Author’s Note

Translator’s Note

1) What Is Piety (Taqwa)

2) Stages of Piety

3) The Worth Of Piety

4) The Effects Of Piety

5) Kinds Of Piety

6) Piety And Faith

7) Piety And Monotheism

8) Piety And Prophethood

9) Piety And the Day Of Judgment

10) Piety And Imamate

11) Piety And Knowledge (Science)

12) Piety In Practice

14) Piety And Islamic Rules

15) Piety in Worshipping

16) Piety And Prayer

17) Piety And Fasting

18) Piety And the Hajj

19) Piety And Jihad

21) Piety And Society (Social Piety)

22) Parents’ Rights

23) Children’s Rights

24) Relatives’ Rights

25)Neighbors’ Rights

26) Fellow Muslims’ Rights

27) How To Socialize

28) Codes Of Society

29) Backbiting

30) Tale-Bearing

31) Accusation and Slander

32) Suspicion

33) Telling Lies

34) The Difference of Opinions and Creeds

35) Choosing of Companions

36) Oppression (Injustice)

37) Justice And Fairness

38) Hypocrisy

39) Self-Conceit

40) Piety And Speech

41) Piety and Breaking of Promise

42) What Is Promise?

43) Piety against Sins

44) Piety And Family Rights

45) Forming a Family

46) Wife and Husband’s Duties

47) Inward Piety

48) Piety and Blessings

49) Piety And Health

50) Signs Of The Pious

51) Features Of The Pious

52) Kinds Of Fear

53) The Effects Of Fear

54) The Hammam Sermon; The Pious in the Viewpoint of Imam Ali (AS)

55) Friends of Allah (Saints)

56) Night Prayer

57) Reciting the Holy Quran

58) Prostration

59) Remembrance of God (Zikr)

Examples of Taqwa (Piety) in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of Ahl
al-Bayt (as)


Taqwa (Piety) Advice of Ahl al-Bayt

45) Forming a Family
====================

One of the other factors, which purify a society from sin, is marriage.
The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has been reported as saying: “Whenever a
young man gets married in his early youth, Satan will lament and cry
out, saying: ‘Woe! He kept two thirds of his religion safe from me!’ So
let him fear Allah (be pious) in the remaining third.”[^1]

The Holy Prophet (SAW) has also been reported as saying: “One who gets
married is given a half of happiness. Marriage is a source of decency,
chastity and honor.”[^2]

The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has also said: “The worst of my Ummah are
those who never get married.” He says: “Bachelors are brothers of Satan.
The most wicked of the dead are those who did not get married.”[^3]

There are many traditions on the advantages and benefits of marriage.
Many sins are removed and good deeds are written in the record of one
who gets married. A married man is like one who fights in the way of
God. Marriage is from the Sunna of the Holy Prophet, a means of
reproduction, and a source of pride for the Messenger of Allah (SAW) on
the Day of Judgment, and It is obedience to Allah and the Messenger of
Allah and disobedience to Satan.

The importance of marriage is too great. One day, some man went to see
Imam Baqir (AS). The Imam asked him: “Are you married?” The man said:
“No, I am not.” The Imam said: “I prefer to spend the night with my wife
than to be given the whole world.” Then, the Imam said: “A two-rak’a
prayer performed by a married man is better than the spending of the
night in worshipping and the day in fasting of an unmarried one.”

Imam Sadiq (AS) said: “My father gave the man seven Dinars and said: ‘Go
and get married with this money.’ Then my father taught me this
tradition in the year one hundred and ninety-eight of hijra, saying:
“The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: Get married, and God will increase
your sustenance.”[^4]

When a woman gets pregnant, there is the reward of a fasting one, and of
one who spends the night in worshipping, and when she goes to labor,
only God knows what her rewards is, and when she delivers the child, for
each sucking by the child, God will write a good deed for her which
removes her sins.

[^1]: Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 100, p. 221.

[^2]: Ibid.

[^3]: Ibid., p. 220.

[^4]: Ibid., p. 217.


