Imam Ali (AS.): Beware of exaggeration about us. Consider us as slaves of Allah, and fostered by Him, and then say whatever you want on our virtuousness.
Imam al-Husayn (A.S.): Love us out of love for Islam, since the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) has said: Do not introduce me more than what I deserve, since Allah, the Almighty had selected me as His servant prior to selecting me as His Messenger.
Salih ibn Sahl: I believed in divinity of Imam al-Sadiq (A.S.); once when I went to visit him, as soon as he saw me, he said: O Salih, swear by Allah that we are created servants, we have a Sustainer whom we worship, and if we do not worship Him we will be punished.
Isma il, ibn 'Abd al-Aziz: Hadrat Sadiq (A.S.) said: O Isma'il, leave me some water in the ablution room. I stood up and placed there some water. His Holiness set out to perform Wuzu.
I said to myself: I say such and such about him and he goes to the ablution room to perform Wudu. A moment later the Holy Imam (A.S.) came out and said: O Ismail! Do not erect the building beyond its resistance or it will topple; view us as created ones and then say about us whatever you wish!
Imam al-Sadiq (A.S.): Beware of the exaggerators lest they may deviate your children; for the exaggerators are the worst of Allah's creatures; they undermine Allah's Grandeur and claim Divinity for Allah's creatures; I swear by Allah that the exaggerator are worst than the Jews, Christians, Magians and the polytheists.
Imam Reza (A.S.): We, the household of Muhammad (S.A.W.), are the moderate support; the extremists does not reach us [unless he returns toward us], and the laggard will not keep up with us.
Loathing the Extremists
Imam Ali (A.S.): O my Lord! I disgust the extremists as much as Jesus, son of Mary disgusted the Christians; O my Lord! Let them be lonely and helpless forever and do not help anyone of them.
Imam al-Sajjad (A.S.): The Jews loved 'Uzayr so much that they said about him what they wished [and did not reach anywhere by these words]. Neither 'Uzayr belongs to them, nor they belong to 'Uzayr; the Christians too loved Jesus so much that they said about him what they wished; however, neither Jesus belongs to them, nor they belong to Jesus.
This trend will also be applied to us too; a group of our Shi'as will love us so much as to say things about us that were defined by the Jews about Uzayr and by the Christians about Jesus, the son of Mary; this group are not of us and we are not of them.
Imam Reza (A.S.) used to say in his prayers:
O my Lord! I am (by myself) motionless and powerless; for there exists no motion and power without your assistance;
O my Lord, I express my disgust, in your presence toward those who express matters which we had not said about ourselves;
O my Lord, You are the Creator and You are the Ruler; only You we praise, and only from You we seek assistance.
O my Lord! You are our Creator and the Creator of our ancestors, the earliest and the latest.
O my Lord! Divinity merits no one but You, and Godship deserves no one but You; so damn and curse be on the Christians who degraded your grandeur, and also damn and curse be on the others who have beliefs similar to theirs.
O my Lord! We are Your servants and the children of Your slaves; we are neither possessors of any benefit and loss for ourselves nor do we have any choice in our death and life and Resurrection;
O my Lord Whoever deifies us, in Your presence, we express our disgust toward him. Whoever believes that Creation and Provision are in our hands, in Your presence we will express our aversion of him, as Jesus expressed his aversion of the Christians;
O my Lord! We have not called them to such belief; so, do not reprimand us for their beliefs and claims, and forgive us for what they say about us.
O my Lord! Leave not of the unbelievers a single one on earth! For, if Thou doest leave (any of) them, they will mislead thy devotees, and they will breed none but wicked ungrateful ones"
Infidelity of the Extremists
Imam al-Sadiq (A.S.): The smallest thing that diverts a believer from his faith is sitting next to an extremist, listening to him, and confirming his words. My father quoted his father on the authority of his ancestor, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah(S.A.W.) who said: There are two categories of my Ummah Who do not benefit from Islam: The extremists and the Qadariyya (determinists and free-willers).
Abu Hashim al-Ja'fari: I asked Imam al-Reza (A.S.) about the extremists and delegators [Mufawwadah] (believers in delegation, vs. the determinists). He replied: The extremists are infidels, and the delegators are polytheists. Whoever accompanies them or mingles with them, or sits at the same tablecloth with them, or has a relationship with, or gives a wife to, or marries to them, or becomes their trustee, or submits a trust to them, or confirms their words, or helps them even with the fewest words, such a person will get out of the guardianship of Allah, the Almighty, that of Rasul Allah(S.A,W.), and that of ours, the Ahl al-Bayt(AS.).
Husayn ibn Khalid asking Imam al-Reza (A.S.): Whoever believes in anthropomorphism (tashbih) and predestination (j'abr) is an infidel and polytheist whom we disgust both in this world and in the next. O son of Khalid! The extremists have forged the traditions of tashbih and Jabr, and attributed them to us; they have indeed underestimated Allah's Grandeur. So, whoever loves them is our enemy and whoever is their enemy is our friend; whoever displays affection to them, displays animosity to us and whoever displays animosity to them, displays affection to us; whoever associates with them breaks away from us and whoever breaks away from them associates with us; whoever keeps away from them makes friends with us and whoever makes friends with them keeps away from us; whoever respects them disrespects us and whoever disrespects them respects us; whoever accepts them rejects us and whoever rejects them accepts us; whoever does good to them does evil to us, and whoever does evil to them does good to us; whoever confirms them denies us and whoever denies them confirms us; whoever bestows on them deprives us and whoever deprives them bestows on us. O son of Khalid! The one who is our Shi'a never makes friends with them nor seeks assistance from among such communities.
Perdition of the Extremists
Imam Ali (A.S.): The Holy Prophet(S.A.W.) said to me: In one respect, you are like Jesus: The Jews went so far in hating him as they turned hostile to him and calumniated against his mother and the Christians loved him so much that they elevated him to an undeserved status.
Imam Ali (A.S.) then said: Two groups will fall into perdition: The extremist lovers who adore me unduly; and the enemies whose animosity to me leads them to calumniate me.
Imam Ali (A.S.): Two [types of] persons will be annihilated because of me: One is the overzealous [friend] and the other is the
spiteful enemy.
Imam Ali (A.S.) in one of his sermons-: Soon two groups will be destroyed because of me: One the extremist advocates whose overzealous love and affection [toward me] will deviate them from the right path and the other the extremist adversaries whose enmity [to me] will lead them astray. The best stance towards me belongs to those who choose a moderate way. You go along with them!
