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

3-27 حدثنا أبي رضي الله عنه قال: حدثنا أحمد بن إدريس، ومحمد بن يحيى العطار جميعا، عن محمد بن أحمد بن يحيى بن عمران الاشعري باسناده يرفعـه إلـىأبي عبد الله عليه السلام قال: ثلاث لم يعر منها نبي فمن دونه: الطيرة والحسد، والتفكر في الوسوسة في الخلققال مصنف هذا الكتاب أدام الله عزه: معنى الطيرة في هذا الموضع هوأن يتطير منهم قومهم فأماهم عليهم السلام فلا يتطيرون وذلك كما قال الله عز وجل عن قوم صالح "قَالُوا اطَّيَّرْنَا بِكَ وَبِمَنْ مَعَكَ قَالَ طَائِرُكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ." وكما قال آخرون لانبيائهم عليهم السلام: "قَالُوا إِنَّا تَطَيَّرْنَا بِكُمْ لَئِنْ لَمْ تَنتَهُوا لَنَرْجُمَنَّكُمْ…" الآية. وأما الحسد [فانه] في هذا الموضع هو أن يحسدوا لا أنهم يحسدون غيرهم وذلك كما قال الله عز وجل: "أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ النَّاسَ عَلَى مَا آتَاهُمْ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ فَقَدْ آتَيْنَا آلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَآتَيْنَاهُمْ مُلْكًا عَظِيمًا." وأما التفكر في الوسوسة في الخلق فهو بلواهم عليهم السلام بأهل الوسوسة لا غير ذلك، وذلك كما حكى الله عز وجل عنهم عن الوليد بن المغيرة المخزومي "إِنَّهُ فَكَّرَ وَقَدَّرَ. فَقُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّرَ. ثُمَّ قُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّرَ." يعني قال للقرآن: "إِنْ هَذَا إِلاَّ سِحْرٌ يُؤْثَرُ. إِنْ هَذَا إِلاَّ قَوْلُ الْبَشَرِ "

3-27 (The compiler of the book narrated) that his father - may God be pleased with him - narrated that Ahmad ibn Idris and Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Attar quoted Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Imran al-Ash’ari who quoted through a chain of narrators that Aba Abdullah as-Sadiq (MGB) said, “There are three things which the Prophets (MGB) are not immune to see from their followers: being considered to be ill omen, being jealous of and fastidious thoughts about creation.”The compiler of the book - may God increase his honor - said, “What is meant by ill omen here is that the followers of the Prophets (MGB) considers them to be ill omen. The Prophets (MGB) did not consider them to be ill omen as the Honorable the Exalted God said regarding the people of the Prophet Salih, They said, ‘Ill omen do we augur from thee and those that are with thee’. He said, ‘Your ill omen is with God.’” And as others have told their Prophets (MGB), “for us, we augur an evil omen from you: if ye desist not, we will certainly stone you. And a grievous punishment indeed will be inflicted on you by us." And regarding envy here is that the Prophets are envied. They do not envy others as the Honorable the Exalted God says, “Or do they envy mankind for what God hath given them of his bounty? but We had already given the people of Abraham the Book and Wisdom, and conferred upon them a great kingdom.”And regarding deluding thoughts about creation refers to the fact that the Prophets (MGB) encounter people who are fastidious in their thoughts. An example of this is what the Honorable the Exalted God describes about al-Walid ibn al-Muqayrih al-Makhzoomi (in the following verses of the Holy Quran), “For he thought and he plotted; And woe to him! How he plotted! Yea, Woe to him; How he plotted!” This means that he had said the following about the Quran, “This is nothing but magic, derived from of old; This is nothing but the word of a mortal!”

Al-Khiṣāl

Book 4, Chapter 20