Hadith 989
۞
10-17 My father, may God be pleased with him, narrated to us, he said: Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, from Aḥmad b. Hilāl, from Umayyah b. ʿAlī, from ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Mughīrah, from Sulaymān b. Khālid, from Abū Jaʿfar (ʿas), who said
The Messenger of God (ṣ) said, “God - Mighty and Exalted - has not been worshipped by anything better than Intellect. A believer does not possess Intellect until ten qualities are gathered in them; one may count on their good while being safe from their evil. They consider the little good of others as abundant, while counting their own abundant good as little. They never become averse to acquiring knowledge throughout their entire life, nor do they tire of the needs brought before them by others. Humiliation is more beloved to them than honour, and poverty more beloved to them than wealth. Their lot from this world is meager provisions. As for the tenth quality, and could you bear the tenth quality? It is that they should see none save that they say, 'they are better and more pious than I am.' For there are but two classes of people. Either a person is better and more pious than them, or they are worse and more base. When they see the one who is better and more pious, they should be humble before him to catch up to his rank. And when they meet someone worse and more base, they say, 'perhaps their goodness is hidden, and evil apparent, but maybe their end will be good.' When the believer has done this, their reputation will soar, and they will become prominent among the people of their time.”
10-17 حدثنا أبي رضي الله عنه قال: حدثنا سعد بن عبد الله، عن أحمد بن هلال عن امية بن علي، عن عبد الله بن المغيرة، عن سليمان بن خالد، عن أبي جعفر عليه السلام قال
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله: لم يعبد الله عز وجل بشـيءأفضل من العقل، ولا يكون المؤمن عاقلا حتى يجتمع فيه عشر خصال: الخير منه مأمول، والشر منه مأمون، يستكثر قليل الخير ممن غيره، ويستقل كثير الخيرمن نفسه، ولايسأم من طلب العلم طول عمره، ولا يتبرم بطلاب الحوائج قبله، الذل أحب إليه من العز، والفقر أحب إليه من الغنى، نصيبه من الدنيا القوت، والعاشرة وما العاشرة لايرى أحدا إلا قال هو خير مني وأتقى، إنما الناس رجلان فرجل هو خير منه وأتقى، وآخر هو شر منه وأدنى، فاذا رأى من هو خير منه وأتقى تواضع له ليلحق به، وإذا لقى الذي هو شر منه وأدنى قال: عسى خير هذا باطن وشره ظاهر، وعسى أن يختم له بخير، فاذا فعل ذلك فقد علا مجده، وساد أهل زمانه
Notes
"والفقر أحب إليه من الغنى" ("and poverty more beloved to him than wealth") cf. Maʿānī al-Akhbār Ḥadīth #314.
Abū Dharr (ra) famously said, "Poverty is more beloved to me than wealth." Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq vol. 13 pg. 253 records: محمد بن يزيد المبرد قال قيل للحسن بن علي أن أبا ذر يقول الفقر احب الي من الغنى والسقم أحب الي من الصحة فقال رحم الله أبا ذر أما أنا اقول فمن اتكل على حسن اختيار الله له لم يتمن انه في غير الحالة التي اختار الله تعالى له وهذا حد الوقوف على الرضا بما يصرف به القضاء" Muḥammad b. Yazīd al-Mubarrad said: it was said to al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī (ʿas) that Abū Dharr would say, "Poverty is more beloved to me than wealth, and sickness is more beloved to me than health." He (ʿas) said, "May God have mercy on Abū Dharr. As for myself, I say that whoever relies on the best of God's choice for him will never want to be in any state other than the one God Almighty has chosen for him. This is the ultimate extent of satisfaction with what Divine Decree issues forth for him." Vid. al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ vol. 3 pg. 263; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah vol. 11 pg. 200; al-Qushayrī, al-Risālah al-Qushayriyyah vol. 2 pg. 345; al-Sayyid al-Marʿashī al-Najafī, Sharḥ Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq vol. 19 pg. 354-55 citing Mirʾāt al-Muʾminīn & Wasīlat al-Najāh citing al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Muḥriqah; Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-Sālikīn vol. 2 pg. 177; al-Ṣāliḥī, Subul al-Hudā vol. 11 pg. 70; Ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-Balāghah vol. 3 pg. 157; al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, Kanz al-ʿUmmāl pg. 415-6 Hadīth #8538. Cf. a similar narration from the Sixth Imam (ʿas) in Amālī al-Mufīd Ḥadīth #221 and Maʿānī al-Akhbār Ḥadīth #252.
Also find recorded a similar statement from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī (ra), who fell ill and was visited by the Fifth Imam (ʿas). The Imam (ʿas) asked how Jābir fared, to which he responded, يابن رسول الله، أصبحت والمرض أحبُّ اليَّ من الصحّة. والفقر أحبُّ إليَّ من الغنى. والذلُّ أحبَّ إليَّ من العزِّ "O' son of the Messenger of God, I have awoken, and sickness is more beloved to me than health, and poverty more beloved to me than wealth, and humiliation more beloved to me than honour." Al-Sayyid Kāẓim al-Ḥāʾirī records this tradition in his Tazkiyah al-Nafs vol. 1 pg. 520.
Rijāl al-Kashī (vol. 1 pg. 533 ḥad. 1018) and al-Kharāʾij (vol. 2 pg. 739 ḥad. 54) have a miracle account from Muḥammad b. Shammūn or Muḥammad b. Maymūn, depending on the recension, though more likely the former (as he was long lived enough to have been able to write to the eleventh Imām (ʿas) while remembering the words of the sixth (ʿas), indicating a reconciliation between him and the Imāms (ʿas), despite the Wāqifī and Ghālī past he is criticized for, and this explains why the family of Imām al-Riḍā (ʿas) supported his), who writes to Imām al-ʿAskarī (ʿas) complaining about poverty while recalling to himself that Imām al-Ṣādiq (ʿas) said: "poverty with us is better than wealth with those other than us, and being killed alongside us is better than life alongside other than us." (الفقر معنا خير من الغنى مع غيرنا والقتل معنا خير من الحياة مع غيرنا) The Imām (ʿas) writes back to Muḥammad with the miraculous knowledge of Muhammad's recollection of this hadith to himself, and explains it and the benefits of poverty for the believers.