From among the sayings narrated, in brief maxims, from Imam Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-ʿAskari (a).
1- He (a) said: Do not dispute, lest your splendor depart; and do not jest, lest people grow bold against you.
2- And he (a) said: Whoever is content with less than the place of honor in a gathering, Allah and His angels continue to bless him until he rises.
3- And he (a) wrote to a man who had asked him for a proof:
Whoever asks for a sign or a proof, and is given what he asked for, and then turns back from the one from whom he requested the sign, will be punished with double the punishment; and whoever is patient will be given support from Allah. People are by nature disposed to the stratagem of preferring outspread writings. We ask Allah for right guidance, for it is only submission or perdition. “And with Allah rests the outcome of all matters.” (Qurʾan 22:41)
4- And one of his Shiʿa wrote to him, informing him of the disagreement among the Shiʿa, so he (a) wrote:
Allah has addressed only the one who possesses reason. People, with regard to me, are of classes: the one with insight, on a path of salvation, holding fast to the truth, clinging to the branch of the root, neither doubting nor wavering, finding no refuge away from me; a class that did not take the truth from its people, so they are like one who rides the sea—he heaves when it heaves and is still when it is still; and a class upon whom Satan has prevailed, whose concern is to rebut the people of the truth and to repel the truth with falsehood, out of their inner envy. So leave whoever has gone right and left, for when the shepherd wants to gather his sheep, he gathers them with the least effort. And beware of divulging and of seeking leadership, for these two invite ruin.
5- And he (a) said: Among the sins that are not forgiven: “Would that I were not taken to account except for this.” Then he (a) said: Ascribing partners (ishrāk) among people is more hidden than the creeping of ants on black sackcloth on a dark night.
6- And he (a) said: “In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful” is nearer to the Greatest Name of Allah than the black of the eye is to its white.
7- And there came forth in one of his signed rescripts (a), when a group of his Shiʿa disagreed about his affair: None of my forefathers was afflicted with the like of what I have been afflicted with: this band's doubt about me. If this matter were a matter that you believed and professed until a certain time and then it ceases, then there would be room for doubt; but if it is continuous for as long as the affairs of Allah continue, then what is the meaning of this doubt?
8- And he (a) said: The love of the righteous for the righteous is a reward for the righteous; the love of the wicked for the righteous is a merit for the righteous; the hatred of the wicked for the righteous is an adornment for the righteous; and the hatred of the righteous for the wicked is a disgrace upon the wicked.
9- And he (a) said: Part of humility is greeting everyone you pass by, and sitting below the place of honor in a gathering.
10 - And he (a) said: Part of ignorance is laughing without anything to wonder at.
11- And he (a) said: Among the calamities that break the back (3) is a neighbor who, if he sees a good deed, extinguishes it, and if he sees a bad deed, spreads it.
12- And he (a) said to his Shiʿa: I counsel you to be wary of Allah, to be scrupulous in your religion, to strive for Allah, to be truthful in speech, to return the trust to whoever entrusted you with it, whether righteous or wicked, to prolong prostration and to be good neighbors—for with this Muhammad (s) came. Pray among their clans, attend their funerals, visit their sick and fulfill their rights (4). For when a man among you is scrupulous in his religion, truthful in his speech, returns the trust and is good in character with people, it is said: This is a Shiʿi, and that pleases me. Be wary of Allah, and be an adornment, and do not be a disgrace. Draw to us every affection and repel from us every ugliness; for whatever good is said of us, we are worthy of it, and whatever evil is said of us, we are not like that. We have a right in the Book of Allah, a kinship with the Messenger of Allah and a purification from Allah, which no one other than us claims except a liar. Increase the remembrance of Allah and the remembrance of death, the recitation of the Qurʾan and invoking blessings upon the Prophet (s), for invoking blessings upon the Messenger of Allah is ten good deeds. Keep what I have counseled you with; I commend you to Allah, and I send you greetings of peace.
13- And he (a) said: Worship is not abundance of fasting and prayer; worship is only abundance of reflection on the affair of Allah.
14- And he (a) said: How evil a servant is the servant who is two-faced and two-tongued: he extols his brother when present (1) and devours him when absent; if he is granted, he envies him, and if he is afflicted, he forsakes him.
15- And he (a) said: Anger is the key to every evil.
16- And he (a) said to his Shiʿa in the year two hundred and sixty: We commanded you to wear the ring on the right while we were among you (3), and now we command you to wear the ring on the left because of our absence from you, until Allah makes manifest our affair and your affair; for it is among the clearest proofs about you regarding the wilāyah of us, the Ahl al-Bayt. So they took their rings off their right hands in his presence and put them on their left hands (4), and he (a) said to them: Narrate this to our Shiʿa.
17- And he (a) said: The person with the least rest is the rancorous one.
18- And he (a) said: The most scrupulous of people is the one who stops at the doubtful; the most worshipful of people is the one who keeps up the obligatory duties; the most abstinent of people is the one who abandons the forbidden; the most earnest of people in striving is the one who abandons sins.
19- And he (a) said: You are in diminishing lifespans and numbered days, and death comes suddenly. Whoever sows good will reap felicity, and whoever sows evil will reap remorse. To every sower belongs what he has sown. The slow one is not beaten to his share, and the eager one does not attain what has not been decreed for him. Whoever is given good, Allah has given it to him; and whoever is protected from evil, Allah has protected him.
20- And he (a) said: The believer is a blessing for the believer and a proof against the unbeliever.
21- And he (a) said: The heart of the fool is in his mouth, and the mouth of the wise is in his heart.
22- And he (a) said: Let not a guaranteed provision distract you from an obligatory deed.
23- And he (a) said: Whoever exceeds the limits in his purification is like one who nullifies it.
24- And he (a) said: No mighty one abandons the truth but that he is abased, and no abased one takes hold of it but that he becomes mighty.
25-And he (a) said: The friend of the ignorant is in toil.
26- And he (a) said: Two traits above which there is nothing: faith in Allah and benefiting one's brothers.
27- And he (a) said: A child's boldness toward his father in his childhood invites undutifulness when he is grown.
28- And he (a) said: It is not of good manners to display joy in the presence of one who is grieving.
29- And he (a) said: Better than life is that which, when you lose it, you hate life; and worse than death is that which, when it befalls you, you love death.
30- And he (a) said: Training the ignorant and turning the habituated away from his habit are like the miraculous.
31- And he (a) said: Humility is a blessing for which one is not envied.
32- And he (a) said: Do not honor a man with what is burdensome for him.
33- And he (a) said: Whoever admonishes his brother in private has adorned him, and whoever admonishes him in public has disgraced him.
34- And he (a) said: There is no affliction but that Allah has in it a blessing that encompasses it.
35- And he (a) said: How ugly it is for the believer to have a desire that abases him.
The source: the book Tuhaf al-ʿUqul.
With the compliments of the website of Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
www.mosawy.com
