Salamun alaykum,
Check list: What is your answer?
Are you working hard? Do you speak the truth? Do you safeguard trusts? Are you courteous to people around you? Do you perform the prayers? Do you inquire upon the sick persons? Do you attend funerals?
Without wasting a moment to ponder deeply over the above questions the majority of responses would definitely be in the affirmative.
Where do these questions come from?
“I command you to practice Taqwa, work hard for sake of Allah, tell the truth only, return the deposits to their owners whether they are pious or sinful, prostrate yourselves before Allah for long period and treat your neighbours courteously. These are the matters that (prophet) Muhammad brought. Offer prayers in the middle of their kinsmen, attend their funeral ceremonies, visit their ill ones and fulfill their rights. I am pleased if people point to you and say this is my shia (my follower).Practice taqwa, be adornments for us and do not be a disgrace to us. Attract peoples’ fondness of us and save us from every disrepute, for surely we are the people of every good thing that is said about us, and we are not the people of evil imputed to us………” Imam Hasan al Askari a.s.
Is this being done?
By a glance at the above list of “do’s and don’ts” outlined by the 11th Imam, typical responses to the question - Is this being done? - would be yes, not always, but I do try... Can you try to fulfill them all?
Coming to think about it, we already are performing many of the deeds mentioned. One offers the prayers. One exhibits moral qualities like hard work, truth, honesty, trust, courtesy, social relations and others. In fact one is able to smoothly discharge them without a second thought just like it has become ones’ natural behaviour! Like a duck gliding on water!
Therefore, does this not imply that the various deeds listed in the message of the Imam is doable?
This means that one does not require superhuman efforts to be able to lead one’s life by being guided by these qualities. It is just the conscious thought that we are determined to uphold these qualities. This results to having an impact on our deeds. This is what makes our Imam pleased to us being referred to as his shias.
What pleases the Imam?
When one who holds wilayah - the rightful leadership after noble prophet by Divine appointment- and strives to put into practice the qualities outlined in the above message and the people point to him as a shia.
However is holding affection for the wilayat and ahlul bayt the only principal cause of delight to the Imam?
Happiness to the Imam is when one behaves in the manner outlined above.
Let us strive:
In doing our utmost to emulate these qualities we have been assured of Divine help from Allah SWT as mentioned in the Noble Quran:
“We shall certainly guide those who strive hard for Us to Our ways…” Sura Al Ankabut 29:69.
Wa ma tawfiqi illa billah
Fazle Abbas Datoo
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Resident Alim
Wessex Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat