The Imam replied...

The Imam replied, “I did so since in this issue which you were engulfed in, you were not under a great deal of pressure and now that you are freed from your difficulties you should know that you are our lover, you are not our Shi’a - thus, this statement of yours is nothing more than a false claim. Therefore, you must say that you are a lover of the Ahlu'l Bayt.” However, we should not become discouraged from these sorts of traditions.

Rather, they should instil a feeling of hope within us and we should realize that being a Shi’a is something extremely difficult! It is easy to love someone, however it is difficult to be a follower (Shi’a) of that person. We are merely at the beginning of the journey of becoming true Shi’a, and therefore, we must seek assistance to complete this journey so that we can truly become and be counted as the Shi’a.

The tradition under review also shows us that if the claim of being a follower (Shi’a) is made, however there are no characteristics of being a Shi’a present within the person, then not only is this a false and void claim, rather, it also has retributions associated with it (as we mentioned in our previous two discussions). We pray that through the divine blessings of the A`immah (as), we are able to stay on the path of being the true Shi’a! [^1]: Ibid., vol. 65, pg. 162 Previous…