From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: When one of you makes a wish, let his wish be for what is good, and let him wish abundantly, for God is All-Embracing, All-Generous. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 154)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If you cherish a wish in your heart, let that wish be for good, and let it be lofty, for God is All-Embracing and All-Generous.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: He (PBUH) said: Wealth is in the heart, and poverty is in the heart. (al-Ash'athiyyat, p. 155)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Wealth and poverty are both in the heart.
(We say: that is, one who is outwardly rich may in his heart be destitute and of a beggarly disposition, while one who is outwardly poor may in his heart be rich and free of need.)
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: I observed the Prophet (PBUH) more than once, and when he drank he would take three breaths, with each of them pronouncing the name of God as he drank, and praising God when he had finished. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 161)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Several times I observed closely how the Prophet (PBUH) drank water, and I saw that he drank it in three breaths, saying 'In the name of God' with each breath, and praising God at the end.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Iblis says to his hosts: Cast among them wrongdoing and envy, for these two are close to the equal of associating partners with God. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 166)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Iblis says to his troops: Spread envy and oppression among the children of Adam, for these two together are the equal of associating partners with God.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): A promise is a gift. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 166)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: A promise, like a gift, creates expectation, and it is not right to break it.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): Whoever restrains his anger, keeps his contentment open and ready, bestows his kindness freely, maintains the bonds of kinship, and renders back what is entrusted to him, God Most High will place him within His greatest light on the Day of Resurrection. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 166)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whoever bridles his anger, is unstinting in his contentment, does good continually, joins the bonds of kinship, and is faithful to what is entrusted to him, will have his place on the Day of Resurrection within the greatest light of God.
(We say: the spreading of contentment means to be quickly pleased and to remain content always.)
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: When a sick person recovers, he is told: May the purification from sins be a joy to you. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 169)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When a sick person recovers, say to him: Rejoice, for you have been cleansed of your sins!
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Glorification of God is half of the scale, and fasting is half of patience. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 169)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Glorification of God fills half of the scale of deeds, and fasting perfects in a person half of the virtue of patience.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Whoever refutes the innovation of an innovator is in the path of God Most High. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 172)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whoever refutes the innovation of an innovator has a good deed in the way of God recorded for him.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The kindness of a corrupt man scarcely reaches anyone but a corrupt man like himself. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 172)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The good done by a corrupt man reaches none but a corrupt man like himself.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: I do not think that any of you forgets anything of the affair of his religion except because of some sin he has committed. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 172)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whenever you forget something of your religion, it is on account of a sin you have committed.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Indeed God, Blessed and Exalted, has set with every drought an abundance, with every affliction an ease, with every hardship a relief, with every sorrow a joy, and with every scarcity a plenty; yet you cry out in complaint to your Lord and ascribe only evil to Him. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 172)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God has placed relief together with every famine, blessing together with every distress, ease together with every hardship, gladness together with every sorrow, and affordability together with every costliness. Yet you complain without ceasing and ascribe to God only what is bad.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Love is with God and the angels and in the hearts of the believers. Indeed God, Blessed and Exalted, has granted the believers three things: aversion, love, and awe in the breasts of the believers. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 177)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Love is found only with God and the angels and in the hearts of the believers. God gives the believers three things: aversion, love, and awe.
(We say: the word miqa is one of those words that carry opposite senses; it means both aversion and love. Here, since it is placed alongside love, it must mean aversion. In that case the hadith intimates that God bestows upon the believer the aversion of his enemies towards him, the love of his friends for him, and awe of him in the eyes of the common people.)
