Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Anyone who acknowledges God should not complain when his earnings are delayed and should not accuse God of His acts. As a man asked him about conviction, Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) answered:
The conviction is to depend upon God, submit to Him, consent to His acts, and entrust Him with the affairs.
Abdullah bin Yahya said: Within the supplication that I wrote to Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him), there was the sentence, ‘Praise be to God as much as the utmost of His knowledge.’ The Imam answered my missive saying:
Do not say, ‘the utmost of His knowledge,’ because His knowledge has no limits. You may say, ‘the utmost of His satisfaction.’ As a man asked him about the munificent, Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) answered:
Your question has two references. If you refer to the created munificent, I can tell you that he is the one who fulfills what God has imposed upon him, while the miserly is the one who withholds what God has imposed upon him. If you refer to the All-munificent God, I can tell you that He is the All-munificent whether He gives or not. If He gives, He gives you what is not yours, and if He does not give, He deprives you of what in not yours.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said to one of his adherents:
Fear God and say the truth even if it will cause you to perish, for your salvation lies in telling the truth. Fear God and leave the wrong even if it will save you, for your perdition lies in telling the wrong.
As his agent swore he had not betrayed him, Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said to him:
To betray me and waste my wealth are the same. However, betrayal is more harmful for you.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Beware of depriving anyone in fields of obedience to God lest, you will lose two folds in fields of disobedience to God.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
The believer is like the two pans of a balance — the more faith he enjoys the more misfortunes he faces.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said as he stopped near a grave:
It is quite proper to leave the first of a matter the end of which is this (grave). It is also quite proper to fear the end of a thing the first of which is this (grave).
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
He who speaks in the Essence of God will perish, he who seeks power will perish, and he who feels self-conceited will perish. Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
The supplies of this world and the religion are difficult. Whenever you extend your hand towards any source of the worldly supplies, you will found out that a sinful has preceded you there. When you intend to obtain a source of the religious supplies, you will not find anyone helping you.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Four deeds are originated from extreme solicitude. They are eating soil, crumbling the clay, clipping the nails with the teeth, and biting the hair of the beard. Looking at three things improves the sight. They are verdure, flowing water, and handsome faces. Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Good neighborhood is not abstinence from harm. It is to tolerate the harm (of the neighbors).
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Do not take liberties with your friend. You should keep any quantity of respect among you lest you will lose pudency.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said to one of his sons:
O son, let not God see you committing an act of disobedience against which He warned you, and let Him not miss you in an act of obedience to Him of which He ordered you. Keep serious and do not convince yourself that you are worshipping and obeying God perfectly, because no one can achieve perfection in the fields of worshipping God. Beware of joking because it extinguishes the illumination of your faith and disgraces you personality. Beware of indolence and laziness because they both prevent you from receiving your shares of the pleasures of this world and the world to come.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
When injustice predominates over the right, it is unacceptable to expect good from anybody before investigation.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Kissing on the mouth is not acceptable except from the wife and the little child.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Try to divide your time into four parts. The first part should be dedicated to (secret) supplication to God, the second to seeking earnings, the third to associating with the friends and the trusty people who show you your defects and treat you sincerely, and the fourth to your legal pleasures. Through this part, you can manage the other three parts. Do not think of poverty and long age. He who thinks of poverty will be stingy and he who thinks of long age will be acquisitive. Offer a share of the worldly pleasures to yourselves by enjoying moderately the legal pleasures that do not injure your personality. Make such pleasures help you fulfill your religious duties perfectly. It is said that, “As for those who neglect the legal worldly pleasures completely and adhere to the religious duties or neglect the religious duties and adhere to the worldly affairs, they are not from us.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Learn the religious question, for jurisprudence is the key of intelligence, the perfection of worship, and the means to the high standings and the respectful positions in this world and the world to come. The priority of the knowledgeable over the worshipper is as same as the priority of the sun over the stars. God will not accept the deeds of those who avoid learning the religious questions.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said to Ali bin Yaqttin:
The expiation of working with the (unjust) rulers is to treat the friends with kindness.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Whenever people perpetrate unprecedented sins, God will inflict upon them unexpected misfortunes.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
In the time of the just ruler, you should thank and he will gain rewards. In the time of the unjust ruler, you should tolerate and he will burden the punishment of the sin.
