Hadith

Imam Jafar ibn Muhammad [a]

1846 sayings · page 38 of 47

1. Three things cause weight gain and three others cause weight loss. As for those that cause weight gain excessive use of the bathhouse, smelling sweet fragrance and wearing soft clothing. And as for those that cause weight loss, they are: eating too many eggs, fish and unripe dates.

   al-Khisal, p. 155, no. 194; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 139 · permalink

2. Three things destroy the body and may even kill it: eating [cooked] meat that has been left overnight, entering the bathhouse after overeating and having intercourse with the elderly.

   Bihar al-Anwar, v. 76, p. 75, no. 19; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 139 · permalink

3. Do not enter the bathhouse except after you have put something in your belly that will cool the heat of the stomach for that strengthens your body. And do not enter the bathhouse with a full stomach.

   Makarim al- Akhlaq, v. 1, p. 125, no. 298; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 139 · permalink

4. Dress up and beautify yourself, for Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty; and make sure it is lawful [beautification].

   Wasael al-Shi`aah, v. 3, p. 340, no. 4; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 140 · permalink

5. People live by their goodness towards others more than they do according to their [predestined] life terms; they also die due to their sins more than they die due to the end of their terms.

   Bihar al-Anwar, v. 5, p. 140, no. 7; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 732 · permalink

6. He whose manners deviate, recite the adhan in his ear.

   Bihar al-Anwar, v. 104, p. 122, no. 61; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 167 · permalink

7. There are three things that are the pride of a believer and his ornament in this world and the Hereafter: prayer at the end of the night [night vigil], his despair of [possessing] that which others own, and his allegiance to the Imam from the progeny of Muhammad (SAWA).

   al-Kafi, v. 8, p. 234, no. 311; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 735 · permalink

8. Delaying repentance is an act of self-delusion, and lengthy procrastination is an act of bewilderment

   Bihar al-Anwar, v. 73, p. 365, no. 97; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 736 · permalink

9. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.) once asked one of his companions about his means of income. He said, 'May I be your ransom. I have given up trading.' Imam asked why, and he answered, 'I am waiting for this rule [i.e. the reign of your government].' Imam said, 'That is strange from you. Your wealth will perish. Do not abandon trading, and seek out the bounty of Allah. Open your door and exhibit your goods, and seek out the sustenance of your Lord.

   Mustadrak al-Wasa`il, v. 13, p. 10, no. 14578; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 737 · permalink

10. The caprice is awake while the intellect is asleep.'[al-Durrah al-Bahirah, p

    al-Durrah al-Bahirah, p. 31; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 477 · permalink

11. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.) said with regards to Allah's verse in the Qur'an: "No one will have the power to intercede [with Allah], except for him who has taken a covenant with the All-beneficent", '[This means] except for him who has been allowed intercession through his acceptance of the guardianship of the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (AS) and the Imams after him, as this is the covenant with Allah.

    Bihar al-Anwar, p. 36, no. 9; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 479 · permalink

12. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.), when he asked for his relatives to be gathered around him as his death approached, said to them, 'Verily our intercession will not avail one who takes his prayer lightly.'

    al-Mahasin, v. 1, p. 159, no. 225; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 480 · permalink

13. Even if the most favoured angels and all the prophets were to intercede for a Nasibi*, their intercession would not be accepted.

    al-Mahasin, p. 294, no. 587; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 480 · permalink

14. Verily Allah is all knowledge with no ignorance about Him, He is all Life without any death around Him, and all Light with no darkness about Him.

    al-Tawhid, p. 137, no. 11; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 448 · permalink

15. Verily Allah is all knowledge with no ignorance about Him, He is all Life without any death around Him, and all Light with no darkness about Him.

    al-Tawhid, p. 137, no. 11; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 448 · permalink

16. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.) was once asked about Allah's knowledge of space [i.e. the concept] and whether He knows it before its coming into existence or during it or after it, to which he replied, 'Most High is Allah! He always knows space before its conception just as He knows it after He has created it, and such is His knowledge of all things like His knowledge of space.'

    al-Tawhid, p. 137, no. 9; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 449 · permalink

17. Knowledge is His very essence and not the object of knowing [or a known], such that when He created things, knowledge projected from Him onto the known things.

