سورة البقرة

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Ash'ath said to Amir al-Mu'minin Ali (peace be upon him): 'إِنَّا لِلّه وَإِنَّا إِلَیه رَاجِعونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return].' The Imam said to him: 'Do you know the interpretation of this verse?' Ash'ath said: 'You are the utmost limit and the endpoint of knowledge.' The Imam (peace be upon him) said to him: 'As for your saying إِنَّا لِلّه [Indeed we belong to Allah], it is your acknowledgement of [Allah's] sovereignty; and as for your saying إِنَّا إِلَیه رَاجِعون [Indeed to Him we shall return], it is your acknowledgement of [your own] perishability.'

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): There are four things — whoever has them in him, Allah writes him among the people of Paradise ... [one of them is] the one who, when a misfortune befalls him, says: إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return].

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Whoever has four qualities in him will be placed in the radiant light of Allah ... the one who, when a misfortune befalls him, says: إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Whoever recalls his misfortune, even after some time has passed, and says: "Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return, and all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. O Allah, reward me for my misfortune and grant me in exchange something better than it," is given a reward like the reward that was given to him at the very first shock of the misfortune.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): There is no believer who loses a loved one but is patient and enduring, and upon remembering his lost loved one says: إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return], except that Allah forgives his past sins; and whenever a misfortune comes to his mind and he pronounces the istirja, Allah forgives all the sins he has committed in that interval.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) was asked about the grief that Ya'qub (peace be upon him) endured out of sorrow at his separation from Yusuf (peace be upon him). He said: "It was like the grief of seventy mothers bereaved of their children; but Ya'qub (peace be upon him) did not know the verses of istirja, and instead said: Alas and woe for the separation from Yusuf (peace be upon him)."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Whoever recites the verse إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return] at the time of misfortune, Allah will make up for his misfortune, make his hereafter good, and grant him a righteous successor whom he will be pleased with.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Whoever, when struck by a misfortune, utters the istirja' (إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return]) — even if the time of that misfortune has already passed — Allah grants him a reward like the reward of the very day he was struck by it.

Imam Hadi (peace be upon him): [Harun ibn Fadl narrated:] I met Imam Hadi (peace be upon him) on the very day that Imam Jawad (peace be upon him) passed away; he said: "إِنَّا لِلهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَیْهِ راجِعُونَ [Surely we are Allah's and to Him we shall surely return] — Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) has departed from this world." I said: "How did you know?" He said: "Because a kind of humility and weakness came over me for Allah, which I had never experienced before."