Fascinating Discourses of the Fourteen Infallibles (a.s)

Foreword

Please pay attention to the following few points which are briefly described for the sake of studying this book with a greater & broader vision.

1. Essentiality of heedfulness to the rich culture of Islam

We are aware that the base & foundation of the completion, maturity & progress of human beings is a school & culture which must be constructive, rich & affluent & may be capable to guide man in variant dimensions towards the total & multi-dimensional completion & prosperity.

Such a school of thought & culture must definitely come from the Almighty Allah of humanity who is All Knowing. On this account, the only school & culture having grown & produced from the origin of revelation can be advantageous, & conductive particularly the school & culture which has reached us from the arena & sphere of the last & final ambassador of Allah' the Prophet of Islam (S) & the last guardians from God & their successors, the in fallible Imams & Hazrat Zahra (sa) & this must certainly be possessing all the excellences of gnosis, cognition & completion & will be the eminent of all the other culture’s & schools.

On this basis it is essential & definitely necessary for us to pay deep & multi-dimensional attention & concentrate upon this rich & man constructing culture & school while proceeding on the way of guidance, progress & elevation.

And we considering it the practical program of our life ‘must embrace the prosperity of world & Here after in its light, since we will definitely not find such a rich, plentiful, exuberant' & movement creating school of thought & culture anywhere in the World. And one can never at all reach the peak of real completion & attain the open & obvious prosperity through other cultures.

On this basis the Prophet of Islam (S) said:

Confer. & meet & talk to each other because Hadith polishes the hearts. No doubt hearts get rusted like the swords & Hadith is their polish.[^1]

Essa (removal of that rust).' Essa (Christ) (as) at the height & summit of his speech told the Bani Israel (sons of Israel):

Do not inform ignorant about the word of wisdom so that you may have committed excess (injustice) to those subjects & do not refuse & conceal them from the sage & wise ones so that you may have committed injustice & excess upon them.[^2]

Imam Ali (as) as per his well-known saying said.

These hearts are just like utensils so that the best utensil is the one which secures & retains more (than others). Therefore do secure & memorize what I tell you.

People are divided in three groups: 1.The Godly scholars 2. The knowledge seekers (students) who move on the way towards salvation. 3. Silly rabble, mob.

It is understood from these interesting & attractive traditions that the culture of Islam should not be confined & bonded rather it should be propagated, & the people of the world be given to learn it's facts by divulging it through meditation, consideration & conference., to polish the hearts out of their rusty condition.

Thus if we do not carry it to those capable we would have done injustice to them', since we will have deprived them of the most supreme &sublime gifts & presents of the life completion.[^3]

This also becomes clear that best of the men are those who welcome & greet the rich & exuberant Islamic culture, which is mixed up with deep & profound wisdoms, with an open & absorbent mind, & make it a pattern for themselves.

As a whole mankind can be divided into three categories 1. Godly scholar 2. Student 3. Silly rabble [^4]& mob.

The divine scholar is like an upstanding tree which has raised & upheld his head towards the sky of completion. The student is like the plant of lily lotus which shows its face leaning along that firmly up standing tree & moves upwards.

But the third form of man is like the weeds growing mere the root & base of that tree having no course to move on. And it stays along with the dirt of earth sometimes under that stinking dirt & gets drowned into the black mud of the pond.

2. The Emphasis of the leaders of Islam about broad casting traditions

The propagation & broad casting of Islamic learning & culture has an elevated & lofty place from the Islamic view.

Imam Muhammad Baqir (as) said. "The alms giving of knowledge is this that you teach it to the servants of God."

Moawiyyah Bin Ammar says I submitted to Imam Ja’far Sadiq (as), “One of your states great number of traditions & propagates them among the people & makes them firm & steady into the hearts of people & your Shias.

And on the other hand, there is a worshiper among your followers (Shias) who is not active in propagating your traditions amid the people like that (other) man, so which one of them is better?"

Imam Sadiq (as) said:

"That person who propagates our sayings (traditions) & makes the hearts of our shias steady & firm (with our culture) is better than a thousand adorers" [^5].

Imam Ali Ridha’ (as) said ", Allah may have mercy upon the person who revives & establishes our affair." A man asked him ", how must one revive it?

He replied.

"He may learn our knowledge’s & teach others" [^6]

3. A brief consideration of learning Forty Hadiths

The Prophet of Allah (S) said":

“The one from among my ummah who learns by heart forty Hadiths, which they need for their religion, Allah will resurge & resurrect him (as) a wise jurisprudent on the dooms day".[^7]

Four points must be taken into view a about this Hadith:

1. This tradition has been much narrated with a little amount of difference & variation both by the Shia & Sunni traditionalists. And even some say this is a "Mutawatir" widely transmitted tradition. That is to say it has been so very much narrated that the sure knowledge of its being soundly narrated from the infallible Imam (as) is achieved.[^8]

2. Allama Majlisi (may God have mercy on him) says about the word "memorizing of tradition", mentioned in the above stated Hadith, “As a matter of right, memorizing (learning Hadith by heart has many grades. The rewards of them granted are according to the same grades.

One of its grades & stages is securing & learning the text of the Hadith, whether that securing comes about in the memory securing it from getting perished like preserving it on papers & correction of its words & reproducing it.

The second grade is learning the text & meanings of forty Hadiths & contemplation of their minute points & deduction of religious injunctions & Islamic learnings from them. The third stage is that the text of those forty hadiths may be implemented, practiced upon & secured.

It is quite clear that each of these carry a reward but if all the three of them are owned by a person' then it will result in getting the complete reward. There by he says "Getting resurrected as a wise jurisprudent on the resurrection day takes place when all the three grades or at least two of the later ones are observed[^9].

3. In many cases, the title of forty is the final limit & border of completion of those matters. Allama Haj Mirza Hussain Norri reflects', By benefitting from correct & true traditions it becomes evident that in the process of preserving practice for progress from a stage to a higher one, forty days or years have an effective & total effect. There by, he pointed out forty cases of the completed affairs & matters within the border of forty.[^10]

4. Supplementary, it may not remain unsaid that forty Hadiths means the Hadiths which are a requirement & need on the course of guidance such as the problems of beliefs, jurisprudence, politics, & ethics. As already mentioned a wise & complete jurisprudent is the one who gets benefitted & saturated in variant dimensions of religion from the knowledge & practice.

[^1]: Usul al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 41, Chapter: Questioning the Scholar and his answers, hadith 8.

[^2]: Usul al-Kafi, vol. 42, Chapter: Dissemination of Knowledge, hadith 4.

[^3]: Nahjul Balaghah, Hikmat 147.

[^4]: Usul al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 42.

[^5]: Usul al-Kafi, p. 33.

[^6]: Wasa’il ul-Shia, vol. 18, p. 102.

[^7]: Safinat ul-Bihar, vol. 1, p. 504, Usul al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 49.

[^8]: Bihar al-Anwar, vol.2, p. 156.

[^9]: Quotation from Bihar al-Anwar, vol.2, p. 157.

[^10]: Goodlysaying, the outline of it, p. 175-181.