Tuhaf Al-uqul ( the Masterpieces of the Mind )
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. 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. 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." 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." 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
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.
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.
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. We supplicate to God for guiding us (to the right). Matters are either submission or destruction. The end results of everything belong to God.
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.
- 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Reasonless laughter is a sign of ignorance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Anger is the key to every evil.
In 260 A.H. , 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).
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: The least comfortable of people is the spiteful.
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.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: The faithful believer is a blessing for the believers and a claim against he disbelievers.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: The guaranteed sustenance should not engage you from the ordained deed.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: The excessiveness of the (ritual) ablution is as same as defect.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Fatigue is the friend of the ignorant.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Nothing is above two characters: believing in God and benefiting the friends.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: The babies who dare their fathers will surely treat them impiously when they attain maturity.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: To show happiness before the grieved is not a sign of good mannerism.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: To educate an ignorant and to prevent a habit are two impossible actions.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Modesty is an unenviable favor.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: Do not bestow upon anyone with matters that are difficult for him.
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.
Imam Al-Askari (peace be upon him) said: God's favors encompass every misfortune.
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.