سورة طه

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): [regarding the words of Allah] وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And indeed I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does righteous deeds, then follows guidance] — this verse has an interpretation which indicates that Allah the Exalted does not accept the deed of any servant unless he fulfils the covenant of Allah.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): You will not become righteous until you attain knowledge (maʿrifa), and you will not attain knowledge until you affirm, and you will not affirm until you accept four doors, the first of which is not put right except by the last of them. The companions of the three [doors] went astray and wandered in a far-off wilderness. Allah the Blessed and Exalted accepts nothing except the righteous deed, and Allah accepts nothing except the fulfilment of the conditions and covenants. So whoever fulfils Allah the Mighty and Majestic's condition and puts into practice what He has described in His covenant, attains what is with Him and receives in full what He has promised. Allah the Mighty and Majestic has informed His servants of the paths of guidance, and has raised up beacons for them on those paths, and has instructed them how to walk them, and has said: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And indeed I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does righteous deeds, then follows guidance], and He has said: إِنَّما یَتَقَبَّلُ اللهُ مِنَ المُتَّقِینَ [Indeed Allah accepts only from those who are god-fearing]. So whoever is god-fearing towards Allah the Mighty and Majestic in what He has commanded, will meet that same Allah the Mighty and Majestic with faith in what Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) brought. Alas, alas! People slipped away and died before they were guided, and they supposed that they had faith, while unknowingly they had become polytheists. Whoever enters a house through its door is guided, and whoever takes another way has trodden the path of destruction.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): O son of Jundab! Love for the sake of [the pleasure of] Allah and hate for the sake of Allah, and hold fast to the firm handhold, and take refuge in guidance so that your deeds may be accepted, for from the saying of Allah in the Quran it is understood thus: that I do not forgive anyone except the one who believes and does good and righteous deeds, then remains upon the straight path. Therefore, nothing other than faith is accepted, and there is no faith except with action, and no action except with certainty, and no certainty except with khushu (humble submission), and the root and basis of them all is guidance; for this reason, whoever is guided, his deeds too are accepted, and the accepted one will ascend to the realm of Malakut; "Allah guides whomever He wills to the straight path." (al-Baqarah/213).

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): In the hadith of the zindiq (heretic) it is reported that he asked Ali (peace be upon him): This verse of the Quran: "And whoever does any of the righteous deeds while he is a believer, his effort will not be denied" (Anbiya/94), and the verse: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents], contradict each other; in the first verse it is stated that good deeds are not rejected, and in the second verse it is stated that faith and good deeds are only beneficial after being guided. ... Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said in reply to the zindiq: "The verse: 'And whoever does any of the righteous deeds while he is a believer, his effort will not be denied' (Anbiya/94), or the verse: إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And indeed I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then follows guidance] — all of these do not suffice a need without being guided, and it is not the case that everyone who bears the name of faith is worthy of being saved from the pitfalls of the misguided. If it were so, the Jews, with their acknowledgement of divine unity and confession of the existence of Allah, would be saved, and other people who confess the oneness of Allah — from Iblis down to his followers in disbelief — would all be saved, whereas Allah has made this matter clear with His own words: '(Yes,) those who believed and did not taint their faith with polytheism and injustice, security belongs only to them, and they are the guided ones!' (An'am/82)." And that which is in the verse: 'Those who hasten in the path of disbelief and say with their tongues: "We have believed," while their hearts have not believed' (Ma'idah/41), and faith has states and stations the explanation of which is long, among them being that faith is sometimes of two kinds — faith by the heart and faith by the tongue — as the hypocrites of the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), when the sword rendered them helpless, believed with their tongues out of fear, but their hearts did not believe, because belief by the heart is submission before the Lord, and one who leaves all matters to their Owner does not turn away from His command, as Satan turned away from the prostration to Adam (peace be upon him), and most people also turned away from following their prophets, and as a result gained nothing from monotheism, like Iblis who gained nothing from that long prostration — for a single prostration of his lasted four thousand years, but from that prostration he intended nothing except material gain and self-display. For this reason prayer and charity have no benefit for a person except with finding the path of salvation and the way of truth. And Allah, by making His signs clear and sending down prophets, has cut off the excuse of His servants.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): What is meant by اهْتَدَی is that they are guided towards our wilayah.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [then follows guidance]; that is, he was guided towards us, the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them).

