It is related that Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
O Abdullah, the Shaytan has arranged his traps in this deceitful world to target our disciples only, but the world to come is too great in their eyes to seek a substitute for it. Oh, for hearts that are stuffed with illumination. For them, this world is as same as a poisonous snake and an outlandish enemy. They found amiability with God and they found strange that with which the luxurious ones found amusement. They are surely my disciples. They uncover every seditious matter and relieve every misfortune.
O son of Jundab, it is obligatory upon every Muslim, who claims of knowing us, to maintain judgment with his deeds every day; if he notices that he has done a good deed, he should do it increasingly, and if he notices that he has committed an evildoing, he should seek God’s forgiving it so that he will not be disgraced on the Day of Resurrection. Blessed be the servant of God who does not envy the wrongdoers for their having the worldly pleasures. Blessed be the servant who sought the world to come painstakingly. Blessed be him who is not cheated by the false expectations. God’s mercy be upon those who were lanterns and lights. They advocated us through their deeds and all efforts. They are unlike him who divulges our secrets.
O son of Jundab, the true faithful believers are those who fear God and work hard so as the guidance they have been given will not be taken from them. If they remember God and His grace, they feel apprehensive and fearful. If God’s Verses are recited before them, they will in-crease their faith due to the power that He shows, and they depend upon their Lord.
O son of Jundab, in the old time, ignorance was erected and based. This is because they betook God’s religion playfully and jokingly to the degree that he whoever did something for God’s sake was intending someone else. Those are surely the unjust.
O son of Jundab, if our Shi’a (adherents) opt for righteousness, the angels will shake hands with them, they will get provisions from above (the heavens) and below (the earth), and God will respond to all their supplications.
O son of Jundab, speak only good wording about the sinful people of your sect. You should sup-plicate to God importunately to guide them and accept their repentance. He whoever proposes us, follows us, shuns our enemies, says only what he knows, and says nothing about what he ignores or deems it problematic will be in Paradise.
O son of Jundab, decline is the result of him who depends upon his acts. He who commits sins and depends totally upon God’s mercy will not be saved. The safe are those who are in a situation between hope and fear, whose hearts are as if they are in a claw of a bird due to their eagerness for the reward and fear from the penalty.
O son of Jundab, he who is pleased that God will give him the women of Paradise in marriage and crown him with the light should please his faithful brother.
O son of Jundab, sleep little at night and speak little in day. The less thankful organs are the eye and the tongue. Mother of Solomon the prophet (‘as) instructed him, saying: “O son, beware of sleeping. It makes you needy on that day when people will be in importunate need for their deeds.”
O son of Jundab, the Shaytan has some traps with which he traps the others. Keep yourselves safe against his snares and traps.
(Abdullah Ibn Jundab related) I asked, “O son of the messenger of God, what are these traps and snares?” Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) answered:
The trap of the Shaytan is withholding from doing charity to the friends, while his snare is sleeping away the settlement of the obligatory prayers. Certainly, no worship is preferred to walking for visiting and providing charity to the friends. Woe to those who are inadvertent against their prayers, sleep inattentively, and mock at God and His marks.
They shall be weightless on the Day of Resurrection, and God will not speak to them nor will He look at them on the Day of Judgment nor will He purify them. They will face a painful torment. (3:77).
O son of Jundab, God will ease him who begins his day thinking only how to save himself from Hell and seeking few profits from his Lord. God will make Hell the lodge of him who cheats, debases, and aggresses his friend. Like salt dissolving in water, faith will dissolve in the hearts of those who envy a faithful believer.
O son of Jundab, he who makes efforts for settling his friend’s need is as same as that who roams between Safa and Marwa.1
He who settles the need of his friend is regarded as same as those whose blood was shed in the battles of Badr and Uhud for God’s sake. 2
God did not punish a nation before they had disregarded the rights of the poor among them.
O son of Jundab, inform our Shi’a (adherents) not to be highly tranquil. Pursuance to our leader-ship is not obtained without piety, painstakingness, and consoling the brothers for God’s sake. He whoever oppresses people is not within our adherents.
O son of Jundab, the characters of our Shi’a are many: they are generosity, openhandedness with the friends, and offering fifty rak’as in day and night (seventeen rak’as of the obligatory prayers and thirty-three rak’as of the nafilas). Our Shi’a neither shout like dogs nor are they avaricious like crows. They never lodge next to our enemies and never beg him who hates us even if they starve. Our Shi’a never have the meat of eel and never pass their hands over their slipper during the ritual ablution. They keep up the offering of the Dhuhr (midday) Prayer and do not drink any intoxicant.