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): Visiting the sick is after three days. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 200)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When an illness has lasted more than three days, go to visit the sick person; not before that.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): A funeral bier was brought forward and he was asked, Will the prayer be performed over it? He said: We shall do so, but in truth it is a man's own deeds that pray over him. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 201)
A funeral bier was brought and the Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked to pray over it. He said: I will pray, but the true prayer over any person is his own deeds.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): A man died in a village a farsakh distant from Kufa, and they carried him to Kufa. The matter was brought before Ali ibn Abi Talib, and he punished them severely, then said: Bury the bodies where they fall, and do not act as the Jews act, for the Jews transport their dead to Bayt al-Maqdis. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 206)
A man had died in a village a farsakh from Kufa, and the people took up the body and carried it all the way to Kufa in order to bury it there. When the Commander of the Faithful (AS) learned of it, he forbade them sternly and said: Bury the bodies of your dead in the very place where they die, and do not be like the Jews, who used to carry their dead as far as Bayt al-Maqdis.
From Ali (AS), who said: While the Messenger of God (PBUH) was seated and we were gathered around him, a daughter of his sent word saying: My son is in the market place; if you would see fit to come to me. The Messenger of God (PBUH) said to the messenger: Go to her and inform her that to God belongs what He has given and to God belongs what He has taken, and that every soul shall taste death, and you will be paid your wages in full only on the Day of Resurrection; whoever is drawn away from the Fire and admitted into the Garden has indeed triumphed, and the life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion. Then she sent word back, saying: It would be more pleasing to my soul that you come to me. So the Messenger of God (PBUH) set out and we went with him, and he came to the boy, whose breath was rattling in his breast as though it were in a worn waterskin. The Messenger of God (PBUH) wept and sobbed aloud. We said: O Messenger of God, you weep, yet you forbid us to weep? He said: I did not forbid you to weep; rather I forbade you to wail. This is only a mercy that God places in the heart of whomever He wills of His creation. God has mercy upon whom He wills, and God has mercy only upon the merciful among His servants. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 208)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: We were sitting with the Messenger of God (PBUH) when one of his daughters sent word that her small son had gone to the market and had not returned home; she was seeking news of her son. The Messenger of God (PBUH) said to the one who had brought the message: Go back and tell my daughter that God gives and, whenever He wills, He takes. Then he recited: Every soul shall taste death, and you will be paid your wages in full only on the Day of Resurrection; whoever is drawn away from the Fire and admitted into the Garden has indeed triumphed, and the life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion [Qur'an 3:185]. The man went and delivered the message. The Prophet's daughter said: This message is more precious to me than the child himself. Ali (AS) continued: We were returning with the Prophet (PBUH) when we saw in the market that the child had fallen and was in the throes of death. When the Messenger of God (PBUH) saw this scene, he wept. We said: O Messenger of God, did you not forbid us to weep? He said: I forbade you to wail, but weeping is something involuntary, a mercy that God places in the heart of whomever He wills. God has mercy upon whom He wills, and God's mercy is nearer to those who are themselves people of mercy.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): When a man's appointed term lies in the land in which God has decreed that he be buried, God creates in him a need that draws him there, until, when his trace has run its course and he is taken, the earth will say on the Day of Resurrection: O my Lord, this is what You entrusted to me. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 210)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When it is ordained that someone be buried in a certain land, God causes a need to arise in him so that he goes to that land and dies and is buried there. On the Day of Resurrection that earth will say: O God, take back what You entrusted to me!
From Ali ibn al-Husayn, who said: When the Prophet (PBUH) passed away, a group of the Banu Hashim gathered and said: Where shall we bury him, O Abu al-Hasan? The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: We shall bury him as he himself commanded concerning the martyrs of Uhud; he said that their graves were to be where they fell. They said: You have spoken truly. So they drew a line around the place where he lay and dug his grave there. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 213)
Imam al-Sajjad (AS) said: When the Prophet (PBUH) passed away, the Banu Hashim gathered and said: Where shall we bury him, O Abu al-Hasan? The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Just as the Prophet himself said concerning the martyrs of Uhud, that they should be buried where they had fallen upon the ground, so too we shall bury him in the very place where he departed to God's mercy. They said: What an excellent word! So they drew a line around the pure body of the Messenger of God (PBUH), dug the grave in that very spot, and buried him there.
