arteries and it recurred in your origins. You therefore are the bitterest fruit that causes its caretaker to choke and gives good taste for its usurper. God curse the disloyal ones who disregard their firm oaths after they have already appointed God as their Guarantor.
The bastard, son of the bastard, has forced me to choose one of two things - either the religion or ignominy. Ignominy is impossible for us. God, His Apostle, the (faithful) believers, chaste laps, jealous noses (individuals), and noble souls (personalities) refuse for us to prefer obedience to the mean to the death of the honorable. I am advancing to them with this family despite the alliance of the enemies, their great numbers, and the betrayal of the supporters. They will soon ride their horses, war will flare up, and the necks will be lapped. My father (peace be upon him) foretold me of so. So, plan against me without delay. I trust God who is my Lord as well as yours. It is God who controls the destiny of all living creatures. It is my Lord who knows the right path.
Imam Al-Hussein’s Answers
of the Questions Put By the King of the Romans that He Sent to Yazid bin Muawiya and Him
The king of the Romans asked about the galaxy and seven creatures that were not created in a womb. Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) laughed. He was asked about his laughing, and he answered that these questions are as small as a mote in an ocean. He (peace be upon him) then answered
:
The galaxy is the bow of God. The seven things that were not created in a womb are Adam, Eve, the crow, the ram of Abraham (peace be upon him), the she-camel of God, the stick of Moses (peace be upon him), and the bird that was created by Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them).
He then was asked about the sustenance of the servants. The Imam (peace be upon him) answered:
The sustenance of the servants are in the fourth heaven. God descends and extends them in definite quantities.
He was then asked about the place where the believers’ souls gather. The Imam (peace be upon him) answered:
The believers’ souls gather under the stone of Jerusalem on Friday nights. This site is the minor throne of God. This stone is the center of the extension of the earth and the point at which God will fold the earth and He established His dominance over the heavens.
The disbelievers’ souls gather - in this world- in Hadhramaut beyond Yemen. Then God will send fire from the east and the west between which there will be two winds that crowd people to that stone of Jerusalem and detain them to the right of the stone. There, Paradise will be brought near for the God-fearing individuals. Hell will be to the left of the stone in the depths of the earth where there are the bastinado and the Sijjin. The creatures will be separated at that stone. Those who will win Paradise will enter it from that stone, and those whose share is Hell will enter it from that stone, too.
Forms of Jihad
As he was asked whether jihad is obligatory or recommendable, Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) answered:
Jihad is of four forms - two are obligatory, one is recommendable but performed only with the obligatory, and one is independently recommendable. One of the two obligatory jihads is self-control against committing acts of disobedience to God. It is surely the greatest form of jihad. The other obligatory jihad is fighting the near disbelievers. The jihad that is recommendable but performed only with the obligatory is fighting the enemy. It is obligatory upon everybody. If they neglect fighting the enemies, punishment will befall them. Meanwhile, fighting the enemies is recommendable for the Imam who is permitted to fight the enemies with people. The jihad that is independently recommendable is every (good) tradition that a man founds and exerts efforts for instituting, achieving, and enlivening it. Activities and efforts that are exercised for achieving such traditions are the best deeds because they represent the restoration of the traditions. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: He who introduces a good tradition will be gaining the reward of that tradition in addition to the rewards of everybody who follows it up to the Day of Resurrection without any imperfection in their rewards.
Monotheism
Beware, O people, of those apostates who anthropomorphize. They copy the sayings of the disbelieving Christians and Jews. He is Allah. There is certainly nothing like Him. He is All-hearing and All-aware. No mortal eyes can see Him, but He can see all eyes. He is All-kind and All-aware. He devotes monotheism and omnipotence to Him and finalizes volition, will, power, and knowledge with whatever will happen. No one can dispute with Him about any of His matters. There is no one equal to Him, there is no opposite that disputes with Him, there is no opponent that resembles Him, and there is no one like Him. Affairs cannot affect Him, changes cannot influence Him, and events cannot befall Him. Describers cannot depict the essence of His greatness and hearts cannot recall the edge of His omnipotence because He is not like anything else. Scholars and people of thought cannot comprehend Him except by means of believing in the unseen, because the descriptions of the creatures are not applicable to Him. He is the One the Absolute. He is the contrary of anything that is ideated in the illusions. He is not lord if He is a matter of discussion. He is also not worshipped if He exists in the air or any other place. He exists in things, but not encompassed by them. He is far away from things, but not absent from them. He is not powerful if He is compared to an opponent or equaled by an adversary. His sempiternity was not from time and His existence is not in the places. He concealed from the minds as well as sights. His concealment from the inhabitants of the heavens is identical concealment from the inhabitants of the earth. His nearness is His honoring and His remoteness is His offending. He has no place in ‘in’ - adverb of place-, has no time in ‘when’ - adverb of time-, and has no submission to ‘if’ - hesitation-. His elevation does not need ascent and His coming does not need motion. He originates the nonexistent and eliminates the existent. Except for Him, no one can have two attributes in the same time. The intellect can only believe in His existence. The existence of believing is not the existence of attributes. The attributes are described through Him, but He is described by these attributes. Knowledge is known through Him, but He is not known by knowledge. That is Allah to Whom there is no namesake. All glory to Him. There is certainly nothing like Him. He is All-hearing and All-aware.