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): وَ مَنْ تَابَ مِنْ ظُلْمٍ وَ آمَنَ مِنْ کُفْرٍ وَ عَمِلَ صَالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدَی [And whoever repents from injustice, and believes after disbelief, and does righteous deeds, then is guided] — then he is guided towards our wilayah — and at this point he gestured with his hand to his own chest.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): To the wilayah of Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him).

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): By Allah, O Ali (peace be upon him)! You were not created except so that your Lord may be worshipped, and that through you the landmarks of the religion may be recognised, and the effaced path be set right through you. Whoever loses you goes astray, and no one who does not find the way to you and to your wilayah (guardianship) finds the way to Allah. And this is the word of my Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, who said: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction] — meaning: I forgive the one who repents and believes and does good deeds and confesses to your wilayah.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Dawud ibn Kathir al-Raqqi said: I entered upon Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) and said to him: "May I be your ransom, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, has said: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction]; what is the meaning of this final guidance after repentance, faith and good deeds?" He said: "Recognition of the pure Imams (peace be upon them), who by Allah are Imam after Imam."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Imam Kazim (peace be upon him) narrated from his father regarding the verse: فَسَتَعْلَمُونَ مَنْ أَصْحابُ الصِّراطِ السَّوِیِّ وَ مَنِ اهْتَدی [So you shall come to know who are the followers of the even path and who is rightly guided]: "al-Sirat al-Sawi (the even path) is the Qa'im of the family of Muhammad (may Allah hasten his noble relief), and al-Huda (the guidance) is the one who finds the way to obedience to him. Similar to this verse in the Quran is the verse: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction], which means: he finds guidance to our wilayah."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction]; by Allah, if he repents and believes and does good deeds, but does not find the way to our wilayah and our love, and does not recognise our merit and rank, his repentance, faith and good deeds will be of no benefit to him.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Sadir said: When Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) was entering al-Masjid al-Haram and I was leaving, the Imam (peace be upon him) took my hand and stood facing the Ka'bah and said: "O Sadir, people have been commanded to come and circumambulate this house of stones, then to come to us and declare to us their wilayah and devotion to us, the Ahl al-Bayt; and this verse points to this very matter: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction]." Then he gestured with his hand to his chest and said: "That they may be guided to our wilayah, the household."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [then continues to follow the right direction] — then he is guided to our wilayah. By Allah! If a man spends his entire life in worship between the Rukn and the Maqam, then dies without our wilayah, Allah will cast him into the Fire upon his face.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Harith ibn Yahya narrated from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) that concerning the verse: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِّمَن تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا ثُمَّ اهْتَدَی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction] he said: "Do you not see how Allah has set a condition, that neither repentance, nor faith, nor righteous deeds benefit a person unless he is guided. By Allah! However much a servant strives to perform righteous deeds, it is not accepted from him until he is guided." Harith says: I said: "To whom should he be guided, may I be your ransom?" The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "To us [the Ahl al-Bayt]."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Allah the Exalted does not accept repentance, faith, and righteous deeds except with being guided. Repentance is from associating partners with Allah, faith is the tawhid (oneness) of Allah the Exalted, and righteous deeds are the performance of the obligations. And being guided is through those who are the wali al-amr (holders of authority), and they are us [the infallible Imams]. People must recite the Quran as it was revealed, and when they need its interpretation, they should be guided through us and to us.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Imam Askari (peace be upon him) narrates from his noble father that in the ziyarah of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) on the day of Ghadir he would say: I bear witness with a true testimony and I swear by Allah with a truthful oath that Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his family are the masters of creation, and that you are my mawla and the mawla of all the believers, and that you are the servant of Allah and His wali, and the brother of the Messenger and his successor and his heir, and that he said to you: "By the One who sent me with the truth, whoever disbelieves in you has not believed in me, and whoever denies you has not affirmed Allah the Exalted." Whoever blocks you and hinders you has gone astray and has not found guidance to Allah the Exalted and to me. And this is the very meaning of the verse of the Quran, where Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: وَ إِنِّی لَغَفَّارٌ لِمَنْ تابَ وَ آمَنَ وَ عَمِلَ صالِحاً ثُمَّ اهْتَدی [And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction] — meaning: is guided to your wilayah.