From Ali (AS), who said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: No people gather in an assembly and fail to remember God, Mighty and Majestic, and fail to invoke blessings upon me, but that assembly becomes a source of regret for them; if He wills He seizes them, and if He wills He pardons them. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 215)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) used to say: Whenever a group gathers in an assembly and does not remember God and does not send blessings upon me, that assembly will become a source of regret for them; if He wills He takes them to task, and if He wills He forgives them.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): The Messenger of God (PBUH) made this supplication on the day of Uhud: O God, to You is the complaint made, and You are the One whose help is sought. Then Gabriel descended and said: O Muhammad, you have called upon God by His greatest name. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 218)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: On the day of Uhud the Messenger of God (PBUH) kept saying: O God, to You is the complaint made, and You are the One whose help is sought. Gabriel descended and said: O Muhammad, this by which you call upon God is God's greatest name!
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who used to say: Beware of careless speech, for what the children of Adam utter in excess is written down. So keep to supplication for what is good and known, and beware of supplicating with cursing and for another's disgrace, for God, Mighty and Majestic, has laid down decisively in His Book, saying: Call upon your Lord humbly and in secret; indeed He does not love the transgressors. So whoever transgresses in his supplication by cursing or by seeking another's disgrace is among the transgressors. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 226)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Beware of ill-considered speech and of whatever leads to division! And when you supplicate, supplicate for good and for what is wholesome, and beware of cursing and of praying for the humiliation of others. God has said: Call upon your Lord humbly and in secret; indeed He does not love the transgressors [Qur'an 7:55]. Transgression in supplication is precisely this cursing and seeking of another's disgrace.
From Ali (AS), who said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: God, Mighty and Majestic, spreads out both His hands at every dawn for the one who sinned in the night: will he repent, that He may forgive him? And He spreads out both His hands at sunset for the one who sinned in the day: will he repent, that He may forgive him? (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 228)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) used to say: At daybreak God opens the hand of His mercy to those who sinned in the night, that they might repent and He might forgive them; and at sunset He opens it to those who sinned in the day, that they might repent and He might forgive them.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Three things are among the gates of righteousness: generosity of soul, goodness of speech, and patience in the face of injury. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 231)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Three things are a gate of righteousness, that is, they keep a person within the orbit of goodness so that good deeds continually arise from it: to be generous; to speak in a positive and respectful manner; and to bear patiently the injuries one suffers.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Three things are a repose for the believer: meeting one's brethren, the breaking of the fast, and vigil in the last part of the night. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 231)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Three things bring the believer repose: meeting with friends; fasting and then breaking the fast; and communing alone with God in the last part of the night.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The pillars of unbelief are four: craving, dread, anger, and lust. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Four things may drag a person into unbelief: intense craving for something; intense aversion to something; violent anger; and an insatiable appetite for women.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The wrongdoer has three marks: he overpowers the one above him by domination, and the one beneath him by wrongdoing, and he lends his support to the oppressors. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The one who is a wrongdoer is not only unforgiving and tyrannical towards those beneath him; he also acts unjustly towards those above him, and wherever he sees an act of oppression he becomes a partner of the oppressor.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The lazy man has three marks: he dawdles until he falls short, he falls short until he squanders, and he squanders until he sins. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: One who gives in to laziness ends in negligence, and from excessive negligence he comes to squander what is due, and finally he falls into sin.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The first of knowledge is silence, the second is listening, the third is spreading it, and the fourth is acting upon it. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: To acquire knowledge one must first learn silence. Silence enables a person to listen and to learn, and thereafter to spread that knowledge. But knowledge is not perfected within a person unless he acts upon it.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The best of people is one who falls in love with worship and embraces it, loves it with his heart, engages in it with his body, and devotes himself wholly to it, so that he does not care in what condition of this world he wakes, whether in one state or another. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The best of people is one who loves worship passionately and cherishes it with his whole being. He casts his body into it as well, and frees himself for God so completely that he is unaware of what is going on in the world.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: A servant is not truly learned until he neither envies the one above him nor belittles the one beneath him. