These verses of God make it clear to us that those who do not submit to the Prophet are not ‘momins.” Submission is not to be mistaken for a mere lip profession of obedience. It is based on conviction. It is this kind of submission to the Imams that is enjoined on the ‘momins’. We have no right to probe into their affairs. We right are not allowed to disapprove of anything that they do. We have to show our satisfaction openly and in secret by faith and conviction, in words and in our actions. For God has linked our obedience to the Imams with our obedience to the Prophet and He has made them his vice-regents on earth after the Prophet.
It is a hard task for the ‘momins’. The more they progress in the pursuit of this course of sub- mission the more they rise in the estimation of God and the Imams. Imam Jafar, peace be on him, says “No one can understand the nature of our affairs excepting the angels who are within the closest proximity to God, the Prophets, our selves or those devotees of God whose hearts have been illumined by Him.
It is necessary for the followers of the Imams in particular and the people in general that they should discipline their minds and train themselves to act to the satisfaction of God. They should be devoted to Him, to the Prophet and to the Imams from his progeny. They should be loyal to them and pay them the ‘amanat’ which God has de- posited with us for them. This payment is a bounden duty on us. We should always be on our guard to see that we do not lower ourselves in the estimation of the Imams. We should never do anything which is disliked by them or is dis- agreeable to them.
If we find that we have been very steady in loyalty to the Imams by strictly abiding by the rules and regulations prescribed by them and by dis- charging all our obligations to them. If we feel within the heart of our hearts that we have done nothing which savours of disapproval of God and the Imams, if with all this, something befalls us from God or from the Imams in the form of a punishment or a trial and if we find this to be the worst of calamities from our point of view, let us not show the slightest sign of discontent by our outward behaviour or by the depression of our hearts. We should submit to this act of God and of the Imarns and bear it with strength. We should show by our actions by our faith and by our intentions that we are not, in the least, dis- heartened by it. We should have the courage of conviction to realize that it is a fair deal by God.
We must be convinced that we must be desery. ing of this punishment or even of much more than that. Let us feel certain that what God and the Imams have forgiven us for is much more than what they have punished us for.
We know how often God has made the Prophets suffer in this world for their minor-short-com- mings for which people in general are never chas- tised here. In many instances they did not know for the trials to which Solomon, Ayub, Jacob and commings on their part. If I were to give these things in detail the matter will prolong and will exceed the limits of this book. Had the Imams not mentioned to us these causes we should have never known why these Prophets were put to such severe tests.
touched her with evil intentions. The woman shouted “Who is that person who is touching me in this sacred place? May God cut off his hands.” The man left for ‘Mena’ and spent the night there, in his tent. In the middle of the night some one shouted that a thief had run away with some of the belongings of the ‘hajees’. He and his friends came out in the dark in search of the thief. The ‘hajee’ who had offended the woman, woke up and came out to see what had happened. He happened to fall suddenly upon the thief who threw the belongings at his face and ran away. When the people found the stolen property in his hands he informed them of what had happened but they did not believe it. They said “None but you are the thief.” They took him to the king and those who had seen the things in his hands gave evidence against him. The king ordered his hands to be cut off.
The fellow realized that this was the punish- ment for his misbehaviour to the woman on the occasion of his circuit of the ‘Ka’ba’. Had the culprit met with this punishment after a long time, he would never have realized that it was the result of his own doings.
On the same lines, if one of you is meted out a punishment by God or by the Imams and he thinks that he is innocent in the matter, let him realize that it is not the punishment for the immediate sin for which he is taken to task and of which he thinks he is innocent but for some other sin of which he is not aware. God forgives what He likes to forgive from our sins and He neither punishes us here nor will He punish us in the next world. On the punish other hand He punishes us here for our sins for which He likes to punish us and postpones the punishment for those for which He does not like to punish us here. He has got always some rea- son for punishing us and we are always indebted to Him for His mercy on us. If God forgives the sins of somebody and secures him from punishment in this world and the next, this is the most perfect form of His forgiveness and the greatest of His blessings. If He punishes some one here then let him realize that God will lighten his punishment in the next world. If he is punished in the next world then let him realize that he deserves the punishment. Just and fair are the ways of God.