Nahjul BalaghaSayings
Nahjul Balagha Sayings 411 to 420

- Do not try the sharpness of your tongue against Him Who gave you the power to speak, nor the eloquence of your speaking against Him Who set you on the right path.
- It is enough for your own discipline that you abstain from what you dislike from others.
- One should endure like free people, otherwise one should keep quiet like the ignorant.
- In another tradition it is related that Imam (A.S.) said to al-Ash’ath ibn Qays by way of condolence on the death of his son: Either endure like great people or else you will forget like animals.
- Imam (A.S.) said about the world: It deceives, it harms and it passes away. Allah, the Sublime, did not approve it as a reward for His lovers nor as a punishment for His enemies. In fact, the people of this world are like those riders that as soon as they alighted the driver called out to them and they marched off.
- Imam (A.S.) said to his son al-Hasan (peace be upon him): O’ my son, do not leave anything of this world behind you, because you will be leaving it for either of two sorts of persons: Either a person who uses it in obeying Allah, in this case he will acquire virtue through what was evil for you, or it will be a person who uses it in disobeying Allah and in that case he will be earning evil with what you collected for him, and so you will be assisting him in his sinfulness; and neither of these two deserves to be preferred by you over yourself
- Someone said Imam (A.S.) : “astaghfiru ‘llah” I ask Allah’s forgiveness), then Imam (A.S.)said: Your mother may lose you! Do you know what “istighfar” (asking Allah’s forgiveness) is? “istighfar” is meant for people of a high position. It is a word that stands on six supports. The first is to repent over the past; the second is to make a firm determination never to revert to it; the third is to discharge all the rights of people so that you may meet Allah- quite clean with nothing to account for; the fourth is to fulfil every obligation which you ignored (in the past) so that you may now do justice with it; the fifth is to aim at the flesh grown as a result of unlawful earning, so that you may melt it by grief (of repentance) till the skin touches the bone and a new flesh grows between them; and the sixth is to make the body taste the pain of obedience as you (previously) made it taste the
- Clemency is (like) a kinsfolk.
- How wretched the son of Adam is! His death is hidden, his ailments are concealed, his actions are preserved, the bite of a mosquito pains him, choking causes his death and sweat gives him a bad smell.
- It is related that Imam (A.S.) was sitting with his companions when a beautiful woman passed by them and they began to look at her whereupn Imam (A.S.) said: The eyes of these men are covetous and this glancing is the cause of their becoming covetous. Whenever anyone of you sees a woman who attracts him, he should meet his wife because she is a woman like his wife.