(Abdullah Ibn Jundab related) I asked, “God make me your sacrifice, where can I find such Shi-as?” Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) answered:
You will find them on the summits of mountains and in outskirts. Whenever you are in a city, you will know the faithful by asking about the one whom the people of the city do not neighbor nor does he neighbor them. That is the faithful believer. This is in the Holy Qur’an. God says:
A man came running from the farthest part of the city. (36:20).
That was Habib the carpenter. He was the only faithful believer.
O son of Jundab, all sins are forgivable except mistreating the people of your sect. Every charity is acceptable except that which is done for showing off.
O son of Jundab, love (others) for God’s sake. Cling to the firmest handle.
Stick on the guidance so that your deeds will be accepted. God says:
I am All-Forgiving to the righteously striving believers who repent and follow the right guidance. (20:82).
Hence, nothing except faith will be accepted, no faith without deed, no deed without conviction, and no conviction without submission. The master of all these is guidance. The deeds of him who follows the right guidance will be accepted and ascended to the Divine Realm.
God guides to the right path whomever He wants. (2:213).
O son of Jundab, if you desire for neighboring the Glorified God and residing in the Elevated Paradise in His vicinity, you should demean the worldly pleasures, regard death permanently, and spare nothing for tomorrow. You should know that you will get the reward of whatever you precede in charity and get the punishment of whatever you delay.
O son of Jundab, he whoever deprives himself of enjoying his earnings is collecting for others. He whoever complies with his passions is complying with his enemy. For those who trust in Him, God will settle their worldly affairs as well as the affairs of the world to come and keep for them whatever they miss. He who does not choose steadfastness for facing every misfortune, thanks for every grace, and easiness for every complexity will surely be too short to continue. Be broad-minded whenever a misfortune inflicts you, whether in your son, wealth, or other matters. The fact of every misfortune is that God receives his loan and takes his gift back so as to test your tolerance and thanking.
Trust in God in a way that you will not dare to disobey Him. Fear Him in a way that you do not despair of His mercy. Do not believe the saying and praise of the ignorant so that you will not be arrogant, tyrant, and esteem your deeds exaggeratedly. Adoration and modesty are the best of deeds. Do not waste your fortune and put up the others’ fortunes through what you are going to leave for them. Satisfy yourself with what God is giving you. Never look to what others have. Never expect (the good of) what you will not get.
He who satisfies himself will surely attain self-sufficiency. He who is not pleased will never sati-ate. Take your share of the world to come. Never be arrogant when you are rich and intolerant when you are poor. Never be so crude that people desist from approaching you. Never be so humble that you will be disgraced by whoever knows you. Never quarrel with him who is higher than you. Never mock at him who is lower than you. Never dispute about a matter whose rightful owners are the opposite party. Never listen to the foolish. Never humiliate yourself before any person. Never depend upon anyone’s protection. Stop engaging yourself in a matter before you check it completely and realize its entrance and exit so as to avoid sorrow. Consider your mind as a kinsman whose opinion you seek.
Consider your knowledge as the father that you follow. Consider your Self as the enemy that you fight and the loan that you will defray. You are assigned as the doctor of yourself and shown the prescription of health, the malady, and the remedy. See how you will treat yourself. If you have done favor to someone, you should not violate it by mentioning it and showing the obligation on him. You should attach another favor to the previous. This will be more fitting for you and will make your reward in the world to come more fixed. Keep silent and you will be reckoned as indulgent whether you were knowledgeable or ignorant. Silence is an ornament before the scholars and a screen before the ignorant.
O son of Jundab, once, Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon them) asked his companions: “Supposing you pass by one of your friends and find that his dress was raised and a part of his genitals was shown. Will you screen him or reveal the genitals completely?” “We will surely screen him,” answered they. “No, you will reveal the genitals completely,” he replied. Hence, they realized that he had provided them a proverb. “O Spirit of God, how is that?” they asked. He (‘as) explained, “As you notice your friend’s flaw, you do not cover him. I tell you truthfully that you will not get what you want unless you leave your desires. Likewise, you will not attain your hopes unless you become steadfast against matters that you hate. Beware of looking (at foreign women even one time), because it sets sexual appetite in the heart. This will sufficiently be sedition. Blessed are those whose sight is in their hearts not in their eyes. Do not go after people’s defects as if you are lords. You should inspect your defects like the slaves. People are either sick or healthy. Be kind to the sick and thank God for the health.”
