Traditions about Allah & some stories of Allah’s Mercy

Traditions about Allah’s Mercy

Abu Sa’id Khadri has narrated from the holy Prophet (s.a):

When the sinful believers are sent to the Hell, the fire becomes cold for them until they are brought out. Then Allah calls on the angels: Bring them to the Paradise, because they are subject to My infinite Mercy and Compassion.

It is narrated from the Prophet’s Household:

When the Resurrection Day is established, the Almighty gathers the believers together and tells them: ‘I forgive your sins as they make you indebted to Me, pardon each others’ sins so that you can enter paradise.’

It is also narrated that on the Resurrection Day, Allah calls on each of His servant: O My servant! I granted you blessings, but you committed sins. As I increased My blessings for you, you added your transgression. The servant bends his head from shyness. Allah calls: O My servant! Raise your head, since I forgave you at the same moment you committed sin.

Another tradition reads:

When a servant is brought before Allah on the Hereafter, s/he bends head and bursts into cry from shame. The Almighty calls: When you committed sin cheerfully I did not make you ashamed. Now that you do not do evil and you are bitterly ashamed, how can I punish you? I forgive your wrongdoing and allow you to enter My paradise.

It is narrated from the Messenger of Allah (s.a) who said:

Allah has a hundred kinds of Mercy, one of which He grants in this world, covering His servants with it, and He reserves the other ninety nine for the Resurrection Day with which to endow His servants.[1]

The great narrator, Shaikh ¯ad£q, has narrated from an infallible Imam:

When the Resurrection Day is established, Allah’s embracing Mercy is manifested and the wrongdoers are forgiven in crowds to such an extent that the outcast Satan becomes covetous!

An important tradition states that when a believer servant is placed in grave, the grave is covered and friends and acquaintances return, leaving him alone the All-Compassionate Allah calls him, out of Mercy: O My servant! You are left alone in the darkness and those for whose pleasure you committed sin and whose satisfaction you preferred to mine, have gone away. Now I grant My Mercy to you such that people are surprised. Then He calls on the angels: O My angels! My servant is lonely, alienated, and forlorn and is My guest. Go help him and open an entrance to paradise for him! Bring him all kinds of flowers and foods! Then leave him alone, because I will be his companion until the Resurrection Day![2]

Stories of Allah’s Mercy

It is narrated that on the Resurrection Day, the servant is called to account and his letter of deeds, full of sins, is given to his left hand. When getting the letter, the servant states “bismill¡hi (In the Name of Allah)”, out of habit, seeking Mercy of Allah. Once he opens it, he finds the letter of his deeds blank and says with astonish: “There is nothing to read.” The angels say: “There were your sins written in this letter, which were removed due to the verse you recited, and Allah forgave all your sins.”[3]

Jesus Christ and the sinner

In a tradition we read that one day prophet Jesus (a.s) went along a road with his apostles, when a sinner notorious for immorality and wickedness saw them. He got terribly regretful of his previous sins, saw himself damned, and burst into weeping, seeking Allah’s forgiveness. Then he thought with himself: “I have not done a good deed in all my life so I do not deserve to accompany the apostles. But since they are Allah’s friends I should follow them.” So he pursued them and called them. One of the apostles turned and looked at the man who was renown for impiety and said: “O Jesus! How can this evildoer follow us? Which religion allows his accompanying us? Send him away not to follow us, lest his sins may make our lives inauspicious!” Jesus (a.s) was beginning to think how he could expel that man when the Almighty revealed to him: “O Jesus! Tell your proud apostle to resume his deeds, because We removed all his good deeds for the contemptuous look he had on the regretful sinner. And give good tidings to Our sinner servant that We forgave his sins and redirected him to guidance for his repentance from past deeds.”[4]

The sinnful youth

Mulla Fat’h Allah al-K¡sh¡n¢ in the exegesis “Minh¡j al-¯¡diqin”, and Ayatollah Kalbasi in the book “An¢s al-Layl” have narrated: “In the time of Maliki Dinar, a sinner youth died. Because of his being a transgressor, people did not shroud or bury his body. While sleeping, Maliki Dinar dreamed of Allah telling him: “Go and bury the body of Our servant in the cemetery of the pious believers, after washing and shrouding it.” Malik answered: “O Allah! He was among the impious people. How could he become so near to You?” He was answered: “When dieing, that sinner wept and said:

يَا مَنْ لَهُ الدُّنْيا وَالآخِرَةُ ارْحَمْ مَن لَيسَ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةُ!

