سورة التغابن

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): Every prayer has two times, the first [time] and the last [time]. The first time is the more excellent of the two, and the last time was set for the incapacitated and the sick; hence the last time is a concession for the weak on account of illness and bodily or financial weakness, and it is a mercy for the strong and unhindered on account of the incapacity of the weak and the sick. And this [setting of the last time] is because Allah imposed the obligations upon the weakest of the people in strength, so that both the weak and the strong might strive to fulfil them — as Allah the Blessed and Exalted said: فَمَا اسْتَیْسَرَ مِنَ الْهَدْیِ [Then whatever offering is easy for him — let him sacrifice]! And He said: فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ [So fear Allah as much as you are able].

Imam Ali (peace be upon him) — Abd Khayr said: I asked Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) about this saying of Allah the Exalted: "O you who believe! Fear Allah as He has a right to be feared!" (Al Imran/102). He said: "By Allah! No one acted upon it except the Ahl al-Bayt of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family). We remembered Allah and we do not forget Him, and we thanked Him and we will not be ungrateful to Him, and we obeyed Him and we will not disobey or rebel against Him. And when this verse was revealed, the Companions said: 'We do not have the strength for this.' Then Allah the Exalted revealed this: فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ [So fear Allah as much as you are able]." Waki said: "That is, as much as you are able to." Then he said: "وَ اسْمَعُوا [And listen to] what you are commanded, وَ أَطِیعُوا [and obey] — that is, obey Allah and His noble Messenger (peace be upon him and his family) and his Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) in what they command you with."

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): The saying of Allah the Exalted فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ [So fear Allah as much as you are able] abrogates this saying of Allah the Exalted: "Fear Allah as He has a right to be feared!" (Al Imran/102).

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The servant is never an actor or a mover except that the capacity is with him from Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and obligation from Allah the Blessed and Exalted only comes into effect after [the granting of] capacity, and one is not made responsible for an act except that he is capable [of it] — one is not charged with a deed except while he is capable.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abdullah ibn Yazid narrated from a man of the people of Basra who said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about istita'a (capability). The Imam said: "Can you do something that has not come to be?" He said: "No." He said: "Can you refrain from something that has already been done?" He said: "No." He said: "Then when do you have capability?" He said: "I do not know." The Imam said to him: "Allah created a creation and placed in them the instruments of capability, but He did not delegate the matter to them. So when they perform an act, they have the capability for that act at the time of the act and together with the act. If they do not perform an act in Allah's dominion, they had no capability for it — an act not performed, its capability is not known — because Allah the Mighty and Majestic is far too mighty for anyone to contest Him in His dominion." The Basran said: "Then people are compelled?" He said: "If they were compelled, they would be excused [and would not be punished]." He said: "Then it has been delegated to them?" He said: "No." He said: "Then in what state are they?" He said: "[Before Allah created them] He knew their acts and their conditions, so He placed the instruments of that very act in their being, and when they perform it they have capability concurrent with the deed." The Basran said: "I bear witness that this is the truth and that you are the household of prophethood and messengership."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Salih al-Nili said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Do the servants have any share of istita'a (capability)?" The Imam said to me: "When they perform an act, they have capability through the capability that Allah has placed in them." I said: "What is it?" He said: "It is the instrument and means — like the fornicator, who, when he fornicates, at the time of fornication has the capability for it; and if he leaves fornication and does not commit it, when he abstains he has the capability to leave it." Then he said: "Before the act he has no capability at all, neither little nor much, but he is capable in the case of performing or abstaining." I said: "[If the instrument of disobedience is also from Allah,] then why is the fornicator punished?" He said: "By reason of the conclusive proof [which is his intellect and the declaration of the prophets] and the instruments that He has composed within the servants [which is their power and free choice]. Allah does not compel anyone to disobey Him, and He has not willed disbelief from anyone by a decisive will; rather, when someone disbelieves, [we discover] that his disbelief was within Allah's will [after He knew that this servant would choose disbelief by his own choice], and it is also in Allah's will and in His knowledge that the disbelievers do not incline toward good." I said: "Did He will for them to disbelieve?!!" He said: "I do not say so; rather I say: Allah knew that they would disbelieve, so He willed their disbelief on account of what He knew concerning them. This will of Allah is not a decisive will; rather it is a will of choice [a decisive will is one in which, whether Allah knows the servant's disbelief or his Islam, He wills disbelief for him; and a will of choice is one that is in accordance with the servant's own will and choice]."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Hisham ibn Salim narrated that Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "Allah has not imposed the burden of any deed upon His servants, nor forbidden them from anything, except that He first placed within them the [ability and] capacity [to perform or abstain from] it, and then commanded and forbade them. So a servant does not undertake or abandon any act except by a capacity that precedes the command and the prohibition, and precedes the doing and the leaving, and precedes the withholding and the undertaking."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Imam Kazim (peace be upon him) said: One day Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) was passing by a group in Kufa who were debating about qadar (divine decree). He said to the one who was speaking: "Do you have capacity [to perform actions] through Allah, or together with Allah, or independently of Allah?" The man could not answer him. [Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said:] "If you claim that you have capacity through Allah, then nothing of the affair is in your hands. And if you claim that you have capacity together with Allah, then you have claimed that you are a partner with Him in His dominion. And if you claim that you have capacity independently of Allah, then you have claimed lordship and denied lordship to Allah the Exalted." The man said: "O Amir al-Mu'minin! No, rather I have capacity through Allah." He said: "If you had said anything other than this, I would have struck off your neck."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The twenty-fourth day: this day is an ill-omened and evil day. Pharaoh was born on this day; therefore on this day neither pursue any need nor undertake any work.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ [So be mindful of Allah as much as you are able] — for there is no strength except by His help, and none is worthy of reliance except Him.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): O followers of the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! He is not of us who cannot restrain himself at the time of anger, nor he who does not keep good company with those who accompany him, nor good fellowship with those who befriend him, nor good reconciliation with those who reconcile with him, nor proper opposition to those who oppose him. O Shia of the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! اتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ وَ لَا حَوْلَ وَ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللهِ [Be mindful of Allah as much as you are able, and there is no power nor strength except by Allah].

Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon him): For this reason, He invited man to follow His command and His obedience, because He preferred him over others through soundness of creation (physical health), perfection of speech and [reasoning] and knowledge, and He granted him the ability and capacity to worship in the way He commanded. And this is the saying of Allah, who said: فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ وَ اسْمَعُوا وَ أَطِیعُوا اللهَ [So as much as you are able, be fearful of Allah and pious, and listen to the word of truth and obey].

Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq (peace be upon them): Allah is more merciful toward His creation than to compel them to sins and then punish them for it [as the Jabri (determinist) school says], and Allah is mightier than to will a thing and it not come to pass [as the Tafwidi (delegationist) school says]. The two Imams were asked: "Is there a third station between compulsion (jabr) and delegation (tafwid)?" He said: "Yes, a station wider than what lies between the heaven and the earth."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Amr narrated that a person said to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "I have relatives of the Qadari school who believe: 'We are able to do such and such a deed, and we are able not to do it.'" Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "Tell him: are you able not to remember the things you dislike, and not to forget the things you love? If he says no, he has abandoned his belief; and if he says yes, never speak with him again, for he has claimed lordship (rububiyyah)."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Talib Qummi narrated from a man from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): I said, "Has Allah compelled the servants to sin?" He said, "No." I said, "Then has He delegated the matter to them?" He said, "No." I said, "Then what is the truth?" He said, "A grace from your Lord between these two positions."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) was asked, "Are people compelled in their deeds or do they have free choice?" He said, "Neither compulsion nor free choice, but rather a position between the two, and the truth lies in that very position. Grasping this middle stage befits only the knowledgeable one, or the one whom the knowledgeable one has taught it."

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): مَنْ یُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ [And whoever is saved from the greediness of his soul] — when he chooses to spend in obedience to Allah.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Fadl ibn Abi Qurra said: I saw Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) performing tawaf from the beginning of the night until morning, while saying, "O Allah! Protect me from the greediness of my soul!" I said, "May I be your ransom! I have not heard you supplicate with any prayer other than this one!" He said, "And what is worse than the greediness of the soul? Allah says: وَ مَن یُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُوْلَئِکَ هُمُ المُفْلِحُونَ [And whoever is saved from the greediness of his soul, these it is that are the successful]."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Whoever pays zakat has been saved from the greediness of his soul.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Fadl ibn Abi Qurra said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said to me: "Do you know who the shahih (miserly one) is?" I said: "Indeed, he is the bakhil (stingy one)." He said: "Shuhh (greed) is worse than bukhl (stinginess). The stingy one withholds what is in his own hand, but the greedy one covets what is in people's hands and also withholds what is in his own hand, to the point that whatever he sees in the hands of other people, he wishes to have it by lawful or unlawful means, and he is not content with what Allah has given him."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): The stingy one is not the one who pays the obligatory zakat on his wealth and gives generously to his people; rather, the truly stingy one is the one who does not pay the obligatory zakat on his wealth and does not give generously to his people, while he is wasteful and extravagant in other matters.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) has narrated from his fathers: Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) heard a man saying: "The greedy one is more excusable than the oppressor." He said to him: "You are wrong. The oppressor may repent and seek forgiveness and return the thing he took unjustly to its owner, but the greedy one, when he is greedy, withholds zakat, sadaqah (charity), silat al-rahim (maintaining ties of kinship), hospitality to the guest, spending in the way of Allah, and other doors of goodness. It is forbidden for Paradise that a greedy person should enter it."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): If Allah has no need for a servant (sees no good in him), He afflicts him with stinginess.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): And which disease is worse than stinginess?!

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) — Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) narrated from his forefathers: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Nothing has destroyed Islam like miserliness has destroyed it." Then he said: "Miserliness is like the crawling of an ant [that enters a person quietly and silently] and, like shirk, it has many branches."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The miser is the one who acquires his wealth from other than lawful means and spends it in other than its proper way.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): One of the questions that Imam Hasan (peace be upon him) asked Imam Ali (peace be upon him) was: "What is shuhh (greed)?" He said: "Shuhh is that you regard what is in your hands as honour, and what you have spent as loss."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The shahih (greedy one) is the one who refuses to spend his wealth in the right of Allah and spends it in other than the right of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): The true miser is the one in whose presence my name is mentioned and he does not send salutations upon me.