God the great says to Mohammed His Prophet, may the greetings be on him and his descendants, “Say, I do not ask you to pay me (for the guidance) any reward excepting your love for my kith and kin.” When the messenger of God was asked as to who were his kith and kin, he replied “Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husain.” He further said “He who loves them, loves me. He who hates them, hates me,” none but a ‘momin’ loves Ali and none but a hypocrite hates Ali. It is said that in the days of the Prophet, ‘momins’ could not be distinguished from the hypocrites by any thing but their love for Ali. The Prophet ordained and exhorted his followers to love Ali and God enjoined it as a duty on the Moslems in general
Hence it is the duty of the Momins to love the Imam of their time who is the descendant of the Prophet. Abu Jafar Mohammed al-Baqir bin Ali, greetings be on him, was asked to explain the meaning of the verse “I do not ask for any remuneration excepting love for my kith and kin.” He explained it by saying, “It is the duty of every ‘momin’ to love us who are the ‘Ahle- bait’, the kith and kin of Mohammed.”
He further said “He who loves us, will rise with us on the Day of Judgment.” Again he said “Religion is nothing but love.” God says, “He made you love your faith and adorned it in your hearts¹.”
Another verse of the Quran says, ” If you love God, then follow me, God will love you and forgive you your sins.” Ali, peace be on him, is reported to have said to some of his followers, May I in- form you of a virtuous deed which secures the doer from the frightfulness of the Day of Judgment and of a vice which drags its perpetrator head-long to Hell-fire?” They said, “Yes, O the Command- er of the Faithful tell us.” He said, “The virtue is to love us and the vice is to hate us.”
It behoves those who know the true position of the Imams to love them sincerely. They should see that their faith in them is prompted by love and not by the expectation of a wordly gain from them
For, if one’s ove is prompted by a wordly consideration it ceases with the loss of considera- tion. Hence let the love be love for the sake of love and let it continue to be the same whether one is favoured or disfavoured by the Imams and whether one is in prosperous or adverse circum- stances. What is done for the sake of God cannot be affected by the vicissitudes of life. Change of circumstances can affect only those things which are done out of some wordly consideration.
Jafar bin Mohammed, may the greetings of God be on him, says, “He who loves us should make his love as pure gold.”
Ali, may the greetings of God be on him, says, “If I were to strike a blow on the nose of a ‘momin’ he will never hate me, on the other hand if I were to shower gold and silver on a hypocrite he will never love me.”
Thus, those who love the Imams, should be sincere in their love towards them and should pay them their dues. It is the duty of the lover to love his beloved with sincerity. It is his duty to return to him the ‘amanat’ with honesty and support him and never forsake him or disobey him. It is his duty to like and dislike for him what he likes and dislikes for himself. It is his duty to see that his inward regard does not differ from his outward behaviour. This is the quality of love which the lovers display to their beloveds of the world.
One can easily imagine then the quality and intensity of love which one is expected to extend to the Imam who is loved by God, who knows all about what we do openly or in secret. The best thing for a lover of this category is to keep a watch on his own self to see that his love for the Imam inwardly and outwardly does not fall below the standard.
In conclusion, O momins, be sincere in your love for the Imams so that you may be amply rewarded by God. Whatever I have mentioned in this chapter will suffice for those who are on the right path.