محمد بن سنان

“I heard Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) say, ‘Whoever does a deed for [the sake of] Allah, his reward is upon Allah, and whoever does a deed for [praise from] the people, his reward is upon the people. Verily every act done to show off is [a form of] polytheism.’”

“Once a scholar went to see a worshipper and asked, ‘How are your prayers?’ He (the worshipper) replied, ‘Is a person like me questioned about his prayers? I have been worshipping Allah from such and such times.’ The scholar then asked, ‘How is your weeping?’ He (the worshipper) said, ‘I weep until my tears flow.’ The scholar said, ‘In fact, your laughing with fear is better than your weeping with bravado; nothing of the deeds of boastful people ascends (to heaven).”’

“The Almighty Allah delegated the power to an angel of His to build all of the seven earths and heavens. When he created them and found that everyone has started obeying him, he called out: Is there anyone like me? The Almighty Allah sent a little fire in order to burn down everything so that he gets to know the consequence of boasting.” The narrator asked about the amount of fire sent. Imam (a.s.) replied, “It was just a handful.”

“Prophet Dāwūd (a) said, ‘I will surely worship Allah today with such a worship, and will recite such a lovely recital, the likes of which I have never done before.’ So he entered his prayer niche and did so. When he had completed his prayer, he [suddenly] saw a frog in the prayer niche. It said to him, ‘O Dāwūd, are you pleased with yourself today due to your worship and recitation?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. It said, ‘Do not be pleased [or impressed] by it, for verily I glorify Allah every night one thousand times, and with each glorification of mine three thousand praises branch out. And [at times] when I am in the depths of the water and a bird makes a sound in the air, I assume that it might be hungry so I come up to the surface of the water in order for it to eat me, while having committed no sin [to deserve that].’”