Short Maxims of Imam Al-Hussein
1-
On his way to Karbala
, Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
This world has changed, snubbed, and its good has turned tail. Nothing has remained from it except a thing that is as scanty as the leftover of a cup and a mean life that is like a noxious grazing. Have you not noticed that the right is ignored and the evil is not forbidden? This is sufficient for making the believers desire for meeting God rightfully. I consider death as happiness and life with the wrongdoers as boredom. People are certainly the slaves of this world. The religion is only a slaver on their tongues. They turn it wherever their livelihood demands. If they are examined by misfortunes, the religious will be very little.
2-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said to a man who backbit another before him:
O you, stop backbiting, for it is the daily meal of the dogs of Hell.
3-
Before Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him), a man said that favors are worthless if they are done to other than its people. The Imam commented:
No, this is accurate. Favors should be like the heavy rain that covers the pious and the sinful.
4-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
Whenever God seizes the power of somebody, He will surely free him from acts of obedience to Him, and whenever He seizes the ability of somebody, He will surely save him from the burdens.
5-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
Some people worshipped God for the purpose of gaining His gifts. This is the worship of the merchants. Some worshipped Him for the purpose of avoiding His punishment. This is the worship of the slaves. Some worshipped Him as showing gratitude to Him. This is the worship of the genuine ones. It is the best worship.
6-
A man received Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) with saying, “How are you? God may grant you good health.” The Imam instructed him:
Salaam - greeting- should precede wording. God may grant you good health. Do not permit anybody before he says salaam.
7-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
When God wills to lead a servant to destruction gradually, He bestows upon him with graces and does not favor him show gratitude - for these graces-.
8-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) wrote the following missive to Abdullah bin Al-Abbas when Abdullah bin Az-Zubair banished him to Yemen
:
So then, I have been informed that Abdullah bin Az-Zubbair banished you to Ta’if. God has so therefore raised your reputation and pardoned a sin for so. It is only the virtuous ones who suffer afflictions. If you are rewarded only for what you like, the reward then will be little. God may grant you and us steadfastness against afflictions and gratitude in graces. God may save you and us from the schadenfreude of any envious enemy. Peace be upon you.
9-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said to a man who begged him:
Asking for - financial- help is acceptable only in big loss, extreme poverty, or horrible guarantee.
The man said: Because of one of these I came.
Hence, the Imam (peace be upon him) ordered to be given one hundred dinars.
10-
Imam Al-Hussein said to His son Ali (peace be upon them):
O son, beware of wronging him who does not have a supporter except God the Majestic.
11-
As a man asked for the exegesis of God’s saying, “Proclaim the bounties of your Lord,
”
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
God orders him to proclaim the religious graces.
12-
A man from Ansar wanted to ask Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) for - financial- help, but the Imam said:
O brother of Ansar, protect your face from the humility of seeking others’ help. You may write your need in a paper and I will respond to it pleasantly, God willing.
The man wrote to the Imam (peace be upon him) that he owed a certain individual five hundred dinars and that man insisted on receiving his money soon. He also asked the Imam to speak to persuade that man to grant him a respite until he becomes able to defray the sum. As Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) read the paper, he entered his house to take out a bale containing one thousand dinars. He handed them to the man and said: You may defray the debt and use the other five hundred dinars for settling your financial problems.
Do not say your need to anybody except three - a religious, a chivalrous, or a highborn individual. The religious will try to keep his religion pure, the chivalrous will be embarrassed by his chivalry, and the highborn will feel that you have not kept your face from asking for your need; therefore, he will protect your face against disappointing you.
13-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
There are four kinds of friends: there is the friend who is for you and for himself, the friend who is for you, the friend who is against you, and the friend who is neither for you nor for himself.
As he was asked an explanation, Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
The friend who is for you and for himself is that who seeks the continuity of your friendship through fraternity and does not seek the interruption of your friendship through fraternity. This friend is for you and for himself. This is because the life of both of you will be pleasant as long as your fraternity is achieved, but when fraternity encounters contradiction, everything will be valueless.
The friend who is for you is that who moves from the state of greed to the state of desire. He does not feel greedy to the worldly affairs as long as he desire for fraternity. Such a friend will completely save you from any defect.
The friend who is against you is that who waylays you, conceals his reality, forges lies against you among the clans, and looks at you enviously. The One curse such a friend.
The friend who is neither for you nor for himself is that whom God has filled with idiocy and thrown away. Thus, you see him prefer himself to you and his eye is focused on your wealth.
14-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
Sitting with the intelligent is a sing of successfulness. Disputation with other than the disbelievers is a sign of ignorance. A sign of a scholar is his self-criticism of his sayings and his acquaintance with the various hypotheses.
15-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
The true believer is that who betakes God as his defender and betakes his wording as his mirror. He once looks in the qualities of the believers and once in the qualities of the haughty. He therefore relieves his character and discovers himself. He is also sure of his intelligence and capable of respecting himself.
16-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
Beware of things for which you apologize. The true believer should not make mistakes and should not apologize. The hypocrite makes mistakes and apologizes everyday.
17-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
There are seventy advantages for the greeting. Sixty-nine are given to the one who greets first and one is given to the one who responds to the greeting.
18-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
The true stingy is that who refrains from greeting.
19-
Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:
He who tries to achieve something through acting disobediently to God will miss what he expects and fall in what he fears.
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Author: Al-Hasan bin Ali bin Al-Hussein bin Shu'ba Al-Harrani
