Abstaining From Unlawful Matters

“About the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, ‘. . . for one who has fear of the position of his Lord there are two gardens,’ (55:46) the Imam said, ‘Whoever knows that Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, sees him and hears whatever he says or acts for good or evil, and it keeps him back from the evil acts, such person is the “One who has fear of the position of his Lord,” and thus he prohibits the soul from acting according to desires.’”

“Abu Ja’far (a.s.) has said, ‘On the Day of Judgment all eyes will be weeping except three kinds of eyes: the eye that spends the night awake in the way of Allah, the eye that weeps in submission before Allah and the eye that turns away from what Allah has made unlawful to look at.’”

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.) has said, ‘Of the things that Allah, the Majestic, the Glorious, spoke to Moses one was as follows: ‘O Moses, of those who seek nearness to Me no one is like the ones who restrain from what I have made unlawful. I, therefore, open for them the garden of Eden and will not allow anyone else to share it with them.’”

“Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.) has said, ‘The most intensive obligation Allah has placed upon His creature is to speak of Allah (remember Him) a great deal.’ The Imam then said, ‘I did not mean thereby saying, “Glory belongs to Allah, all thanks belong to Allah, no one deserves to be worshipped except Allah and Allah is greater (than to be described),” even though they are a form of speaking of Allah. It is to remember Him (or speak of Him) when one encounters a lawful or an unlawful matter, thus, does not disobey Him if it is an act of worship and stays away from it if it is something unlawful to do.’”

“I asked Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) about the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, ‘We shall call their deeds into Our presence and scatter them into the air as dust (turn them devoid of all virtue).’ (25:23) The Imam said, ‘I swear by Allah, even though their deeds may have been whiter than the Coptic gown, the nullification of such deed is because on their encountering an unlawful matter they did not stay away from it.’”

“The Messenger of Allah has said, ‘Whoever stays away from disobeying Allah because of fear of Allah, the Most Blessed, the Most High, Allah will make him happy on the Day of Judgment.’”