سورة المجادلة

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) entered the mosque, the people used to stand up for him. He forbade them from doing so, and said: فَافْسَحُوا [then make room] — that is, make room for him in the gathering. وَ إِذا قِیلَ انْشُزُوا فَانْشُزُوا [and when it is said, "Rise up," then rise up] — meaning, when he says "rise," then rise.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) was such that whenever he entered a house, he would sit right by the door as he entered.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) most of the time sat facing the qiblah.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Whoever, without regard for the place of honour in gatherings, sits wherever he can and is content with it, Allah the Mighty and Majestic and His angels continually send blessings upon him until he rises.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): For those who sit together in summer, it is proper that between every two persons there be the length of a forearm bone [of space], so that they do not feel discomfort from closeness to one another and the harshness of the heat.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): For faith there are degrees and ranks by which the believers hold precedence over one another before Allah. ... Allah the Exalted said: He has given some of His prophets excellence over others as well, ... In the Qur'an He says: يَرْفَعِ اللهُ الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا مِنْکُمْ وَ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجاتٍ وَ اللهُ بِما تَعْمَلُونَ خَبیر [Allah will raise those of you who believe and those who have been given knowledge in degrees, and Allah is Aware of what you do]. These are the degrees of faith and its ranks before Allah.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): The scholar has one degree of excellence over the martyr, the martyr has one degree of excellence over the worshipper, and the prophet has one degree of excellence over the scholar. The excellence of the Qur'an over all other speech is like the excellence of Allah over the rest of His creation, and the excellence of the scholar over other people is like my excellence over other people [and the lowliest of them].

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Between the scholar and the worshipper there are one hundred degrees. The distance between each two degrees is the span that a noble, slender-waisted horse would cover in seventy years of running.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): The excellence of the scholar over the worshipper is like the excellence of the moon on the fourteenth night over the rest of the stars.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): The intercessors on the Day of Resurrection are these: the prophets, then the scholars, then the martyrs.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Whoever goes in pursuit of knowledge with the hope of learning [his rank is so high that] between him and the prophets (peace be upon them) there is [only] one degree.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): يَرْفَعِ اللهُ الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا مِنْکُمْ وَ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجاتٍ [Allah will exalt those of you who believe, and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees]; that is, Allah raises the learned believers by several degrees above those who do not possess knowledge.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): O Abu Dharr (may Allah have mercy on him), if someone leaves his house to seek and acquire some matter of knowledge, Allah the Mighty and Powerful writes for him, for every step, the reward of a prophet from among the prophets, (He decrees and commands it), and for every letter [of the alphabet: alif, ba, tha, to the end, or for every word and utterance] that he hears or writes, He grants and gives him a city in Paradise. And Allah, the angels, and the prophets love the seeker of knowledge and the one who desires learning, and none loves knowledge except the fortunate and blessed one. So blessed on the Day of Resurrection is the seeker of knowledge [who has obtained felicity and good fortune]. And whoever leaves his house to request some portion of knowledge, Allah writes for him, for every step, the reward of a martyr from the martyrs of [the battle of] Badr. The seeker and requester of knowledge is the beloved of Allah, and whoever loves knowledge, Paradise becomes obligatory and binding for him. He wakes in the morning and enters the evening in the pleasure and satisfaction of Allah, and he does not depart from the world until he drinks from [the water of] al-Kawthar and eats from the fruit of Paradise, and in Paradise he is the companion and friend of Khidr (peace be upon him). And all of these statements are in the tafsir of this verse: يَرْفَعِ اللهُ الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا مِنْکُمْ وَ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجاتٍ [Allah will exalt those of you who believe, and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees].

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): One of the Shia jurists debated with one of the Nasibis and, with his proof, silenced him and exposed him. Then that Shia jurist entered upon Ali ibn Muhammad (peace be upon him). At the head of his gathering there was a large seat, and the Imam (peace be upon him) was sitting outside the seat, while before him were seated a group of the Alawis and Bani Hashim. The Imam (peace be upon him) kept raising that jurist up until he seated him at the head of the gathering, and he himself went and sat beside him. This weighed heavily upon those nobles. As for the Alawis, they did not rebuke him and considered the Imam (peace be upon him) too exalted to be reproached. But the elder of the Hashimites said to him: "O son of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! Do you thus prefer a commoner like this over the sayyids of Bani Hashim, namely the Talibis and the Abbasis?" He said: "Beware of being among those about whom Allah the Exalted said: أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَی الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا نَصِیباً مِنَ الْکِتابِ یُدْعَوْنَ إِلی کِتابِ اللهِ لِیَحْکُمَ بَیْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ یَتَوَلَّی فَرِیقٌ مِنْهُمْ وَ هُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ [Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the [heavenly] Book, being called to the Book of Allah so that it may judge between them, then a group of them, [knowingly], turn away, while they are averse [to accepting the truth]?] (Al Imran/23). Do you accept the Book of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, as arbiter?" They said: "Yes." He said: "Does Allah not say: یَا أَیُّهَا الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا إِذَا قِیلَ لَکُمْ تَفَسَّحُوا فِی الْمَجَالِسِ فَافْسَحُوا یَفْسَحِ اللهُ لَکُمْ ... وَ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ [O you who believe! when it is said to you, Make room in (your) assemblies, then make ample room, Allah will give you ample ... and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees]? So Allah is not content except that the believing scholar be raised above the believer who is not a scholar, just as He is not content except that the believer be raised above one who is not a believer. Now state your view — is it not so? Did Allah not say: یَرْفَعِ اللهُ الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا مِنْکُمْ وَ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ [Allah will exalt those of you who believe, and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees]?"