The importance of Intelligence in Shia narrations  – 7

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“In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful”

The importance of Intelligence in Shia narrations  – 7

H 7, Ch. 1, h 7

A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid from al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn Yaqtin from Muhammad ibn Sinan ibn Abu al-Jarud from Abu Ja‘far (A), who has said the following.

Allah, on the Day of Judgment, will hold everyone accountable according to the degree of the intelligence that He had given them in their worldly life[1].

Explanation

Every action we have done must be answered there! Every single word we said, comments we made! We must answer for these actions before God! Imam Hussain (A) said, “O God, So don’t make me disgraced in front of all the creatures on the Day of Judgment”.  Everyone stood as a witness, and we had to answer. Why did you do it in that private room? When the inspector comes, those who are administrative and corporate become afraid and hope there should not be any problem in their work. They have not made a mistake, they know it, but their hands and feet are shaking. Woe to those actions that we have not accounted for at all. God in a hadith Qudsi says, “If the measure of my justice is fulfilled and If I want to deal with my justice, Siddiq (Truthful – A level lower than prophets) will not come to the feet of my court of justice, unless he perishes”.

A scholar says in his 40 narrations book that, If God wills to quality check our prayers and good deeds with His justice, we will go to hell because of our prayers! We would deserve fire based on his Justice. Finally, the Day of Judgement comes! One day you and I will have to stand in the divine court and answer for our actions. They don’t ask us what others did or what they didn’t do. We will be asked, what did you do? In the Hereafter, people will be questioned for their actions based on their intellect.  We have a narration that says, “Seventy sins of an ignorant are forgiven, but one sin of a knowledgeable person is not overlooked”. Of course, ignorance is not an excuse. We have a narration that says God will ask: Why did you sin? He replies I didn’t know. God says, Why didn’t you go to learn?! Their excuse should be justified. As much as the intellects that God has given them in this world, they will be questioned in the Hereafter. What hope do we have in that time, other than God’s forgiveness? Other than pardoning! We have nothing at the time of accounting. Some heavenly people will enter paradise without an account. “These will enter Paradise, where they will be provided for without account[2] (Ghaffir:40).

How can we become among these people who entered heaven without an account?  People who give points to others when accounting in worldly life! They put others above themselves. They do not issue a vote in their favor instead of others. They do not get revenge because someone backstabbed them or lied to them. They say, maybe it was a mistake, maybe I misbehaved, they vote for their opponent’s favor, they do not do precise calculations. They do not give themselves any rights in accounting. They do not claim rights for themselves in front of God or humanity. The person who gets upset by someone because he claims right for himself. Why did you treat me this way? Why didn’t you pick me up? Why didn’t you greet me? If he does not consider this right for himself; He should say: No, he didn’t welcome me, maybe I did something terrible, he is upset with me, perhaps he didn’t understand me, he apologizes to others, meaning he gives the right to the other party.

We should not consider rights for ourselves in God’s presence. We should not be like people who say, O God, we prayed and fasted so much; why did this happen to us?  They consider themselves worthy. If they do have any rights for themselves, God won’t question them either! God questions someone who has a right to himself, and this is not easy to achieve. Practically with sacrifice, we can approach this level to enter paradise without an account, meaning put others before ourselves. This questioning might take a long time. This is why a narration says that poverty in this world is a great advantage in the Hereafter. When people see the privilege of poverty in the Hereafter, they will say, we wish we were poor in the world because their account is much easier than rich people. We have a narration that says, “The doors of paradise are open to the poor”[3]. You have seen these pious rich people, pious wealthy people, who drive the latest fancy cars, but they pray regularly, they fast regularly, and their work is regular. People might say, O God, I wish we had such a life. Servants are also going around them, opening the car door for them, saying hello, and bowing. A person said I had a dream about this situation. I saw a servant who was following the pious wealthy person! This pious and wealthy gentleman was standing at the end of the queue while the maid was being carried away by the angels, and he looked at his servant and was begging to intercede for him. Don’t think that whoever is a servant here is also a servant there! It’s very rich here; it’s not the same there. This was the situation of an excellent wealthy man. Can you imagine the situation of wealthy oppressors?

