Their evil things are safe...

Their evil things are safe, their hearts are sorrowful, their souls are chaste, and their requests are light. They are patient for a few days, and then they will attain a long rest. As for night, they align their legs, plead to their Lord, and strive to release their necks. As for daytime, they are clement, knowledgeable, obedient, and pious. They are like the arrows without heads and blades. Fear of worship has thinned them out.

When a beholder sees them, he asks: ‘Are the people sick or have become mentally disordered?’ The people are not sick, but a great affair has mixed with them because of the remembrance of the Fire and what therein.[^1]” The Imam, peace be on him, warned men against love for the world, which is the origin of every sin. He summoned them to follow the ascetics from among the righteous who worshipped Allah and understood the reality of life in this world, which is perishable and transitory.

Only a few days man spends in this world, and then he will meet his Lord. Allah will question him about his acts in the world to repay him according to them. If man did good, Allah would repay him good. If he did evil, Allah would repay him evil. Hence the righteous turned to Allah through their hearts and sentiments. They sincerely worshipped and obeyed Him.

He, peace be on him, said: “O son of Adam, you are still in good as long as you preach to yourself, reckon it, fear is your underwear, and grief is your outer garment.

O son of Adam, you will die, be raised from the dead, be stood before Allah, the Great and Almighty, be questioned, hence prepare an answer.[^2]” The Imam summons man to set up a preacher in his inner self to preach to it and a reckoner to reckon it for its slips and mistakes, for man will be raised from the dead on the Day of Judgment and reckoned for his sins and offenses. Al-Zuhri reported: [I heard ‘Ali b. al-Husayn say:] “He who does not follow Allah’s laws will be sorrowful for the world.

By Allah, this world and the next world are like the two scales of a balance, whichever tilts takes away the other.