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In the name of All°h, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Topic of Discussion: The Characteristics of the

True Believer : Øad¢th ##13
13 [ Discussion #2
#22 ] – Part VII
Lectures on Akhl°q given by His Eminence
Ayatull°h al-`U®m° al-Ø°jj ash-Shaykh N°•ir Mak°rim ash-Sh¢r°z¢ (may All°h protect him)
Translated by Saleem Bhimji – www.al-mubin.org – al-mubin@al-mubin.org

Topic: The Characteristics of

The True Believer – Part VIII

I
n our weekly Ethical Discussions basad upon the °ad¢th from the Noble Prophet (blessings of All¡h be upon
him and his family) spoken to Im¡m {Al¢ (peace be upon him) which we have been narrating, there were 103
characteristics listed that the true believer must possess. In our previous gatherings, we had covered thirty-
five of these characteristics and in today’s gathering, we will explain six more.

Text of the °ad¢th:

...1 2 1 0 ./) !-,+* ) !" ( # %$ &' !" ...

English Translation: “(the true believer is one who) is trustworthy when given something to keep as a trust; is one
who is far away from treachery or deceit; his close companion is piety and his associate is modesty; in the face of
dangers, he is always alert and his misguidedness is little.”1

Commentary of Øad¢th:

The thirty-sixth characteristic of the true believer is that he is “ ” or that when he is given a trust, he
takes care of it. This trait plays a very important role amongst the teachings of the Prophets:

AC B # @A5 ? => < # 3; ) :9 8 47 65 !"4 3

“All¡h did not raise up a single Prophet except that (he – the Prophet) spoke the truth and gave back trusts (that
were entrusted to him) to either the righteous person or the wicked sinner.”2

The reason why the word “trust” has been mentioned in the plural in the °ad¢th under discussion could be due to
the fact that it refers to various types of trusts that one is given to maintain.

1 Bi¶°r al-Anw°r, Volume 64, Page 311

2 Mustadrak al-S¡finatul Bi¶°r, Volume 9, Page 519
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The trusts of All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) that are with us are many, such as: our life, the period of our
youth, our health, our faith, our religion, our children, the country we are living in, the Isl¡mic Revolution (of Ir¡n),
etc… and all of these are Divine trusts from All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) and we must preserve all of
them. If a person’s child goes astray, or if we take the Isl¡mic Revolution as something unimportant and trivial or
we act in such a way that leads to irrelevancy of the religion of Isl¡m or the teachings of the Ahl al-Ba¢t (prayers be
upon all of them) in the eyes of the people, then we have done treachery to the trusts that have been given to us.

Amongst all of the trusts that we have been given, the most important of them is the responsibility and
accountability that all of the creations refused to accept and it was only mankind and humanity that accepted it.
It is this trust whose status is so great that we must not be negligent of it and it is because of this responsibility that
when a boy or girl becomes of age (B¡ligh), that we hold programs to celebrate this special occasion and such a
program is completely appropriate and suitable to held since when a boy or girl becomes of age, he or she is the
one who is spoken to directly by All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) and this is not something trivial!

Another the trust given to us, are these clothes that the Scholars wear. We must make sure that we act in such a
way that damage is not caused to the image of these clothes (the ones wearing them) and as far as we are able to,
we must maintain the mannerisms, respect and greatness. In addition, we must also be completely aware of
issues of the religion and must keep these in our memory and through this, we must seek to protect this trust of
All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) (which has been placed upon us). When it comes to driving our car (with
the clothing of the Scholars on), we must make sure that even more than others, we obey the traffic laws as the
culture of a nation or country can be judged by seeing how they follow the traffic laws in their country.

The Isl¡mic Revolution is also a trust and as you know, these days that we are currently in, are the days where we
commemorate the victory of the Isl¡mic Revolution. During the “10 Days of Dawn”, there are two important
things which must be carried out:

1. Thanking All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) through our verbal attestation and through our actions for this
great blessing that All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him) has given us.