So, the accuracy of the accounting of the Day of Judgment is equal to the intelligence that has been given to humans in this world.  A wise person should be careful. We see some caregivers that surprise us; if they are caregivers, who are we? Once Muqaddis Ardabili (Great Scholar) rented a donkey to take him from a city to a village, a person came and gave him a package to give to a person in the town. He said, “Well, then I will walk”! They asked: Why, sir?! Didn’t you rent the donkey?! The scholar said, I did not show this package to the donkey’s owner; I do not have his permission! He may not be satisfied that I want to add this package as an extra load to his donkey. This is amazing that we see people who highly care about people’s rights. Look at the accuracy of caring in the following example of a mystic. A mosquito was sitting on the face of a mystic, and he didn’t care! People asked, why don’t you push away the mosquito?! He used to say; If I push it away, it will get up and sit on another person’s face and sting him. Let it be on my face, and I suffer instead of my friend! After some time, mosquitoes and flies no longer sat on his face and body. What practical accuracy they have. How careful they are not to embarrass others. “Hatam Asm” is one of the mystics, who was known as very hard of hearing. Why? One day, a lady came to ask him a question; (he was a knowledgeable scholar); the woman farted unintentionally. Just as Hatam’s head was down, he did not raise his head! This woman was utterly embarrassed. God! Why did this happen at all? Why did it happen here in front of him? A few moments passed in silence; The woman said, Sir, but Hatam did not raise his head. The woman calmed down a bit. She said, Maybe he did not hear. She said again: Sir, but Hatam did not answer again. She said in a louder voice,  I am with you, Sir. Hatam raised his head, looked, and said, “Excuse me, did you call me?”. She said: Yes, I am with you. Hatam said, “Forgive me; please speak loudly; I am hard of hearing”. This woman calmed down. She said to herself, thank God he did not hear this. She slowly said thank God that you do not hear; otherwise, I would be ashamed! The woman went away with a calm heart, but Hatam had been silent for a long time so that it would be spread among the people that Hatam was completely deaf, so that it would not reach the woman’s ears and she would be embarrassed. How careful they were not to disturb the servants of God, but what we do? We say I will let him know that I understand. We would take away the honor of that woman and make her embarrassed, probably in front of everyone. If they are careful, what are we?! Neither our speeches are careful nor our movements.

Sayed Hashem Haddad was a great mystic; people used to come and buy iron from him at one price. They would come again later and sell it to him more, he would make a loss, and he would give them a profit. His student Allameh Tehrani said, “He was very smart, but he did not like making people feel ashamed. He pretends he did not find out what you were doing with him. He was so careful not to embarrass the other people. Where are we in this sea of caring? If God wants to bring a human to measure with us, we will feel bad. Who is the perfect human? Who are we? We should be questioning ourselves for the actions that we have done for a lifetime without accounting. Someone said he had woven a rug precisely and was always caring for it. Once, he decided to sell the carpet. The buyer has a look and starts measuring the carpet. The buyer, a professional rug specialist, said, Sir, this rug has problems here, here, and there. (He found so many issues with the carpet and said) It’s worth this price! The seller said, I sat down and started crying! The buyer said: Sir, why are you crying? I would pay you more, but it wouldn’t be worth it for me. I said: No, sir, I am not upset! I was cautious while weaving this carpet, but you found so many problems with it. What will come from the actions that I have done without care for sixty years? What will happen to them? If God counts them, what will He accept?! Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali (A) said, Pay attention and do precise calculations because the buyer of the actions is a discerning expert. He knows all the faults of our efforts! We cannot fool God. What were our intentions? We are talking about good deeds and wills. What was your purpose in doing this? Whether it was for God’s sake or other things in it. O refuge in God. We should sit down and question our actions one by one. Some people write down their speech and, in the evening, ask themselves if it was a talk that God was happy. (Can you imagine how little they talked that there were able to write them down?).

One of the mystics said: Shall I sit down and question my life? How many years have I lived? Let’s say 70 years, if I only made a small sin per day after 15 years old. It should be about 20,000 sins, some of which are big. What should I do with all these sins? What should I answer? Dears, We have eternal life in front of us with a bit of time; we must prepare ourselves. May God help us all.

Muhammad Mahdi Me’marian

All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.


[1] -إِنَّمَا یدَاقُ اللَّهُ الْعِبَادَ فِی الْحِسَابِ یوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ عَلی قَدْرِ مَا آتَاهُمْ مِنَ الْعُقُولِ فِی الدُّنْیا

[2] -فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ يُرْزَقُونَ فِيهَا بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

[3] -ابواب الجنه مفتحه علی الفقرا

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