1. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who treats people kindly will be accepted as arbiter.
2. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
To trust everybody in times of injustice and cheating is disability.
3. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
If problems are added to each other, they will give birth of relief.
4. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
To recognize the actuality of your friend, you should enrage him. If he keeps up his friendship, he is true friend lest, he is false.
5. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Do not appreciate one’s affection before you enrage him three times.
6. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Do not trust your friend perfectly, because the knockdown of the trustful is incurable.
7. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Islam is a definite rank. Faith is one rank higher than Islam. Conviction is one rank higher than faith. People have been given a rank lower than conviction.
8. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
To remove a mountain is easier than removing faith.
9. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Faith is in heart and conviction is a number of inspirations.
10. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The desire for the worldly pleasures causes grief and sadness. Abstinence from the worldly pleasures brings about the rest of both heart and body.
11. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Life is to rent a house and buy bread.
12. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who gains oppression is not gaining welfare. He who mistreats people should not complain when people mistreat him.
13. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
In homelands, exchanging visits is the means of association. In travel, correspondence is the means of association.
14. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
A believer is not perfectly virtuous unless he enjoys three characters—knowledgeability of the religious affairs, moderation in living, and steadfastness against misfortunes.
15. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
An actual believer is that whose sexual appetite does not overcome him and whose stomach does not shame him.
16. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
A twenty-year friendship is kinship.
17. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Favors should be done only to the highborn or the religious. Those who show gratitude are very few.
18. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Enjoining good and forbidding evil should be practiced with a faithful believer that he would learn a lesson, or an ignorant that he would earn. Enjoining good and forbidding evil become surely worthless when they are applied with the powerful tyrants.
19. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Those who enjoin good and forbid evil should enjoy three characters: they should be aware of the matters that they enjoin and the matters that they forbid, fair in the matters that they enjoin and the matters that they forbid, and lenient in the matters that they enjoin and the matters that they forbid.
20. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who suffers a misfortune due to obtruding upon an unjust ruler will be neither rewarded nor endowed with patience.
21. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
As some people showed ingratitude for God’s graces, He changed the graces into crises. As other people showed steadfastness against the misfortunes that inflicted them, God changed the mis-fortunes into graces.
22. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The prosperity of coexistence and association are three thirds: two thirds are acumen and one is overlooking.
23. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Revenging on the pauper is extremely ugly.
24. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) was asked about personality, he answered:
Personality stands for that God should not see you in situations against which He warned, and miss you in situations of which He ordered.
25. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Thank him who did you favor, and confer upon him who thanked you. Graces that are shown gratitude will not remove while those that are shown ingratitude will not persist. Thanks, increase the graces and saves against poverty.
26. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
To miss a need is better than asking it from other than its people. Bad mannerism in a misfortune is more catastrophic than the misfortune itself.
27. As a man asked him a short item of instruction that collects the welfare of this world and the world to come, the Imam, peace be upon him, said:
Never tell untruths.
28. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) was asked about eloquence. He answered:
Eloquence is to express the idea in as few as possible words. The eloquent is that who attains his demand in the least effort.
29. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Debt is grief at night and humility in day.
30. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
If your worldly demands are attainable, you should check your religion.
31. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Treat your fathers piously so that your sons will treat you piously. Keep yourselves away from the strange women so that your harem will be chaste.
32. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who entrusts a betrayer with a deposit will be deprived of God’s warranty.
33. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said to Humran Ibn A’yun:
O Humran, look to him who is less powerful that you are and do not look at him who is more powerful so that you will be more satisfied with what God has allotted for you and will be a greater motive to deserve the Lord’s increase. Know that little permanent deed with conviction is more favorable to God than the many deeds that are lacking conviction. You should know also that no piety is more profitable than avoiding committing the prohibited matters and the abstinence from harming and backbiting the believers. No living is more pleasant than good manner-ism, no fortune is more advantageous than satisfaction with the sufficient and the little, and no ignorance is more harmful than self-conceit.
34. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Pudency is of two faces—one is weakness while the other is power, submission, and faith.
35. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Negligence of others’ rights is humility. Certainly, the neglector of rights needs for forgery in this regard.
36. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
It is sufficient for one of the groups to salute. Similarly, it is sufficient for one of the groups to respond the salutation.
37. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Salutation is voluntary while responding is obligatory.
38. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Do not answer those who speak before they greet you.
39. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Shaking hands is the perfect greeting of the resident and embracement is the perfect greeting of the traveler.
40. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as said:
Shake hands, because this will confiscate malice.
41. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Fear God even if to some extent. Construct a screen between Him and you even if transparent.
42. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
As for those who control themselves in rage, desire, fear, and lust, God will prevent Hell from burning their bodies.
43. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Good health is a light grace; it is forgotten when found and mentioned when missed.
44. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
In good days, God endows with the grace of consent. In distress, He endows with the grace of purification.
45. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
It often happens that God endows a servant with a grace that he does not expect. It also happens that one hopes for something while his goodness is in its opposite. It also may happen that one is running for his doom, while he goes slowly for his goodness.
46. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who does not arrange show steadfastness against every misfortune, show gratitude for every grace, and show 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.
47. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Everything has limits. The limit of conviction is not to fear anything besides God.
48. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The (faithful) believer should enjoy eight characters; he should be venerable in shaking situations, steadfast against misfortunes, thankful in luxury, satisfied with what God has decided to him, avoid oppressing the enemies, avoid overtaxing the associates, should fatigue his body, and make people feel glad with him.
49. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Knowledge is the comrade of the faithful believer, clemency is his supporter, patience is the commander of his army, lenience is his brother, and charity is his father.
50. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said to Abu Ubayda who asked him to supplicate to God for saving him from making his earnings pass by the mediation of the servants:
God has arranged to make people’s earnings in other people’s hands. You should supplicate to God to make your earnings in the hands of the charitable people, because this is a sort of happiness, and not to make your earnings in the hands of the vicious, because it is a sort of despondency.
51. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
As for those who practice without guidance, they are like him who walks without choosing a definite path. The more he walks, the remoter he becomes.
52. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The meaning of God’s saying,
Have fear of God as you should be (3:102).
is that God should be obeyed in such a way that He should not be disobeyed, mentioned in such a way that He should not be neglected, and thanked in such a way that He should not be shown ingratitude.
53. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He who recognizes God accurately will fear Him. He who fears God accurately will disregard the worldly pleasures.
54. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The actual fearful is that who cannot speak due to the intensity of fear.
55. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) was asked about the manners of some people who were committing the acts of disobedience to God and claiming that they were desiring for the mercy of God and kept on doing so until death attacked them. He (‘as) said:
As for those who act disobediently and claim expecting God’s mercy until they die, they are rocking on hopes. They are surely liars. They do not expect God’s mercy. He who expects some-thing should seek it. Likewise, he who fears something should escape it.
56. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
We love those who are intelligent, knowledgeable, perceptive, expert, clement, courteous, patient, veracious, and loyal. God gave the noble characters exclusively to the prophets (peace be upon them). He who enjoys such characters should thank God for them. He who does not enjoy them should supplicate to God for them.
As he was asked about these noble characters, Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The noble characters are piety, satisfaction, patience, gratefulness, clemency, pudency, generosity, bravery, enthusiasm, veracity, charity, fulfillment of the trusts, conviction, good mannerism, and chivalry.
57. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The firmest handle of faith is to love, hate, give, and deprive—all for God’s sake.
58. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Nothing will follow a dead person except three things: alms that God gave permanently in his life and it will follow him after death, a norm of guidance that others pursue, and a virtuous son that supplicates to God for his favor.
59. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Lying invalidates the ablution (for the prayers) and breaks the fasting.
The attendants said: “But we use to tell lies.” He (‘as) said:
I do not mean lying due to garrulity, but I mean forging lies against God, His Apostle, and the Imams (peace be upon them).
The Imam (‘as) then added:
Fasting is not abstaining from food or drink only. Mary (peace be upon her) said, (as the Qur’an reported)
I have promised the Beneficent God to fast. (19:26).
This means to keep silent. Thus, you should keep silent, turn the sights away (from whatever God has forbidden), and stop envying and disputing with each other. Envy consumes the faith like the fire when consumes the wood.
60. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
The Divine Throne will be shaken when one makes God the witness of a false matter.10
61. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
God knew that sin is better for the believer than self-conceit lest, God will never test the believers through the commitment of sins.
62. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
He whose conducts are bad is tormenting himself.
63. Imam As-Sadiq (‘as) said:
Favor is well-known. Except its reward, nothing is better than doing favor. It is God’s gift to the servants. Not everyone who likes to do people favor can do it, not everyone who desires for doing favor will be able to do it, and not everyone who can do favor will be permitted to do it. If God wills to offer a grace to a servant, He gathers the desire, ability, and permission to do favor for him. This is the perfect pleasure and honor for both the seeker and the doer.