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 233)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The true scholar is one from whose being both envy of those above him and contempt for those beneath him have departed.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): He fell ill, and his brethren came to visit him and said: How have you woken, O Commander of the Faithful? He said: In evil. They said: Glory be to God, is this the speech of one such as you? He (AS) said: God, Blessed and Exalted, says: And We test you with evil and with good as a trial, and to Us you shall be returned. So good is health and wealth, and evil is sickness and poverty, by way of trial and testing. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 233)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) fell ill, and a number of the companions came to visit him. They asked: How are you, O Commander of the Faithful? He said: I am afflicted with evil! They said: Glory be to God, such words are unbecoming of you! He said: Why unbecoming? God Himself has said that He tests us with good and with evil and returns us to Himself: And We test you with evil and with good as a trial, and to Us you shall be returned [Qur'an 21:35]. Good is health and wealth, and evil is sickness and poverty; and all of it is for testing and trial.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Do not belittle any act of kindness that you are able to perform, preferring to it something greater, for a little given at the moment of need is more beneficial to its recipient than a great deal given when there is no need of it. Do each day the work that belongs to it, and you will be rightly guided. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 233)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If one day you are granted the opportunity to do some small good deed, do it, and do not let it pass in the hope of a greater deed in the future. A little help given when it is needed is far better than much help given when there is no need of it. Each day, do the good works of that day, so that little by little you may grow.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who used to say: To reproach a brother is better than to lose him. Tomorrow death will come to him, and the loss of him at his death will be enough for you: you weep for him, while in life you abandoned the bond with him. And do not obey against him one who harbours hidden enmity, lest you become like that man. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 233)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: That your friend should be present and reproach you is better than that he should be absent and you grieve for his absence. In the end, death will one day separate you from one another, and you will weep for him and regret that while he was alive you did not keep up the bond with him. So join yourself to your friend, but never join him in enmity against anyone, for then you become like him.
From Ali ibn al-Husayn, from his father, that Ibn al-Kawwa asked Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), saying: O Commander of the Faithful, shall we give the greeting of peace to the sinner of this community? He (AS) said: God, Mighty and Majestic, sees him as worthy of monotheism, and we do not see him as worthy of a greeting of peace? (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 234)
Someone asked the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Should we give the greeting of peace to a sinful Muslim? The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God has deemed him worthy of monotheism, and you do not deem him worthy of a greeting?
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Beware of anguished impatience, for it cuts off hope, weakens action, and bequeaths grief. And know that the way out lies in two things: whatever admits of a remedy, then contrive it; and whatever admits of no remedy, then endure it with patience. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 234)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Impatience and anguish put the goal further off and weaken action, and of themselves they breed sorrow and distress. There are never more than two roads before you: either some contrivance or measure can be taken, and then it must be taken; or no contrivance or measure is conceivable, and then one must be patient.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: God Most High revealed to Moses: Do not abandon My remembrance in any state whatever, for abandoning My remembrance hardens the heart. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 234)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God revealed to Moses: O Moses, never cease from My remembrance, for abandoning My remembrance causes hardness of heart.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Whoever remembers God much, God Most High writes for him a release from the Fire and a release from hypocrisy. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 235)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whoever is given to abundant remembrance of God, God delivers him from hypocrisy and from the Fire of the Day of Resurrection.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Seize the opportunity for supplication at these occasions: at the recitation of the Qur'an, at the call to prayer, and at the falling of rain. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 235)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When you recite the Qur'an, supplicate; when you hear the call to prayer, supplicate; when the rain falls, supplicate.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who used to say: Kindness is a crop among the most fruitful of crops and a treasure among the most excellent of treasures. So let not the ingratitude of one who is ungrateful for it, nor the denial of one who denies it, make you averse to doing good. And know that the need of those who do good for the doing of it is greater than the need of those who desire it from them. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 235)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: A good deed is like a goodly crop or a precious treasure. That some people belittle a good deed or deny it should not hold you back from doing good. Know that the need of those who do good for the goodness and blessing they gain from it is greater than the need of the needy person for that good deed and for the difficulty it relieves for him.
