Four pillars of faith and unbelief

31. Amīr al-mu’minīn, peace be upon him, was asked about faith. He said: Faith stands on four supports: on endurance, conviction, justice and jihād (fighting in the way of Allāh).

Endurance again has four aspects: eagerness, fear, abstention (from the world) and anticipation (of death). So, whoever is eager for Paradise will ignore the passions; whoever fears the Fire (of Hell) will refrain from…

Conviction also has four aspects: prudent perception, intelligence and understanding, drawing lessons from instructive things and following the precedents of past people. So, whoever perceives with prudence, wise…

Justice also has four aspects: keen understanding, deep knowledge, a good power of decision and firm forbearance. Therefore, whoever understands comes to acquire depth of knowledge; whoever acquires depth of knowledge…

Jihād also has four aspects: to ask others to do good, to keep away others from doing evil, to fight (in the way of Allāh) sincerely and firmly on all occasions, and to detest the vicious. So, whoever asks others to do…

Unbelief stands on four supports: hankering after whims, mutual quarrelling, deviation from the truth, and dissension. So, whoever hankers after whims does not incline towards right: whoever quarrels much on account of…

Doubt has also four aspects: unreasonableness, fear, wavering and undue submission to every thing. So, he who adopts unreasonableness as his way, for him there is no dawn after the night; he who is afraid of what befalls…

As-Sayyid ar-Raḍī says: We have left out the remaining portion of this saying for fear of length and for being outside the purpose of this chapter.