As to the evil-doer amongst you...

As to the evil-doer amongst you, he is like an absconding slave being returned to his master.” He was asked, “How do you see our situation before God?” Abu Dharr replied, “Evaluate your deeds in view of the Qur’anic criterion. Verily God says: Surely, the pious shall be in bliss and the profane shall he in a fiery furnace (82:12-3).

The Imam (A) added: Thereat, the man said, “Then, where is the mercy of God?” Abu Dharr replied, “The mercy of God is near to the good-doers.” Abu ‘Abd Allah (A) continued: A man wrote to Abu Dharr (R), “O Abu Dharr, teach me something new of knowledge.” Abu Dharr wrote to him, “Knowledge is vast.

However, if you can abstain from wronging someone that you love, do so.” The man asked him, “Have you seen anyone wrong someone that he loves?” Abu Dharr replied, “Yes, your own self is the dearest of all things to you. And when you disobey God you have wronged it.”[^1] Exposition One should know that people differ in their fear and abhorrence of death and the reasons that underlie their abhorrence.

That which Hadrat Abu Dharr (R) has described, relates to the state of the middle ones ( mutawassitun ) and we will briefly describe here the condition of the deficient ( naqisun ) as well as that of the perfect ( kamilun ). It should be known that the fear and abhorrence of ours, the deficient ( naqisun ), for death is on account of a cause that was referred to in the course of exposition of some of the foregoing traditions.

It lies in this that man, in accordance with his original and God-given nature, loves life and survival and hates death and extinction. This love is related to absolute survival and immortal, everlasting life, a survival free from extinction and a life that knows no end. Some of our honored predecessors used to prove the necessity of Resurrection on the basis of this human nature, and a description of their arguments here is outside the aims of our present discourse.

Now, since this love and that hate lie in human nature, man comes to love that which he reckons to be the enduring realm of life and hates that which he regards as being contrary to it. Since we have no faith in the realm of the Hereafter and our hearts have no conviction in immortal life and eternal survival, we are attached to this world and abhor death in accordance with that nature.

We have mentioned earlier that rational Judgment and perception is different from the faith and conviction of the heart.