From his grandfather Ali ibn al-Husayn, from his father, that Ali (AS) used to say: Your two angels are upon your head; your tongue is their pen and your saliva their ink. So do not take up what does not concern you. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 236)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) used to say: Your tongue is a pen in the hands of the two angels seated upon your shoulders. So do not utter anything that is of no benefit to you!
From Ali ibn al-Husayn, from his father, from Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), that when morning came he would say: Welcome to you both, two noble guardian angels! I shall dictate to you what you love, if God Most High wills. Then he would remain in glorification and in declaring God's oneness until the sun rose, and likewise after the afternoon prayer until it set. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 236)
Imam Husayn (AS) said: When morning came, the Commander of the Faithful (AS) would say to his two angels: Good morning to you, two noble guardian angels! God willing, today I shall dictate to you such things as you love. Then he would sit in glorification of God and in declaring His oneness until the sun rose, and likewise after the afternoon prayer until the sun set.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Were it not that God Most High created the son of Adam a fool, he would not go on living; and if the beasts knew what you do to them, they would not grow fat for you. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 236)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Had God not created man a fool, he would not live so heedlessly! If your beasts knew that in the end you would slaughter them, they would not eat so and would not grow fat.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: When you regard a sin as great, you have regarded God as great; and when you deem it small, you have made God small. There is no great sin that you have deemed great but that it becomes small before God Most High, and no small sin that you have deemed small but that it becomes great before God, Mighty and Majestic. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 237)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: To magnify a sin is to magnify God, and to make light of a sin is to belittle God. Whenever you count a sin as great, God counts it as slight; and if you count a sin as slight, God does not pass over it easily.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): He was asked about the meaning of There is no power and no strength save in God, the Most High, the Most Great. He said: There is no turning away from disobedience save by God's protection, and I have no strength for good save by the help of God, Mighty and Majestic. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 238)
Explaining the words There is no power and no strength save in God, the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: That is, no turning away from disobedience is possible save by a protection that God grants, and there exists no strength for good save by the help of God Himself.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The severest of afflictions is many dependants and little wealth. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 238)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Take refuge in God from the severest of afflictions. The severest of afflictions is many dependants and little wealth.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS): He was asked about the words of God, Blessed and Exalted, We only number for them a numbering. He (AS) said: It is the breaths, how many breaths they have in the abode of this world. Ali (AS) said: The angel of death counts your breaths and follows your traces. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 239)
Concerning the verse We only number for them a numbering [Qur'an 19:84], the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The angel of death is constantly in pursuit of a person, counting his breaths; and when their number is complete, he takes his soul.
From Ali ibn al-Husayn, who said: In the time of Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) there was a man who used to recite the Qur'an in reverse. He was brought before Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: This is a man whose heart is reversed. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 239)
It was said to the Commander of the Faithful (AS) that a certain man recites the Qur'an in reverse. He said: That is because his heart is reversed.
(We say: the phrase he recites the Qur'an in reverse admits of several possibilities. One is that he begins with the last word of the sura and works backwards word by word; in that case no meaning of the Qur'an is understood at all. The second possibility is that within a sura he recites from the last verse back to the first; in that case too only a confused and jumbled sense of the sura's contents can be gathered. The third supposition is that he recites the suras of the Qur'an correctly but begins from the last sura and works backwards sura by sura until he reaches the beginning of the Qur'an. The fourth supposition is that he begins from the last thirtieth part and works backwards part by part until he reaches the first part. Of these four kinds, the first two are rejected and discarded, while the last two are unobjectionable for the purposes of teaching and learning.)
