Introduction

God is One and Only

Abandoning the Present to Attain the Promised

Oppressive Characteristics

Characteristics Rooted in Love for Religion

One Characteristic for Five Characteristics

A Characteristic for a Characteristic

A Saving Characteristic

The Loftiest Characteristic of the Religion

No Two Things Combined which are Better than the Combination of Two Characteristics

A Characteristic that is the Honor of This World and the Hereafter

The Most Knowledgeable Person Is One who Combines One Characteristic with Another One

There Is One True Prosperity And One True Misery

A Characteristic for Which the People Deserve to be Rewarded or Punished

A Characteristic that Is the Noblest Holy War

The Hardest Thing is One Characteristic that Cannot Be Avoided Unless We Abandon Another Characteristic

A Believer’s Honor Is in One Characteristic and His Glory Is In Another Characteristic

One Characteristic Is the Key to All Evil

A Characteristic Due to Justice

A Characteristic Due to Which We Are Interested in How Others Judge About Us

Seek Nearness to God with One Characteristic

God Has Not Tested the Servants with Anything Harder Than One Characteristic

A Characteristic that Is the Result of Being Kind

A Characteristic that Stabilizes One’s Faith and One that Makes Him Lose His Faith

A Characteristic that Destroys a Believer’s Dignity

A Good Characteristic Which No Other Characteristic Is Better Than, and a Bad Characteristic That No Other Characteristic Is Worse Than

A Characteristic That Guarantees Who Will Not Become Poor

The Form of Chivalry of the Members of the Holy Household

A Characteristic Due to One’s Chivalry

A Characteristic that Is Not Good for a Dignified Man

God Loves One Characteristic and Despises One Characteristic

One Who has This Characteristic Would Not Be Thankful for Blessings

A Characteristic Due to Humbleness

A Characteristic that Is Close to Blasphemy and A Characteristic that Might Change Destiny

A Characteristic that Destroyed Previous Nations

Martyrdom Is Expiation for Every Sin Except for One’s Debt

God the Almighty Has Sent Muhammad (sw) and His Nation a Gift That He Has Not Given to Any Other Nation

A Characteristic that One Should Have If He Wants to Increase Goodness in His House

God Will Look at Whom He Likes. Once He Looks at Him, He Shall Grant Him One of Three Gifts

The Hereafter is the Wedding of the Pious Ones

A Characteristic That is Like its Opposite

The Most Wicked People Are Those Who Are Respected for Possessing One Characteristic

A Characteristic in This World is Abstinence, and a Characteristic That is Gratitude for all Blessings

Nothing Deserves to Be Restrained More Than the Tongue

Whoever Raises his Aspirations Does Wrong

Good Deeds Are Recorded for a Muslim as Long as He Remains Quiet

A Characteristic Having Which Will Result in God Saving You From the Fear of the Hereafter

The Most Intelligent Characteristic

The Most Pious, the Best Worshipping, the Most Ascetic and the Most Hard-Working People

Becoming Sorry Is the Same as Repenting

Whoever Earns More Than His Meals fom This World

A Characteristic That Deserves to Be Willed

A Characteristic That Causes One to Be Thrown Out and a Characteristic That Causes One to Be Joined

Lofty Characteristics and Bad Characteristics for the People of the World

There Is No Honor Except Through One Characteristic. There Is No Nobility Except Through Another Characteristic

When God Loves a Servant He Will Make Him Suffer from a Great Calamity

A Characteristic That Leads to Hemorrhoids

A Hand on Which There Is an Iron Ring Is Not Clean

Do Not Respond to Whoever Talks Before He Greets You

A Characteristic That if Practiced Implies Despise for Muhammad’s Religion

Only One of the Proverbs of the Prophets Has Remained

When God Wishes a Servant Well, He Will Expedite His Punishment in This World, and When He Wishes Someone Bad, He Will Procrastinate His Punishment