    Nur al-Thaqalayn, v. 5, p. 237, no. 41; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 450 · permalink

18. [It is faith in] Allah's divine Unity and divine Justice [Faith in] Allah's divine Unity is that you do not deem applicable to your Lord that which applies to you, and [faith in] His divine Justice is that you do not attribute to Him that of which you are blameworthy.

    al-Tawhid, p. 96, no. 1; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 451 · permalink

19. Marwan b. Muslim narrated: 'Ibn Abi al-`Aawja' once came to Abu `Aabdillah (AS) [i.e. Imam al-Sadiq], and asked, 'Is it not true that you claim that Allah is the Creator of all things?' to which Abu `Aabdillah (AS) replied, 'Yes.' So he retorted, 'I create!' So Imam asked him, 'How do you create?!' He replied, 'I defecate in a place, then wait for it, and it becomes a creature, which I have created!' So Abu `Aabdillah (AS) said, 'Is it not true that the creator of something should know what he has created?' to which he replied yes. Imam continued, 'Well do you know the female from the male [of what you have supposedly created], and do you know its lifespan?' to which he had no answer.'

    al-Tawhid, p. 295, no. 5; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 451 · permalink

20. Ignorance lies in three things: in compromising one's brothers, declaring war without the command to do so, and spying into affairs that do not concern one.

    Tuhaf al-`Uqoul, no. 317; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 425 · permalink

21. My father used to say, 'When you think of doing something good, rush to do it immediately for verily you do not know what could happen later [to prevent you from doing it].

    al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 142, no. 3; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 399 · permalink

22. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.) said, relating what Gabriel (AS) once said to the Prophet (SAWA), 'If only one link of the chain whose length is seventy cubits was to be tied down on this world, the world would melt by its heat.

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 8, p. 280, no. 1; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 400 · permalink

23. Im?m Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-S?diq (a.s.) relating what Gabriel (AS) said to the Prophet (SAWA), 'If only one garment from among the garments of the people of the Fire was to be hung between the sky and the earth, the people of this world would die of its smell.

    Amali al-Tusi, p. 533, no. 1162; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 400 · permalink

24. Be on your guard that the extremists do not corrupt your youth, for verily the extremists are the most evil of Allah's creation for they belittle the Greatness of Allah, and falsely attribute divinity to the servants of Allah. By Allah, verily the extremists are worse than the Jews, the Christians, the Magians, and the polytheists. The extremist may return to us but we do not accept him again, whereas we do accept the negligent one when he tries to adhere to us. At this, he was asked, 'How can that be O son of the Prophet (SAWA)?' to which he replied, 'Because the extremist has become accustomed to abandoning the prayer, the alms-tax, fasting, the pilgrimage, and cannot give up his habit and return to Allah's obedience ever again, whereas the negligent one, when he attains inner knowledge, begins to act and carry out acts of obedience.

    Amali al-Tusi, p. 650, no. 1349; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 281 · permalink

25. A group of people once came to the Commander of the Faithful Ali (AS) saying, 'Peace be upon you O our Lord!' so he asked them to repent to Allah for what they had said, but they refused to repent, so he dug a hole and lit a fire therein, and dug a second hole around it, leaving a space between them. So when they refused to repent, he flung them in the hole, and ignited a fire in the second hole, so that they would die.'

    al-Kafi, v. 7, p. 259, no. 18; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 282 · permalink

26. Abu Basir narrated, 'I told Abu `Aabdillah [i.e. Imam al-Sadiq (AS)]: 'Verily they are saying things [about you]!' He asked, 'What are they saying?' to which I replied, '[They are saying], 'He knows the number of drops of rain, the number of stars and the leaves on the trees, and the weight of all that is in the sea, and the number of grains of sand.' So he raised his hands to the sky, saying, 'Glory be to Allah, Glory be to Allah. No, by Allah, no one knows this except Allah.'

