WILAYAH NEWS VOICE OF THE GLOBAL AWAKENING
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**A Thousand Sayings on the Believer – Sheikh Hadi al‑Najafi**
Faith means life: *“Respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life.”* The believer is truly alive even if death overtakes him, while anyone other than the believer is dead even if described as living.
However, faith has levels and درجات (degrees), just as disbelief has levels and depths. Progress along the درجات of faith depends on adorning oneself with the morals of God and the teachings of the Two Weighty Things (the Qur’an and the Ahl al‑Bayt), and abandoning vices and the traits of devils—whether from among humans or jinn. May God protect us from them in both worlds.
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**1 – Should I be content with myself that it is said: “This is the Commander of the Faithful”?**
1/1 – Al‑Ridha reported that it was attributed to **Amir al‑Mu’minin Ali ibn Abi Talib** that he said:
Know that every follower has a leader whom he follows and from whose knowledge he seeks light. Indeed, your leader is content in this world with two worn garments and with two simple loaves for his food. You cannot live exactly like this, but help me through piety, diligence, chastity, and uprightness.
By God, I have not stored away from your worldly goods even a piece of gold, nor have I saved from its spoils any wealth, nor prepared for my worn clothes any replacement, nor acquired from its lands even a handspan. I have taken from it only what suffices like the meager fodder of a worn‑out donkey, and in my eyes it is weaker and more worthless than a bitter acacia fruit.
Yes, once **Fadak** was in our hands among all that the sky shades, but some people were greedy for it while others were generous about it. God is the best judge. What should I do with Fadak or anything besides Fadak, when the resting place of the soul tomorrow will be a grave whose traces vanish in its darkness and whose news disappears? A pit which, even if widened and dug with broad hands, stones and clods would press upon it and piled earth would close its gaps.
It is only my soul that I discipline with piety so that it may come safely on the Day of the Greatest Fear and remain firm on the slippery paths. If I wished, I could find the way to the purest honey, the finest wheat, and the most delicate silk. But far be it from me that my desires should overcome me and my greed should lead me to choose fine foods—while perhaps in the Hijaz or Yamama there are those who have no hope even for a loaf of bread and have never known satiety. Should I sleep with a full stomach while around me are hungry bellies and burning livers?
Or should I be as the poet said:
“It is enough of a disease for you to sleep with a full belly
while around you are livers yearning for dry bread.”
Should I be content with myself that it is said, “This is the Commander of the Faithful,” yet not share with them the hardships of time, or not be an example to them in the roughness of life?
I was not created to be occupied with eating good foods like a tethered animal whose concern is its fodder, or like a grazing beast whose occupation is merely feeding, stuffing itself with fodder while neglecting what it was created for. Nor was I left aimlessly or neglected in vain, nor to drag along the rope of misguidance or wander the path of confusion.
It is as if one of you says: “If this is the food of the son of Abu Talib, weakness must have prevented him from fighting rivals and confronting the brave.” But know that the wild tree has stronger wood, and green plants have softer bark, while desert plants burn with stronger fuel and take longer to burn out. I am to the Messenger of God as light is to light and as the arm is to the shoulder.
By God, if all the Arabs united to fight me, I would not turn my back to them; and if the opportunity came to strike their necks, I would hasten to it. I will strive to cleanse the earth of this inverted person and overturned body until the clod comes out from between the grains of the harvested crop.
