Observing divine manners
Imam Reza (A.S) encountered different positive and negative figures in his life and treated every one of them accordingly and also answered their comments – either polite or impolite –by observing divine manners and Qur’anic guidelines.
Take the following examples into considerations:
Clarifying the ambiguities for Bazanti
According to Bazanti, Hemyari writes in Qurb al Asnad that once I wrote to Imam Reza (A.S): I am a Kufic man. My family and I could get proximity to the Almighty God through obeying you. I am highly eager to visit you in order to ask some religious questions. Furthermore, there are a number of narrations attributed to you. Narrators of such stories are those who consider that your father is still alive and some of your responses don’t accord with those of your ancestors’.
Imam (A.S) answered: In the Name of God. I have received your letter. You wrote that you like to visit me to clarify some issues. Yes, you should come and discuss those issues directly. But with regard to the narrated stories which are attributed to me and are incongruent with the ideas of my ancestors, I might say, those words would guide everybody except God does not want and except those who don’t want to see or hear.
God says: “So whoever Allah wants to guide - He expands his breast to [contain] Islam; and whoever He wants to misguide - He makes his breast tight and constricted as though he were climbing into the sky. (1) Thus does Allah place defilement upon those who do not believe.”(6:125)(2) and also says: you cannot guide whoever you like, but God guides whoever he likes and he is aware of the guided people.
Notes:
1. An’am: 125
2. Ghesas:56
By Muhammad Javad Tabasi
Translated by: Sadroddin Musawi
Other links:
Imam Reza (A.S) Answering the Questions of Mystics