Be Patient with the Enemies of the Blessings

The Prophet (sw) and Ali Ibn Abi Talib Were Created from the Same Root

A Characteristic That is Gratitude for All Blessings

Religion Is the Same as Love

When Two Believers Shake Hands They Shall Depart from Each Other Void of Any Sins

A Characteristic That Revives the Hearts

A Characteristic That Revives the Affairs of the Almighty God’s Proofs

God the Almighty Has Not Created Anything More Delightful Than This Characteristic

A Characteristic That Constitutes Nine-Tenths of Religion

Whoever is Pleased with His Destiny or is Displeased with it

A Characteristic for Which Even Red-Haired Camels Are Not Loved

A Characteristic That Increases the Daily Bread

A Characteristic That Leads to Hypocrisy and Poverty

The First Gift Given to a Believer Due to a Characteristic

A Characteristic for Which One Who Has No Good Deeds is Forgiven on the Resurrection Day

A Characteristic That is the Root of All Sins

How Awkward It Is If a Man Enters Heaven Having Lost His Honor

A Characteristic Doing Which Will Cause the Almighty God to Have Mercy Upon You

A Characteristic Doing Which Will Cause Increased Good for One’s House

On Him Whose Health Has Overcome His Illness but He Treats Himself and Dies

A Characteristic Which a Believer Avoids

Nothing Ruins Faith as Much as One Characteristic Does

One Who Lives to See his Successor Is Prosperous

A Believer’s Honor is More Than That of the Ka’ba

It Suffices for a Believer to See God’s Aid in the Form of His Enemies Engaged in the Almighty God’s Disobedience

A Gift Will Eliminate Animosities

Prosperous Be the One Who is Indifferent

A Characteristic That Will Make One Poor in the Hereafter

A Group of People Who Are the Masters of Heaven

God’s Prophet Made His Ablutions One Organ at a Time

The Characteristic That Is the Best Goodness

The Prophet Put off His Special Prayer for One Characteristic

A Characteristic That is the Best Form of Worshipping and a Characteristic That is the Noblest Form of Being Religious

What Is A Lot but Its Doers Are A Few

A Characteristic That Constitutes Half of the Religion

A Characteristic That is the Best Thing Given to a Muslim

The Prophet and Ali Ibn Abi Talib Were Created from One Light

A Servant’s Well-Being Depends Upon the Well-Being of One of His Organs

2-62 حدثنا محمد بن أحمد الاسدي قال: حدثنا محمد بن أبي عمران قال: حدثنا أبومصعب أحمد بن أبي بكر الزهري قال: حدثنا علي بن أبي علي اللهبي عن محمد بن المنكدر عن جابر بن عبدالله قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله: إن أخوفما أخاف على أمتي الهوى وطول الامل، أما الهوى فانه يصد عن الحق، وأما طول الامل فينسي الآخرة، وهذه الدنيا قدارتحلت مدبرة، وهذه الآخرة قدارتحلت مقبلة، ولكل واحدة منهما بنون، فان استطعتم أن تكونوا من أبناء الآخرة ولا تكونوا من أبناء الدنيا فافعلوا، فانكم اليوم في دار عمل ولا حساب وأنتم غدا في دار حساب ولا عمل

2-62 Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Asady narrated that Muhammad ibn Abi Imran quoted Abu Mus’ab Ahmad ibn Abu Bakr al-Zahri, on the authority of Ali ibn Abi Ali al-Lahabi, on the authority of Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, on the authority of Jabir ibn Abdullah that God’s Prophet (MGB) said, “What I am most afraid of for my nation is unattainable aspirations andunreachable hopes. Aspirations would hinder one from the truth and unreachable hopes would make one forget the Hereafter. The life in this world is to be ended while the life in the Hereafter is ahead of you. Each life has its own children. Try to be of the children of the Hereafter if you can. Try not to be of the children of this world. Today you are alive, can do things and there is no Reckoning. However, tomorrow you will die and will be in the World of Reckoning where you cannot do anything.”

