The Complete Edition of the Treatise On Rights

Endnotes

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A. ENGLISH

  1. slaves

  2. by freeing you from slavery

  3. by the fact that you free him

  4. The pleasures of this world and the life to come

  5. In the other version we read: and refrain from any meddling in which there is nothing to be gained, express kindness to the people, and speak well concerning them. And then the rest follows.

  6. The tongue

  7. His tongue and good speech are like an ornament for his intellect

  8. In the other version it is followed by: The right of your hearing is to keep it pure from listening to backbiting and listening to that to which it is unlawful to listen

  9. In the other version it is followed by: You have no escape from standing upon the narrow bridge (al-sirat [over Hell]), so you should see to it that your legs do not slip and cause you to fall into the Fire.

  10. The hands

  11. If the hands are not opened to engage in what is forbidden.

  12. by over-eating and over-drinking

  13. In the other version it is followed by: The right of your private part is that you protect it from fornication and guard it against being looked upon.

  14. And fix your eyes looking down to the ground. In the other version it is followed by: You will approach the prayer with humbleness, deep from your heart and you will perform it according to its bounds and its rights. Then it continues.

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  1. Being humble

  2. of Hell

  3. from the Fire of Hell

  4. If you abandon the fast, you will have torn God's protective covering away from yourself.

  5. This right has not been mentioned in the version transmitted in Tuhaf al-Uqoul

  6. In the other version it is followed by: You should know that it repels calamities and illnesses in this world and it will repel the Fire from you in the Hereafter.

  7. That your donations in charity will be returned to you

  8. The animal sacrificed during the holy pilgrimage

  9. In the other version it continues: you desire God and you do not desire His creation; through it you desire only the exposure of your soul to God's mercy and the deliverance of your spirit on the day you encounter Him.

  10. In the other version it is followed by: Through it you desire only the exposure of your soul to the Exalted, and the High- God's Mercy, and the deliverance of your spirit on the Day you encounter Him.

  11. In the other version it is followed by: You should not raise your voice toward him. You should never answer anyone who asks him about something, in order that he may be the one who answers. You should not speak to anyone in his session nor speak ill of anyone with him. If anyone ever speaks ill of him in your presence, you should defend him. You should conceal his faults and make manifest his virtues. You should not sit with him in enmity or show hostility toward him in friendship. If you do all of this, God's angels will give witness for you that you went straight to him and learned his knowledge for God's sake, not for the sake of the people.

  12. In the other version it is followed by: property is that you should obey him and not disobey him, unless obeying him would displease God, for there

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can be no obedience to a creature when it is disobedience to God.

  1. you are his slave

  2. In the other version it continues: they have been made subjects through their weakness and your strength. Hence it is incumbent upon you to act with justice toward them and to be like a compassionate father toward them. You should forgive them their ignorance and not hurry them to punishment and you should thank God for the power over them which He has given to you.

  3. that they do not have

  4. In the other version it continues: in teaching the people, not treating them roughly or annoying them, then God will increase His bounty toward you. But if you withhold your knowledge from people or treat them roughly when they seek knowledge from you, then it will be God's right to deprive you of the knowledge and its splendor and to make you fall from your place in people's heart.

  5. your wife

  6. In the other version it is followed by: you must treat her with compassion, since she is your prisoner whom you feed and clothe. If she is ignorant, you should pardon her.

  7. as you are

  8. God created him

  9. in your shelter

  10. if you fail

  11. in the other version it continues with: And there is no power but in God.

  12. by freeing you from slavery

  13. by freeing him

  14. In the other version it is followed by: God has made your freeing him a means of access to Him and a veil against the Fire. Your immediate reward is to inherit from him- if he does not have any relatives-as a compensation for the property you have spent for him, and your ultimate reward is the Garden.

  15. of Hell

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  1. In the other version it continues: reminding you of your Lord, calling you to your good fortune, and helping you to accomplish what God has made obligatory upon you. So thank him for that just as you thank one who does good to you.

  2. In the other version it is followed by: You should forget his slips and remember his good qualities, and you should tell nothing about him but good.

  3. in guarding these secrets

  4. In the other version it continues: a debt is that, if you have the means, you pay him back, and if you are in straitened circumstances, you satisfy him with good words and you send him away with gentleness.

  5. for more time

  6. In the other version it continues: you give witness to it against yourself. You do not wrong him and you give him his full due. If what he claims against you is false, you act with kindness toward him and you show nothing in his affair other than kindness; you do not displease your Lord in his affair. And there is no strength save in God.

  7. In the other version it continues: you maintain polite moderation in speaking to him and you do not deny him his right. If your claim is false, you fear God, repent to Him, and abandon your claim.

  8. his advice

  9. Islam

  10. In the other version it continues: is that you give to him in the measure of his need.

  11. his dishonesty

  12. In the other version it continues: is that you accept from him with gratitude and recognition of his bounty if he gives, and you accept his excuse if he withholds.

  13. In the other version it continues: you first praise God, then you thank that person.

  14. In the other version it continues: is that you pardon him. But if you know that your pardon will harm him, you should defend yourself. God says:

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Whosoever defends himself after he has been wronged- against them there is no way. [The Holy Quran, Shura 42:41]

  1. The Holy Quran, Shura 42:41-43 A. Yusuf Ali's translation

  2. The Holy Quran, Nahl 16:126 A. Yusuf Ali's translation

  3. In the other version it continues: And keeping harm away from them. You should love for them what you love for yourself and dislike for them what you dislike for yourself. Their old men stand in the place of your father, their youth in the place of your brothers, their old women in the place of your mother, and their young ones in the place of your children.

  4. protecting them

  5. The Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and his household)