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Unbelief stands on four supports: hankering after whims, mutual quarrelling, deviation from truth, and dissension. So, whoever hankers after whims does not incline towards right: whoever quarrels much on account of ignorance remains permanently blinded from right; whoever deviates from truth, for him good becomes evil and evil becomes good and he remains intoxicated with misguidance; and whoever makes a breach (with Allah and His Messenger), his path becomes difficult, his affairs become complicated and his way of escape becomes narrow.
Doubt has also four aspects: unreasonableness, fear, wavering and undue submission to every thing. So, he who adopts unreasonablenessas his way, for him there is no dawn after the night; he who is afraid of what befalls him has to run on his heels; he who wavers in doubt Satan tramples him under their feet and he who submits to the destruction of this and tile next world succumbs to it.
as-Sayyid ar-Radi says: We have left out the remaining portion of this saying for fear of length and for being outside the purpose of this chapter.
- The doer of good is better than the good itself, and the doer of evil is worse than the evil itself.
- Be generous but not extravagant; be thrifty but not miserly.
- The best of riches is the abandonment of desires.
- If someone is quick in saying about people what they dislike, they speak about him that about which they have no knowledge.
- Whoever prolongs his desire ruins his actions.
- Once Imam, was proceeding towards Syria when countrymen of a1-Anbar met him. Seeing him they began to walk on foot and ran in front of him. He enquired why they were doing so and they replied that this was the way they respected their chiefs. Then he said: By Allah, this does not benefit your chiefs. You are belabouring yourself in this world and earning misery for the next world by it. How harmful is the labour in whose wake there is punishment and how profitable is the case with which there is deliverance from the Fire (of Hell).
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Ameerul Momineen (pbuh), said to his son al- Hasan:O’ my son, learn four things and (a further) four things from me. Nothing will harm you if you practise them. That the richest of riches is intelligence; the biggest destitution is foolishness; the wildest wildness is vanity and the best achievement is goodness of the moral character.
O my son, you should avoid making friends with a fool because he may intend to benefit you but may harm you; you should avoid making friends with a miser because he will run away from you when you need him most; you should avoid making friends with a sinful person because he will sell you for nought; and you should avoid making friends with a liar because he is like a mirage, making you feel far things near and near things far.
- Supererogatory worship cannot bring about nearness to Allah if it hampers the obligatory.
- The tongue of the wise man is behind his heart, and the heart of the fool is behind his tongue.
