According to a reliable tradition...

According to a reliable tradition, a Sunni scholar entered the presence of Imam Mohammed Baqir (a.s.) when he was going out on a very hot day by taking the help of two of his slaves. As a taunt and criticism the scholar said to the Imam (a.s.) that as the Imam (a.s.) was the only learned man of Quraish, it was not advisable for him to go out on such a hot day for the sake of the world, for he may die and then what would be the result?

The Imam (a.s.) replied that if death would have come at such a moment, it would have been opportune, for it would have come to him at the moment when he was busy in praying to the Almighty God and in a work which would have kept his wife and children from seeking help from people like him (the Sunni scholar). "One should fear that death", the Imam (a.s.) said, "which comes when one is sinning against God and is ashamed of his act of rebellion".

Then the Sunni scholar replied that whatever the Imam (a.s.) had said was correct and though he wanted to give advice to the Imam (a.s.), he himself had taken a lesson from him. In another tradition it is stated that Imam Ja'far-e-Sadiq (a.s.) enquired about Umar ibne Muslim. The people replied that he had left trade.

The Imam (a.s.) said thrice that it was the work of shaitan and whether he was not aware of what the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) used to say about trade and what the Almighty God Himself had declared about it at a certain place that there were a certain type of people who do not forget God while carrying on their trade and these people were a group of traders who used to trade, but when it was time for prayers they used to get busy with prayers.

These traders were much better than those people who were without trade and prayed at exact timings. A reliable tradition states that people told the Imam (a.s.) that a certain person has said that he would retire from the world, offer his prayers, keep fasts and pray unto God and he would get his living from somewhere or other. The Imam (a.s.) declared that the man was of the type whose prayers were not heard. It is stated that people enquired of the Imam (a.s.) about a certain person.

A person in the gathering said that that particular man was facing a lot of anxieties. The Imam (a.s.) asked as to what work that man did. The person replied that now he had retired from the world and lived away by himself. When the Imam (a.s.) questioned as to what that man lived by, the person replied that the fellow-muslims looked after his welfare.