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 25, p. 294, no. 52; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 282 · permalink

27. Verily faith is that which is embedded in the hearts, whereas Islam is the means by which marriages, inheritances and safeguarding blood take place.

    al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 26, no. 3; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 283 · permalink

28. Verily the reality of faith is for you to prefer right, even if it is to your detriment, over wrong, even if it is to your benefit.

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 70, p. 106, no. 2; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 285 · permalink

29. A servant cannot attain the reality of faith until there exist in him three attributes: learning the religion, good [i.e. economical] assessment of his living expenses, and patience in sufferings.

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 239, no. 78; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 289 · permalink

30. Certainly faith is ten levels, like the rungs of a ladder, where each rung is climbed one after the other. The one on the second rung cannot say to the one on the first: 'You are nothing' until he completes the ten. Therefore do not knock the one below you down, lest the one above you knocks you down. And when you see one below you in rank, lift him up to your level with gentleness. And do not burden him with that which he cannot bear lest you break him, for verily one who breaks a believer must put him back together again.

    al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 45, no. 2; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 290 · permalink

31. Certainly Allah has divided faith into seven parts: goodness, honesty, conviction, contentedness, loyalty, knowledge and clemency.

    al-Kafi, v. 2, p. 42, no. 1; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 290 · permalink

32. By the cancellation of firm intention and the thwarting of ambition, I made a firm intention and it got cancelled, and I had ambition and it was thwarted.

    al-Tawhid, p. 289, no. 8; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 238 · permalink

33. was asked by Mufazzal, 'O my master, there is a group of people that claim that this [creation] is the doing of nature [itself]', the Imam (AS) said, 'Ask them about this nature, does it have knowledge and power to carry out such actions [as creation] or not? For if they answer that it has knowledge and power, then what is preventing them from acknowledging the existence of a creator? for verily this is His creation. If they claim that nature does these actions without knowledge or without purpose while having witnessed the exactness and wisdom therein, it is [obviously] known that this is the work of a very wise creator, and what they have called 'nature' is the very system running through creation.'

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 3, p. 67; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 238 · permalink

34. Lighten your debts, for verily with little debt comes longer life.

    Bihar al-Anwar, v. 103, p. 145, no. 21; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 239 · permalink

35. He who places his trust in three things is indeed deluded he who believes in the impossible, relies on someone who cannot be trusted, and avidly desires that which he does not possess.

    Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 319; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 241 · permalink

36. The first people to enter Paradise will be those who performed acts of common courtesy to others.

    al-Da`awat, p. 108, no. 240; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 201 · permalink

37. The people who perform acts of courtesy in this world will be the same ones to perform them in the Hereafter, for verily in the Hereafter their scales will be so laden with their good deeds that they will be able to bestow them generously on the sinners [in order to assist them].

    Amali al-Tusi, p. 304, no. 610; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 201 · permalink

38. If an act of charity [or courtesy] goes through eighty changes of hands, all of them receive the reward for it, without any decrease in the reward of the initiating good-doer.

    al-Kafi, v. 4, p. 18, no. 2; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 202 · permalink

39. I have witnessed the act of common courtesy to be exactly as its name suggests, and nothing excels the act of common courtesy than its own reward.

    Makarim al- Akhlaq, v. 1, p. 294, no. 915; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 205 · permalink

40. Whoever alleviates a fellow believer's anguish, Allah will alleviate him of the anguish of the Hereafter, and will bring him out of his grave with a light heart.

    al-Kafi, p. 199, no. 3; Mizan ul Hikmah, page No. 396 · permalink

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