‘O the Master of this world and the Hereafter! Pity the one who has nothing in the world nor in the Hereafter!’

O Malik! Which suffering servant came to Us whom We did not cure? And which deprived servant came to Us whom We did not grant him his wish?”[5]

Granted Wish

In the time of Mansur Ibn ‘Ammar, who was among the Gnostic, a rich man decided to set a sinful ceremony. So he sent his servant to bazaar to buy food for serving the guests and gave him four drachmas.

When going to bazaar, the servant went by the assembly of Mansur Ibn ‘Ammar and said to himself: “I’d better stand here and listen to what Mansur Ibn ‘Ammar says.” He heard Mansur asking help for a poor from the assembly, saying: “Who will give me four drachmas so that I will ask four things for him from Allah?”

The servant of the rich man thought to himself: “It is better to give the money to Mansur and benefit from his prayer, instead of buying food and drink for the sinners with it.” So the servant gave the money to Mansur and said: “Ask four things for me from Allah!” Mansur said: “What would you like me to ask for you from Allah?” The servant replied: “First, ask Allah to free me from the slavery of my master! Second, ask Allah to help my master in doing repentance! Third, that He return this four drachmas to me in some way! Fourth, that the Almighty forgive the sins of me, my servants and his guests altogether!”

Mansur prayed for the servant and he returned to his master without buying anything. The rich man asked his servant: “Where were you?” “O master! I gave four drachmas and bought four prayers.” The servant replied. The rich man asked about the four prayers. The servant said in reply: “First, that Allah make me free from slavery.” The master said: “I make you free in Allah’s path.” “Second, that you do repentance.” “I do repentance,” the master replied. “Third, that Allah return me the four drachmas” The rich man gave him another four drachmas. “And fourth,” said the servant “that the Almighty forgive you, me and all your guests.” The master answered: “I did what I could. But this last one is beyond my ability.” At night, the master dreamed of Allah revealing to him: “O servant! You did your duty, out of mercy, though you are very poor indeed. It is far from Our Infinite Mercy not to do our duty. We forgave you, your servant, and all those present in your gathering.”

Meeting the Generous Allah

A wise man crossed a road where he saw a group of people expelling a young man from the town, because of his corruption. A woman who was weeping extremely followed them. The wise man asked about the woman and found that she was the young man’s mother. The wise man pitied the mother and mediated for him before the group, saying: “Forgive the young man this time, and if he returned to corruption again, you should expel him from town.”

Later on, the wise man returned to the same neighborhood and heard a crying voice behind a door. He thought the young man has been expelled from the town, due to corruption and his mother is crying in his absence. He knocked at the door and the young man’s mother opened it. The wise man asked about the woman’s son. The woman replied: “He has died, but his death was not an ordinary one. When his death approached, he said: ‘Do not inform the neighbors of my death. I have annoyed them very much and they have reproached me so much. I don’t want them to be present on my body. Wash and shroud my body yourself and bury this ring with me. I have just bought it and “bismill¡hir-ra¦m¡nir-ra¦¢m” is written on it. Ask Allah to forgive me beside my grave.’ I did as he had willed and when I was returning from his grave, it was as if I heard him saying: ‘Go and relax mum! I met the Generous!’”[6]

