And in Majma‘ [al-Bayan], from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): The Messenger of God (PBUH) delivered a sermon and said: Truly God has prescribed the Hajj upon you. Ukkasha ibn Mihsan — and it is also related, Suraqa ibn Malik — said: Every year, O Messenger of God (PBUH)? He turned away from him, until he repeated it two or three times. Then the Messenger of God (PBUH) said: Woe to you! What assures you that I will not say yes? By God, if I said yes it would become obligatory, and if it became obligatory you would not be able to bear it, and if you abandoned it you would fall into unbelief. So leave me be so long as I leave you be; for those before you perished only through their many questions and their disputing with their prophets. So when I command you to do something, do of it what you are able, and when I forbid you something, avoid it. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 2, p. 91)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) relates that the Messenger of God (PBUH) delivered a sermon at the Farewell Pilgrimage and said: God has made the Hajj obligatory upon you. A man rose and asked: O Messenger of God, must we perform the Hajj every year? The Prophet (PBUH) turned away from him, until the man repeated this question two or three times. Then the Messenger of God (PBUH) said: Woe to you! What assurance have you that, if I say yes, God will not make it obligatory? By God, if I say yes it becomes obligatory, and if it becomes obligatory you will not have the capacity to perform it, and if you abandon it you will become unbelievers. So leave me be so long as I have left you be. Truly the destruction of the earlier communities came from their many questions and their disputes with their prophets. So whenever I command you to do something, do it as far as you are able, and whenever I forbid you something, keep away from it.
The words of the Commander of the Faithful, God’s blessings and peace be upon him: God has imposed upon you obligations, so do not neglect them; and He has set limits for you, so do not transgress them; and He has forbidden you certain things, so do not violate them; and about certain things He has kept silent for you — and He did not leave them out of forgetfulness — so do not burden yourselves over them. “And God is Forgiving, Forbearing”: He does not hasten to punish you for the excesses you commit, “and He pardons much.” (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 2, p. 92)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God has made certain obligations binding upon you — do not neglect them; He has appointed certain limits for you — do not transgress them; He has forbidden you certain things — do not violate them; and concerning other things He has kept silent — not because He forgot, but deliberately — so do not put yourselves to trouble over these things. For God is kind and merciful, and so long as a person does not go to excess He does not hasten to punish him, and He pardons much of what has been done.
And in Majma‘ [al-Bayan], from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Whatever exceeds four thousand is a hoard (kanz), whether he has paid the zakat on it or not; and what is below that is provision for living. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 2, p. 340)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If a man’s wealth exceeds four thousand dinars, it falls under the term “hoarding” (kanz), which God has forbidden in the Qur’an, whether he has paid the zakat on it or not. What is less than that is provision for living.
(We say: each dinar is roughly equivalent to a half-coin of gold today, and what is meant is keeping the surplus amount in cash — not investing it in property, a factory or land. For investment creates employment and is itself a kind of spending in the way of God.)
And in al-Kafi, from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Do not teach your women Surat Yusuf (AS), and do not have them recite it, for in it are temptations; but teach them Surat al-Nur, for in it are admonitions. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 3, p. 55)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Teach your women Surat al-Nur, not Surat Yusuf.
(We say: what is meant is the importance and delicacy of the content that is taught to the family and to women and made available to the general public.)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: By God, God has no sign greater than I. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 4, p. 79)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: By God, there is no sign greater than I.
In Majma‘ [al-Bayan], from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): that he used to walk in the marketplaces while he was the ruler, guiding the one who had gone astray, aiding the weak, and passing by the trader and the greengrocer; he would open the Qur’an before him and recite this verse and say: It was sent down concerning the just among the rulers, and concerning humility, and concerning the people of power among the rest of mankind. And from him (AS) he said: A man may be pleased with the strap of his own sandal, and so he comes under this verse. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 4, p. 104)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) would walk in the marketplace and was like a guardian who went about seeking to guide those who had gone astray, and who moved through the market to find the weak and help them. He would pass by the shopkeepers and open the Qur’an before them and recite and admonish them. For example, he often recited the verse “That abode of the Hereafter We assign to those who desire no self-exaltation in the earth, nor corruption; and the outcome belongs to the God-fearing” [Qur’an 28:83], and he would say: Even if a man is pleased that the strap of his sandal should be finer than another’s, he comes under this verse.
And in al-Awali: that whenever the time of prayer came, Ali (AS) would grow restless and tremble and change colour, and it would be said to him: What ails you, O Commander of the Faithful? And he would say: The time of prayer has come — the time of a trust which God offered. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 4, p. 208)
When the time of prayer arrived, the Commander of the Faithful (AS) would grow restless and tremble and say: It is the time to render a trust that God has given us and asked of us.
And in al-Khisal, from Ali (AS), who said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: Whoever does not love my Household is one of three: either a hypocrite, or born of fornication, or one whose mother conceived him in a state of impurity. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 4, p. 374)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) relates from the Messenger of God (PBUH) that whoever does not love my Household is either a hypocrite (weak in faith), or the offspring of fornication, or one whose mother conceived him during her menses.
And in Majma‘ [al-Bayan]: the general body of Muslims related from Ali (AS): that a man recited in his presence “and banana trees laid one upon another” (talh), and he said: What has talh to do with it? It is only tal‘ (spathes), as in His words: “and palm trees with slender spathes” [Qur’an 26:148]. It was said to him: Will you not change it? He said: The Qur’an is not to be disturbed today, nor altered. And this was related from him by his son al-Hasan (AS) and by Qays ibn Sa‘d. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 5, p. 122)
Someone was reciting the Qur’an and came to the verse “and banana trees laid one upon another” (wa talh mandud) [Qur’an 56:29]. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: The correct reading is “tal‘,” as it comes elsewhere: “and palm trees with slender spathes” [Qur’an 26:148]. They said: Shall we change it? He said: No! No one any longer has the right to lay a hand on the Qur’an and alter anything of it.
From al-Qummi, from the Commander of the Faithful (AS), who said: O people, every man meets in his very flight the thing from which he flees. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 5, p. 173)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whoever flees from something will one day meet with it.
And in al-Faqih, from him, from his forefathers, from Ali, peace be upon them all: Whoever is brought a provision by God toward which he did not step with his foot, nor stretch out his hand, nor speak of it with his tongue, nor gird up his garments for it, nor exert himself for it — he is among those whom God, mighty and exalted, has mentioned in His Book: “And whoever is mindful of God…” [Qur’an 65:2–3]. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 5, p. 188)
He was asked: What is “provision from where he does not reckon” in the verse “And whoever is mindful of God…”? He said: Provision for which you did not take a step, nor make an effort, nor say a word, nor form a resolve — and which perhaps you did not even wish for.
And from him, from the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon them both, who said: Washing one’s clothes drives away worry and grief, and it is a purification for the prayer. (Tafsir al-Safi, vol. 5, p. 246)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Cleanliness of clothing drives away brooding thoughts and grief, and is a cause of the inward purity of the prayer.
“Nawadir al-Akhbar fima yata‘allaqu bi-usul al-din”, or “al-Nawadir”, well known as al-Nawadir of Fayd, is a work of Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani. After writing al-Wafi, Fayd conceived the idea of an abridgement and selection from al-Wafi and composed the book al-Shafi; and since in these two books he had transmitted only the juridical narrations from the Four Books, he conceived the idea of gathering together, from other sources and books, the narrations concerning the principles of belief in an independent book after the manner of al-Shafi — that is, in abridged form. The result of this labour is the book al-Nawadir.