Chapter 5 - On The Sufferings of Believers

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “Consider yourself dead when you reach the age of sixty.”

“O' Abu Hamzeh! The people will not leave you even if you leave them, and they will not abandon you if you abandon them.” Abu Hamzeh said: “Then what should I do?” He said: “Grant them something now that you can as a savings for when you become needy.”

“O' Murazem! Always treat the people nicely, even if they swear at us.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “There has never been a Prophet or a believer, and shall never be any, until the Resurrection Day who does not have a neighbor who bothers him.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “There has never been a Prophet or a believer, and shall never be any, until the Resurrection Day who does not have a relative who bothers him.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “A believer always has one or more of the following troubles. Either a person with whom he lives in the same house will close the door and not let him in, or there is a neighbor who will bother him, or someone will bother him on his way to work. Even if a believer lives on the top of a mountain, God will appoint a Satan to disturb him. God will establish a companion out of his own faith for him not to fear anyone.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “If a believer is at sea on just a piece of wood, God will send a Satan to bother him.”

“Whoever bothers My believing servants has declared war against Me. Whoever honors My believing servants will be secure from My Wrath. If only one believer and one just leader remain on the Earth from the East to the West from all My creatures, that will be sufficient for Me to maintain the heavens and the Earth, and I will need none of what I have created on the Earth. I will establish a companion from their faith for them such that they never feel they need anyone else.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “A believer is always faced with either another believer who is jealous of him- this being the easiest problem, or a hypocrite who is always in his pursuit, or an enemy who is fighting him, or a Satan who fools him.”

“O' Aba Abdullah! I am old and am complaining about my children and their ingratitude, and my brothers and their cruelty to me.” Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “O' old man! There is a government for the right and a government for falsehood. Either form of government is humiliated in the other form of government. The least a believer suffers from a government for falsehood is getting hurt by his children, and cruelty from his brothers. No believer can be comfortable under a government of falsehood, and will suffer from physical, material or child-related problems before death, until God frees him from what he has earned during the rule of the government of falsehood, and increases his benefits in the government of the right. Thus persevere, and rejoice.”

“Whoever treats the people with leniency will die as a martyr.”

God's Prophet (a.s) said: “Treating the people with leniency is a form of charity.”

“O' God! What is the reward of one who perseveres in the face of people hurting and beating him?” God the Almighty said: “I will help him against the fear of Resurrection Day.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “A believer always suffers either from a neighbor who is jealous of him, or a Satan who beguiles him, or a hypocrite who always follows him, or a believer who is jealous of him.” Suma’eh asked: “May I be your devoted servant! A believer is jealous of him?” The Imam (a.s) replied: “Yes. Know that this is the worst of them all.” Suma’eh asked why. Then Imam Sadiq (a.s) replied: “Because he slanders and others acknowledge it.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “Try to remain unknown as much as you can. What will happen if the people do not admire you and you are blamed by the people but you are praiseworthy near God?”

“Whoever does not withstand the people's cruelty is not grateful for blessings.”

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “God has established a covenant with a believer in four areas: the hardest one is a believer who says the same things but is jealous of him; a hypocrite who always follows him; Satan who influences and corrupts him; and an infidel who does not believe in what he believes in, and considers fighting with the believer as a holy war for himself. Then how can a believer survive all this?”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “If you want to be among my believing brothers and companions, you must prepare yourselves for the people's hatred and animosity. Otherwise you are not amongst my companions.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “The disciples of Jesus the son of Mary (a.s) complained to him about what they had sufferred from the people. He said: “Believers are always subject to the hatred of the people. They are similar to wheat which is sweet and has many enemies.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “God likes people whom others treat with enmity.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “A believer's faith is not proved unless he is even worse than a donkey's corpse in the eyes of the public.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “God will place a believer in situations where others will not accept his words, and when fighting with the enemies he will not be justly dealt with.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “God has placed believers as a target for His enemies: “Then God saved him from (every) ill that they plotted (against him).” [The Holy Quran: Mu-min 40:45] Know that by God the enemies surrounded him and killed him, but God protected His religion from any attacks.”

a man came to Imam Sadiq (a.s) when Umar was also there and said: “Our ancestors believed that when God loves someone, there is a Heavenly call that announces: “God loves him, therefore you love him too”, and God makes everyone love him; and whenever God is angry with someone, there is a Heavenly call that announces: “God is angry with him and you be angry with him too”, and God makes everyone angry with him.” Then Imam Sadiq (a.s) who was leaning (on the pillow) sat up straight and shook his sleeves and said: “It is not so. When God loves someone, he will test other people by him, so others say things about him and he gets rewarded, and they commit a sin. When God is angry with someone, He will place his love in the people's heart so that they say things about him which are not right and both he and they commit a sin. Who was dearer to God than John the son of Zacharia? God excited some people against him and they killed him. Who is dearer to God than Hussein, the son of Ali (a.s)? God excited some people and they killed him. No. It is not as you say.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “There were people before you who believed like you. When one of them was captured by the infidels, they chopped of his hands and feet, hung him on a palm tree and chopped him into pieces. He did not mind it and persevered.” Then Imam Sadiq (a.s) recited the following verse: “Or do ye think that ye shall enter the Garden (of Bliss) without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? They encountered suffering and adversity.” [The Holy Quran: Baqara 2:214]

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “Before you there were people whose heads were cut across with a saw such that the saw left their bodies from between their legs, but they did not mind it and persevered. If anyone of them suffered from such a calamity, he would not mind it and did not divulge the secrets of the rest of the nation?”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said the following regarding the verse: “This because they went on rejoicing the Signs of God and slaying the Messengers without just cause. This because they rebelled and went on transgressing.” [The Holy Quran: Baqara 2:61], “I swear by God that they did not fight the Prophets with their hands or kill them with their swords. Rather they heard their secrets, divulged them and the Prophets were arrested and killed. This is why their deeds are considered slaying, transgression and sin.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “There are more Satans around a believer than there are flies stuck to meat.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “There has not been and will not be any Prophets or believers without a relative or a neighbor to hurt him. This is what is meant by the Almighty God's statement: “Thus have We made for every Prophet an enemy among the sinners.” [The Holy Quran: Furqan 25:31]

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “Persevere in the face of tragedies since God tests the believers. Your believing brothers are always a few, and the least number of people gather around believers.”

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “Some people suffered at the time of the Prophet Hud (a.s). They went to him to ask him to pray to God to send down rain from His Mercy. Then a vulgar shrew came out of Hud's house and said: “Why does Hud not say this prayer for himself?” The people asked her to take them to Hud. She told them that he was on the farm watering it. They went there and saw that after Hud watered each part of the farm, he stood up and said two units of prayer. Then Hud noticed them and asked: “What do you want?” They said: “We came to you to ask for something, and saw something even more amazing. We saw a vulgar shrew leave your house and yell at us.” He said: “She is my wife and I hope that she lives a long life.” They said: “O' Prophet of God! Why do you wish her to live a long life?” He said: “Because there is someone to bother every believer, and I thank God that He has established a person who is subject to me to be the one to bother me. If it was no so, someone worse than her would bother me.”

“Even if a believer goes into a mouse hole, God will send something to bother him.”

God's Prophet (a.s) said: “A believer is forgiven.”

“The world will not come to an end unless a believer's heart melts, and a believer gets more humiliated than a dead sheep.”

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “A believer always has problems in his private life. Even if he is not married, he will have trouble with his close neighbors.”