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Indeed God, Blessed and Exalted, Mighty and Majestic, has apportioned this world for trial and the Hereafter for recompense. God, Blessed and Exalted, says: May God have mercy on a people for whom this world was a trust, so that they delivered it back to the One who had entrusted it to them, and then departed lightly burdened. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 240)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God created this world for trial and the Hereafter for recompense. God says: Blessed is the one for whom this world is a trust, and who throughout his life seeks to render that trust back to its owner. Such a person lives at ease and dies at ease.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who used to say: The hearts of the ignorant are stirred up by greed, held in pledge by vain hopes, and kept busy with deceptions. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 240)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The heart of the ignorant man is shaken by greed, taken in pledge by vain hopes, and kept occupied by deception.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Whoever hopes to live tomorrow hopes to live forever; and whoever hopes to live forever, his heart grows hard, he becomes desirous of his world, and he loses all interest in what his Lord, Blessed and Exalted, has promised him. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 240)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: One who expects to be alive tomorrow as well is in truth wishing to be alive through all the tomorrows to come, for ever. Such a person becomes hard of heart, grows eager for this world, and turns his back on the Hereafter.
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: When the shadows turn and the winds stir, then seek the best of judgement from God, Blessed and Exalted, for that is the hour of those who turn back to God. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 241)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When the shadow turns and the wind begins to blow, that is the time to seek the best of judgement from God. That hour is called the hour of those who turn back to God.
(We say: the phrase when the shadows turn refers to the time of the sun's decline, that is, the canonical noon, when the shadows swing from the west towards the east. But in some manuscripts this phrase appears as when the shadows lengthen, which would mean after the afternoon prayer, when the shadows stretch out towards infinity, that is, shortly before sunset. Likewise, in some manuscripts, instead of when the winds stir there appears when the winds blow gently or when the spirits find rest, the latter again meaning the time before sunset. In connection with the verse Your Lord knows best what is in your souls; if you are righteous, then indeed He is Forgiving to those who turn back to Him [Qur'an 17:25], reports have been transmitted from the Sunnis to the effect that the hour of those who turn back to God is the hour of those who glorify Him, that is, before sunset. It is also stated in some reports that it falls between the sunset and night prayers, and in others that it is the space of eight units of prayer after the noon call to prayer. In our view the soundest opinion is this one, before sunset, since the word awwab, which means returning home, accords with it: this is the time when animals and human beings return to their own dwellings. So the believers too should return to their own origin.)
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: Were I to find a believer committing an indecency, I would cover him with my own garment. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 241)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If I were to see a believer in the midst of some gross sin, I would cover it with my own clothing. That is to say: so far do I go in concealing faults!
From Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: The secret of injustice lies in three things: eating and drinking, clothing, and sexual desire. As for food and drink, I do good with them... As for clothing, whatever you outlast you wear out, and whatever outlasts you wears you out. As for sexual desire, it is but a filthy drop: the pleasure passes away and the consequence remains. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 242)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: All this oppression and tyranny is in the end for the sake of three things: food, clothing, and women. Food is good only for showing kindness with it; clothing grows old and wears out along with you; and the pleasure of being with a woman lasts but a moment, while all the rest is nothing but its consequences.
From his grandfather Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), who said: We said: O Messenger of God, you have so encouraged us regarding the call to prayer that we fear your community will come to blows over it with swords. The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: Nay, it will not go beyond the weak among you. (al-Ash'athiyyat, vol. 1, p. 245)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: We said to the Messenger of God (PBUH): You have praised the giving of the call to prayer so highly that we supposed people would fall upon one another and vie with each other to give it. He said: No; none but the weak among you will desire it or be granted it.