O son of Jundab, regard him who ruptured relations with you, give him who deprived you (of his bestowals), treat kindly him who mistreated you, greet him who reviled at you, be just to him who disputed with you, and pardon him who wronged you in the same way you like others to pardon you. Take lessons from God’s pardoning you; do you not see that His sun is covering the pious and the licentious and His rain is falling on the virtuous and the wrongdoers?
O son of Jundab, do not give alms openly for the purpose of making people second you. If you do so, then you have taken your reward. You should not let your left hand know that your right hand has given alms. He to whom you are giving alms secretly will surely reward you openly be-fore all people on the day on which it will not be harmful for you that people witness your alms-giving. Low you voice because your Lord, Who knows whatever you say secretly or openly, has already known your question before you ask it. When you fast, you should not backbite any-body. Do not oppress anyone while you are fasting. Do not be like those who fast for showing off; their faces are dusty, hair is disheveled, and mouths are dry just for making people know that they are fasting.
O son of Jundab, all the good and all the evil are in front of you. You will see the true good and the true evil after the world to come. God the Glorified put all the good in Paradise and all the evil in Hell, because they will persist. It is an obligation upon him whom God has gifted guidance, honored with faith, granted intelligence, supplied with a brain with which the graces are recognized, and given knowledge and wisdom with which the worldly and religious affairs are managed, it is an obligation on him to deem obligatory upon himself to thank God, never show ingratitude, never forget, obey, and never challenge Him. This obligation is for the old graces that the Lord considered perfectly, the new ones that He gave after creation, the great rewards that He promised, and the favor of imposing only the possible and guaranteeing to help do it. He also called man to seek His help to perform the fewest of what He imposed upon him.
Nevertheless, man is ignoring and unable to do what God ordered him to do. He dressed the garb of belittling the bond between the Lord and him, pursued his whims, went on complying with his lusts, and preferred the world to the world to come; yet, he hopes to be in the Highest Paradise. You should never expect to have the ranks of the doers of charity while you practice the deeds of the evildoers. When the Falling Event will come to pass, the Resurrection will arise, the Great Predominating Calamity comes, the All-Omnipotent will maintain the scale for
judgment and the creatures will be resurrected for the Day of Judgment, only then you will realize whose is the honor and exaltation and whose is sorrow and disappointment. Hence, work in this world so that you will win in the world to come.
O son of Jundab, in one of His revelations, God, the Majestic the Glorified, said: “I will accept only the prayers of him who humiliates himself before My greatness, abstains from the pleasures for My sake, spends his day with referring to Me, never tyrannizes My creatures, serves the hungry, attires the naked, treats the injured kindly, and finds a place for the strange. The light of such people will shine like sunlight. I will give him light in the gloom and composure in the situations of ignorance. I will protect them by My might and assign My angels as their guards. I will respond when they call on Me and give when they ask Me. They are the like of the Highest Paradise; its fruits are unparalleled and it never changes.”
O son of Jundab, Islam is naked; pudency is its dress, decorum is its adornment, good deed is its personality, and piety is its pillar. Everything should have a basis. The basis of Islam is the adoration to us—the Prophet’s family.
O son of Jundab, God, the Blessed the Exalted, has a wall of light that is framed with aquamarine and silk and decorated with fine green silk. This wall is fixed between our enemies and our followers. When the brains will boil, the hearts will reach the throats, and the livers will be fired due to the long period of the situation of the Resurrection, the disciples of God will be taken into that wall. They will be under God’s security and protection. They will have whatever they desire and whatever their eyes find sweet. The enemies of God will be muffled by the sweat and thrilled by fear. They will look at what God will arrange for them and say:
Why is it that we cannot see men whom we had considered as wicked? (38:62).
Then, God’s disciples will look and laugh at them. This is God’s sayings:
We mocked at them. Can our eyes not find them? (38:63).
On the Day of Judgment, the believers will laugh at the disbelievers (83:34).
while reclining on couches and reviewing the bounties given to them. (83:35).
At that time, God will take everyone who supported any of our disciples, even by a single word, to Paradise without judgment.