2-63 حدثنا أبي رضي الله عنه قال: حدثنا محمد بن يحيى العطار، عن أحمد ابن محمد بن عيسى، عن أبيه، عن حماد بن عيسى، عن عمر بن اذينة، عن أبان بن أبي عياش، عن سليم بن قيس الهلالي، عن أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام: عن النبي صلى الله عليه وآله أنه قال في كلام له: العلماء رجلان: رجل عالم آخذ بعلمه فهذا ناج، ورجل عالم تارك لعلمه فهذا هالك. وإن أهل النار ليتأذون بريح العالم التارك لعلمه. وإن أشد أهل النار ندامة وحسرة رجل دعا عبدا إلى الله عز وجل فاستجاب له وقبل منه وأطاع الله عز وجل فأدخله الله الجنة وأدخل الداعي النار بتركه علمه واتباعه الهوى ثم قال أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام: ألا إن أخوف ما أخاف عليكم خصلتين اتباع الهوى وطول الامل أما اتباع الهوى فيصد عن الحق، وطول الامل ينسي الآخرة

2-63 (The compiler of the book narrated) that his father - may God be pleased with him - narrated that Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Attar quoted Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Isa, on the authority of Hammad ibn Isa, on the authority of Umar ibn Azineh, on the authority of Aban ibn Abi Ayyash, on the authority of Salim ibn Qays al-Hilaly, on the authority of the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (MGB) that God’s Prophet (MGB) said, “There are two groups of scientists. Those who practice their knowledge are prosperous, but those who abandon their knowledge get destroyed. The residents of Hell will be bothered with the bad smell of the scientists who have not put their knowledge into practice. However, there are those who are most sorry. They invite others to God, and their call is accepted by others who then obey God and are taken to Heaven by God. However, the caller himself is taken to Hell by God for not acting (on his own words), and those following their whims will be the most sorry.” Then the Commander of the Faithful (MGB) added, “I fear two things concerning you. The first is following your whims, and the second is having high aspirations since following your whims will prevent you from accepting the truth, and having high aspirations will make you forget the Hereafter."

2-64 حدثنا أبوأحمد محمد بن جعفر البندار الشافعي الفرغاني بفرغانة قال: حدثنا أبوالعباس الحمادي قال: حدثنا أحمد بن محمد الشافعي قال: حدثنا عمي إبراهيم بن محمد قال: حدثنا علي بن أبي علي اللهبي، عن محمد بن المنكدر، عن جابر ابن عبد الله قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله: إن أخوف ما أتخوف على امتي الهوى وطول الامل، أما الهوى فيصد عن الحق، وأما طول الامل فينسي الآخرة وهذه الدنيا مرتحلة ذاهبة وهذه الآخرة مرتحلة قادمة ولكل واحدة منهما بنون فان استطعتم أن تكونوا من أبناء الآخرة، ولا تكونوا من أبناء الدنيا فافعلوا، فانكم اليوم في دار العمل ولا حساب، وأنتم غدا في دار الحساب ولا عمل

2-64 Abu Ahmad Muhammad ibn Ja’far al-Bandar al-Shafe’ee al-Furqany in Furqan narrated that Abul Abbas al-Himady quoted Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Shafe’ee, on the authority of his uncle Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, on the authority of Ali ibn Abi Ali al-Lahabi, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Munkadir, on the authority of Jabir ibn Abdullah that God’s Prophet (MGB) said, “What I am most afraid of for my nation is unattainable aspirations and unreachable hopes. Aspirations would hinder one from the truth and unreachable hopes would make one forget the Hereafter. The life in this world is to be ended while the life in the Hereafter is ahead of you. Each life has its own children. Try to be of the children of the Hereafter, if you can. Try not to be of the children of this world. Today you are alive, can do things and there is no Reckoning. However, tomorrow you will die and will be in the World of Reckoning where you cannot do anything.”

Al-Khiṣāl

Book 3, Chapter 51