Traditions
Yaqoob bin Saif says: I heard from Imam Sadiq (a.s.): Almighty Allah does not take out a slave from the disrespect of sin to the honour of taw except by making him needless without wealth, and beloved without family and acquainted without company.
Amr bin Saeed says: I approached Imam Sadiq (a.s.) and said: I come to you only once after some years so kindly tell me some words of advice on which I may act. The Imam said: I admonish you to have fear of Allah and to have Wara and effort. Know that an effort. Know that an effort without wara gives no benefit.
It is recorded that Imam Sadiq (a.s.) has said: Make taqwa your habit and protect your religion with abstinence.
Similarly he has also said: It is essential that you, without speaking, invite others to Islam through fear of God, and abstinence and endeavour and truthfulness in talk and trustworthiness and good behaviour with neighbour and with everybody that is, your attitude, O Shias! Must be such that your opponents may incline toward your creed and be adoration for us and do not make us feel ashamed. You should also lengthen your bowing rukoo of prostrations, because, when one of you makes a long rukoo and sajdah, satan, from behind, cries out: Alas, this person obeyed and I rebelled!
Kheesama says: Before proceeding on a journey I went to Imam Sadiq (a.s.) to say him good bye, when he said: Convey my salaams to our friends and advise them to fear Allah and announce that we do not make them needless affluent without God but with the help of good deeds and our recommendation intercession does not reach without abstinence and verily, the most sorrowful person on the Day of Judgement is a man who praises justice but acts against it.
Amirul Momineen (a.s.) says: O servants of God! I advise you to fear Allah which Taqwa is both a provision and a baggage, and so also a shelter. Provision makes man reach his destination and a shelter protects him from dangers.
O servants of God! Fear of Allah???? away from doing the prohibited and makes their hearts a place of precaution in such a way that they remain awake in nights talking with their Lord Creator and they fast during hot days.
Amirul Momineen (a.s.) said: Thanks for every bounty is a refrain from what Allah has prohibited.
Consequences of Taqwa
Clear-sightedness as a result of Piety
O you who believe! If you are careful of your duty to Allah, He will grant you a distinction
A light which will make it possible for you to distinguish truth from untruth.
and whoever is careful of his duty to Allah, He will make for him an outlet, And give him sustenance from whence he thinks not
and whoever is careful of his duty to Allah, He will make easy for him his affair.
and he careful of your duty to Allah, Allah teaches you
These short yet meaningful sentences describe one of the most important fate-forming man problems of man and it is that, on the path that man traverses for attaining success, there always are some by away and pitfalls. If he does not remain careful about them and does not avoid them he falls down in such a way that no sign of him is left. So it becomes easy for man if he recognises what is truth and what is untruth, good and bad, friend and foe, useful and harmful and of fortune and misfortune.
The difficulty is that, in many of such cases, man becomes doubtful. He thinks untruth to be truth, selects foe instead of friend walks is a bye lane instead of on the right path.
We understand from the Holy Quran that this way of seeing eases our problems as curtains for lust, greed, passion, selfishness and excessive love of wealth, wife and children, position and status hinder our intelligence. This darkness can be removed only by the light of Taqwa.
Secondly, we know that every perfection, wherever it may be, is the reflection of a light of the Lord. The more man gets near to Allah, the more powerful reflection he will receive, from that Fountainhead of all perfection. Accordingly, all knowledge and wisdom sprout from that main Source of knowledge and wisdom. When man, in the light of Taqwa, gets nearness to Him by avoiding sin and thus mixes his insignificant drop of his existence with the unfathomable ocean, he acquires a big booty of awareness and wisdom. So, in the course of human history, we find men and women who were pious. In them we see such an extraordinary knowledge and wisdom that it is impossible to acquire through common avenues of education. They were able to recognise a number of calamities that were rooted in the folds of chaotic social conditions. They saw the heinous faces of enemies through thousands of deceptive veils. As a proof of this we give here some narrations:
1. A believer sees with the light of God!
2. Beware of the intelligence of a Faithful.
3. Be cautious of the guess and imagination of the faithful because the Lord Almighty makes their tongues tell only the Truth
It is recorded from the innocent Imams (a.s.): Assist us by means of Wara. Verily the one of you who meets his Lord when he possess wara gets ease from God because the Lord Almighty has said: the one who obeys Allah and His Apostle on the Day of Judgement will be the neighbour of one on whom Allah will have completed His bounty and they are the Messengers and the Truthfuls and Martyrs and the Pious and indeed they are the good friends.