Repentance After Repentance

The great Persian poet, Attar, narrates in his “Mantiq Al-Tiyr”: After committing sin after sin, a sinner could finally repent from his previous deeds. But after that his carnal soul made him repeat his previous sins and then he repented again, however, he violated his repentance once more. He was then so much drenched in sins that experienced the worldly punishment of his sins. Finally he found out that his life, which he had spent in corruption, was coming to an end. He wanted to repent, but he was too ashamed to do so. Like a wheat grain on the fire, he was burning in despair, until the dawn in which he heard a hidden caller saying: “O sinner! The Compassionate says: ‘When you first repented I accepted it, but you broke your promise. I granted you respite to repent again and accepted it, while I could punish you. Still you committed sins and sank yourself in wrongdoing. If you want to repent now, do so and I will accept your repentance.’ “[7]

Prayer of a Lost is Answered

Attar narrates in “Mantiq al-Tayr”: One night, Gabriel was by Sidratul Muntaha[8], when he heard the Almighty saying labbayk[9], in reply to someone Gabriel did not know. He wanted to know the one who deserved to be answered by Allah, but found no one in all the heavens and the earth. And he still heard Allah repeating his reply. He searched again but saw nobody of such rank before Allah. He asked the Almighty: ‘O Allah! Direct me to your servant whom you answer!’ He was answered: ‘Watch Rome!’ Gabriel looked and saw an idolater in a temple crying and calling an idol. Gabriel was astonished by this and said: ‘Uncover the truth for me! How comes an idolater calls his idol and You answer him out of Mercy?’ Gabriel was replied: ‘My servant’s heart has become hard so he has lost his way. But I am pleased with the way he worships, hence I reply him so that he may find the right path.’ At the same moment, the idolater began to call the Unique Allah![10]

Change from the Unlucky Book to the Lucky Book

The author of “exegesis of fatihat Al-Kitab”, which is one of the most important scientific and Gnostic books written by a scholar after the age of al-Fay¤ al-K¡sh¡n¢, narrates that:

In the Israelites, there was a pious worshipper who had secluded from other people, remaining in his own privacy. He had worshipped Allah so devotedly day and night that all the angels befriended him. Gabriel, too, who was the guardian of heavenly secrets, asked the Almighty to be allowed to descend in order to meet the pious man. He was ordered: ‘Look into the Lawhul Mahfuz[11] to see his standing!’

Gabriel looked and found the pious man’s name among the unlucky. He got surprised at the unpredictability of fates, ceased to desire meeting him, and said: ‘O Allah! No one can stand against your verdict and tolerate these peculiarities.’ He was called: ‘Since you have wished to see him for a while, now go and meet him and tell him what you saw.’

Gabriel descended into the pious man’s convent to find a slim and weak individual who was prying enthusiastically and wholeheartedly; sometimes standing in front of the altar and then humbly prostrating on the soil before Allah. Gabriel greeted him and said: ‘O pious man! Do not get yourself into trouble! Because your name is written among the unlucky.’

Hearing this, the pious smiled like a new flower that blossoms with the morning breeze, and as a melodious nightingale seeing the flower began reciting ‘Praise be to Allah.’

Gabriel said: ‘Poor man! How can you call ‘Praise be to Allah’ at this miserable story? You should be gloomy, rather than delighted!’

The old pious replied: ‘Do not speak this way, because I am the servant and He is my Master. A servant would not wish anything beyond his Master’s will. He has the power to do as He is inclined, and take me where he wills. Praise be to Allah that if I do not deserve going to paradise, I am needed as the wood for the hell!’

Gabriel returned to his own position while seeing state of the man excited his pity. Allah ordered him to look at the Divine Memory to see what the painter of “Allah blots out, and He establishes whatsoever He will…”[12] has drawn and what the creator of “And Allah does what He will…”[13] has painted. Gabriel looked and saw the pious man’s name among the lucky. He was astonished and said: ‘O Allah! What is the secret of this story? And what is the reason for changing the name from unlucky to lucky?’

He was answered: ‘O the trustee of revelation secrets! When you informed the pious of his stance he did not groan, rather he was patient and surrendered himself to My will and his destiny; he said ‘Praise be to Allah’, calling Me with all My praiseworthy names. So I inclined to name him among the lucky instead of the unlucky, out of Mercy.’[14]