Pearl of Wisdom
Ali b. Hassan al-Wasiti, known as al-'Amsh, narrated, 'I brought an item to him from Isfahan made of silver, in order to present it to my master Abu Ja'far [al-Jawad]. When the people left his company after he had answered all their questions, he stood up and left. I followed him and met a helper of his from whom I requested to seek permission to see Abu Ja'far. I entered and saluted him, and he returned my salutation with signs of dislike on his face. He did not come to sit down, so I approached him and emptied all that was in my sleeve before him. He looked at me in anger, then he looked to the right and left and said, 'Allah has not created me for this, what has play got to do with me?' I asked him to forgive me. He forgave me and then I took the things and left.'
Imam Muhammad ibn Ali al-Taqi [as] Ibid. p. 212
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Purification |
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If you seek purification and ablution (wudu'), then go to water as you would go to the mercy of Allah, for He has made water the key to being near to Him in intimate conversation, and a guide to the domain of His service. Just as the mercy of Allah purifies the wrong actions of His bondsmen, so are outward impurities cleansed only by water. As Allah said,
It is He Who sends the winds as good news before His mercy; and We send down pure water out of heaven! (25:48)
and elsewhere,
We have made of water everything living. Will they not then believe? (21:30)
As He gives life to every blessing in this world from water, so by His mercy and overflowing favour He gives life to the heart and to acts of obedience, and to reflection in the purity of water, its fineness, its cleanness, its blessing and the subtleness of how it mixes with everything; through water He also gives life to the heart, when you purify those limbs which you have been commanded by Allah to purify, and which you use to worship in your obligatory and customary prayers.
From each limb come many benefits. When you treat the limbs with respect, then their benefits will soon spring up for you. Deal with Allah's creation like water which mixes with things and gives everything its due, while not changing itself in essence. This is expressed by the words of the Messenger of Allah, 'The sincere believer is like water.' Let your purity with Allah in all your obedience be like the purity of water when He sent it down out of heaven and called it pure. Purify your heart with precaution and certainty when you purify your limbs with water.
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