ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Provisions for the Journey (Mishkat), Volume 2 Lesson 39: The Criteria of Value In the Words of Allah, the Exalted As has been observed, the central point of the previous discussions was piety.

In those discussions the importance of piety as well as its effects in the life of man and also its benefits in the hereafter were mentioned and because it is possible for some to develop wrong conceptions about piety and not distinguish real piety from outward or pretensive piety, in this discussion the criteria for evaluating deeds and behavior will be discussed. A lot of people are used to judging people on the basis of their outward appearance.

If a person prays and recites invocations and the Glorious Qur’an often especially if he performs his obligatory prayers on time and observes issues of ritual purification, he is considered to be pious.

This conception is superficial and incorrect and in order for the criteria of the value and superiority of man to be known, scholars of ethics have put forward a theoretical and fundamental discussion in regard to the criteria of the goodness and badness of deeds and the value of man that will be dealt with in this section.

Faith and Good Deeds, The Criteria of Man’s Superiority The value of man from the viewpoint of the Qur’an lies in faith and righteous deeds and perhaps there are very few pages in the Qur’an where these two issues have not been mentioned: وَأَمَّا مَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُ جَزَاءً الْحُسْنَى وَسَنَقُولُ لَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا يُسْرًا “But as for him who has faith and acts righteously, he shall have the best reward, and we will speak to him gently of our command.” [^1] Elsewhere, it states: إِلاَّ مَنْ تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَأُوْلَئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ وَلاَ يُظْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا “…except those who repent, believe, and act righteously.

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