Abu Hanifa related: After I had performed the hajj I went to Medina to visit Abu Abdillah As-Sadiq (peace be upon him). I entered his house and sat in the entrance waiting for his permission. After a while, a male toddler went out. “O boy,” I asked, “where should the stranger excrete in your country?” The boy asked for a respite before he sat to a wall and spoke:
You should be away from riversides, places were fruits fall, yards of mosques, and roadbeds. You should also hide against a wall, lift up your dress, avoid turning the face or the back to the kiblah, and then you can excrete anywhere.
I was highly admired by the wording of that boy. I therefore asked about his name. “I am Musa bin Ja’far bin Mohammed bin Ali bin Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Talib,” answered he. I then asked him about the source of the acts of disobedience to God. He answered: The source of any sin is unquestionably one of three: either the God, the God and the servant, or the servant. If God is the source of sins –yet He is not-, then it is improper for Him to punish the servants for what they did not commit. If God and the servants are together the source of sin –yet this is not accurate-, then it is improper for the stronger partner to wrong the weak partner. If the servant is the source of the sins –and this is quite accurate-, then the Lord may pardon out of His generosity and liberty or punish for the commitment of such a sin.
After I had heard so, I left before I could meet Abu Abdillah since that wording was sufficient for me.
Abu Ahmed Al-Khurasani asked Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) whether atheism preceded polytheism or the opposite. ‘You have not been accustomed to ask such questions,’ answered the Imam, ‘I do not know that you intrude yourself in the theological discussions.’ Abu Ahmed confessed that it had been Husham bin Al-Hakam who ordered him to put such a question before the Imam. The Imam, then, answered:
Atheism preceded polytheism. The foremost atheist was Eblis about whom God says:
He refused and he was proud, and he was one of the unbelievers –atheists-.
Atheism is one thing while polytheism is not. Polytheism is to believe in one (god) and associate others with him.
As he noticed two men reviling at each other, Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) commented:
The first person to revile is the more wrongful. He should burden –the inconvenience- of his sin as well as the sin of the other unless the other was the aggressor.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
On the Day of Resurrection, a caller will summon those whose rewards should be presented by God individually. Except those who forgave and reformed themselves, no one will attend.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
The liberal well-mannered ones are in the shelter of God Who will not abandon them until they reside in Paradise. Prophets of God are all liberal. My father incessantly commanded me to hold on liberality and noble manners until he departed. As-Sindi bin Shahek narrated: When Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) was dying, I offered to enshroud him. He answered: We, the Prophet’s family, should cover the expenditure of our first pilgrimage, the dowries of our women, and our coffins from our legal fortunes.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said to Fadhl bin Younus:
Convey the good, say the good, and do not be yes-man.
“What is yes-man?” asked Fadhl, and the Imam instructed:
Do not say, ‘I am with people,’ or ‘I am like others,’ for the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: “O people, they are only two ways — either good or evil. Do not prefer the way of evil to that of good.”
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) passed by an ugly villager, greeted him, sat with him, talked with him for a considerable time, and then asked him to settle his needs when he will be in need for him. Some said, “O son of God’s Messenger, how do you sit with this one and ask him to settle your needs while he is in need for you?” The Imam (peace be upon him) answered:
He was one of God’s servants, a brother in the Book of God, and a neighbor in the lands of God. He and we enjoy the same best father — Adam (peace be upon him) and the same best religion that is Islam. Perhaps, our need will someday be in his hand and we will have to sit modestly before him.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) then recited a poetic verse:
We regard even those who do not deserve our regard so that we will not be friendless.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Asking for –financial- help is acceptable only in blood money that is imposed on an insolvent, heavy debts, and extreme poverty.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
The best kind of almsgiving is to help the weak.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
The astonishment of the ignorant at the intelligent is greater than the astonishment of the intelligent at the ignorant.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
For the steadfast, the misfortune is one, while it is two for the impatient.
Imam Al-Kazim (peace be upon him) said:
Only the sufferers of injustice can realize its intensity.