2. Studying both the positive and negative points of history that we have passed over the last twenty-four years
(since the Isl¡mic Revolution), so that we can strengthen our positive points and work on removing the negative
points and also to understand the damages that have been caused (by our negative actions).

One of the most significant acts with has caused great damage (to this trust given to us) are the gatherings that are
organized by some of the Government offices under the guise of “Victory of the Isl¡mic Revolution Celebrations”
in which many free and uninhibited actions take place through which they actually reduce the name and worth of
the Isl¡mic Revolution. This is not the way to take care of a trust that has been given to us - rather the way that
we can maintain this trust is to make the new generation of youth ready to accept this (Revolution) and to pass it
on to them.

The thirty-seventh characteristic of the true believer is that he is “ ” or that he keeps far away from
treachery and deceit. By this we mean that the true believer keeps away from all forms of treachery: treachery in
relation to wealth, in relation to knowledge (which he has been given which he is supposed to pass on to others),
treachery in relation to his heart (his emotions and sentiments), etc… The complete true believer is the one keeps
away from all these sorts of deceits and treacheries.

2
The thirty-eighth characteristic of the true believer is that he is “D%' " ” or that he is the true friend of the believer
who possesses All¡h consciousness (Taqw¡).

As we know, Im¡m {Al¢ (peace be upon him) is the complete and most perfect example of the meaning of this part
of the °ad¢th, and we see in history that when his brother (Aq¢l) asked him for something more than what was his
right from the public treasury, Im¡m {Al¢ (peace be upon him) said to him that the relationship of being his brother
was only up to that point (meaning that he would not break the laws of All¡h (Glory and Greatness be to Him)
even for his own brother).

The thirty-ninth characteristic of the true believer is “ E " C” or that his close companion is modesty. The topic of
modesty has very many discussions associated with it. Modesty means that one turns away from anything that is
a sin. Today, the powers of influence are trying to pull the modesty away from the youth and if they are successful
in breaking this shield (that is around the youth), then without doubt, the youth will fall prey to many sins. The
enemies (of Isl¡m) try to define modesty (°ay¡) as being a person possessing a weak soul whereas this is not the
case. We know that modesty in the face of the arrows of the enemies is like a rifle-pit (that protects the one who
has this trait).

The fortieth characteristic of the true believer is that of “./E -+*” meaning that the true believer is one who in the
face of dangers, pulls himself together and in the face of the lower desires of his soul from within and the callings
of Sha¢§¡n from outside of his own soul, is careful and attentive. In many places in the Qur}¡n it is mentioned that
when the lower desires of the soul and the Sha¢§¡n try to pull a person to perform a bad act, then they (either the
lower desires of the soul or the Sha¢§¡n) try and depict that act as being something beautiful and attractive.

For example, the worst of sins is to kill another person and even worse than this is when a person kills his own
child and even worse than these two is when a person kills his infant baby. The {Arabs at the time of Ignorance
used to bury their new-born daughters alive in the ground and in doing this, they thought that they were actually
helping their wife when in reality, Sha¢§¡n had actually made their wicked deeds seem as beautiful and fair-
seeming to them and today, under the guise of human rights and fighting against terrorism, the United States of
America has acted out the most forms of treachery around the world!

The forty-first characteristic of the true believer is “1 2 1 0” meaning that the true believer’s misguidedness is very
little. If he possesses any type of misguidedness within himself, then he would definitely feel disappointed (with
himself) since he is able to see the true face of the actions which he is committing.

We pray that through the spiritual blessings of the Noble Messenger (blessings of All¡h be upon him and his
family) who is the one who has spoken these words in this a¦¡d¢th, and through the spiritual blessings of Am¢r al-
Mo’min¢n {Al¢ ibn Ab¢ ±¡lib (prayers be upon him) who was the one being spoken to, that All¡h (Glory and
Greatness be to Him) grants us all the success to implement all of these teachings within our own lives.

…and all praise belongs to All¡h, Lord of the Worlds, only the mistakes are mine. (Tr.)