21- Day of greetings
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
The value of deeds on that day (Eid Ghadir) is equal to eighty months, and it is recommended to increase the remembrance of Allah and Salawat upon the Prophet (PBUH&HP) and his family.
Imam Hadi (AS) said to Abu Ishaq:
On the day of Ghadir, the Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP) raised the hand of his brother Ali (AS) and introduced him as the flag bearer (and commander) of the people and the leader after him. Abu Ishaq said: I said, I beg your pardon, you are right. That is why I came to visit you, I testify that you are the authority of Allah over the people.
Imam Reza (AS) said:
Whoever meets a believer on the day (Ghadir), Allah will send seventy lights on his grave and expand his grave, and every day seventy thousand angels will visit his grave and give him the good news of Paradise.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
It is proper to get closer to Allah by doing good to others, fasting, praying, reaching out to relatives, and meeting the brothers of faith because the prophets did so and advised their people when they appointed their successors.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
It is recommended to pray in Ghadir Mosque because the Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP) introduced and appointed the Commander of the Faithful (AS) there. And that is where the great Allah revealed the truth.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
A person who prays two units (Rakat) at any time on the day of Eid Ghadir -and it is better to be close to noon, which is the time when the Commander of the Faithful (AS) was appointed leadership in Ghadir at that time- is like someone realized that day ...
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
The fast of Ghadir day is equal to the fast of the whole life. That is if a person is always alive and fasts all his life, his reward is equal to the reward of fasting on Eid Ghadir.
Imam Reza (AS) said:
Eid Ghadir is a day of congratulations. Congratulations to each other, every time a believer meets his brother, he should say: "Praise be to Allah who has given us the success of grasping the guardianship of Imam Ali (AS) and the leaders." ...
On the day of Ghadir, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HP) ordered: A preacher should call: Gather for prayer. Then he took the hand of Ali (AS), raised it and said:
O Allah, whoever I am the master of, so Ali is also his master, O Allah, love the one who loves Ali and be the enemy of the one who is at enmity with Ali.
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HP) said:
Whoever wants to live and die like me and live in the eternal paradise that my Lord has promised me, will choose the guardianship of Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), because he leads you not astray.
I heard the Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HP) to say to Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS):
O Ali, you are my brother, guardian, heir and successor among my ummah during my life and after my death. Your friend is my friend and your vindictive is my enemy.
Imam Baqir (AS) said:
Islam is based on five pillars: prayer, zakat, fasting, Hajj and Wilayah (Guardianship), and nothing has been called as much as what has been emphasized to Wilayah on the Day of Ghadir.
Imam Kadhim (AS) said:
The guardianship of Ali (AS) is recorded in the books of all the prophets and no prophet was sent except with the covenant of the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH&HP) and the Imamate of Ali (AS).
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HP) said:
The guardianship of Ali (AS) is the guardianship of Allah, loving him is worshiping Allah, following him is a divine obligation and his friends are friends of Allah and his enemies are enemies of Allah, war with him, war with Allah, and peace with him, peace with Allah Almighty.
Imam Baqir (AS) said:
Satan, the enemy of Allah, lamented four times: the day he was cursed by Allah, the day he fell to the ground, the day that Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP) was sent, and the day of Eid Ghadir.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP) said:
God says: The guardianship of Ali is my stronghold, so whoever enters my fortress will be protected from the fire of Hell.
The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HP) said:
O Ali, I am the city of knowledge and you are its door, do not enter the city except through its door. ... You are the leader of my nation and my successor in this city, whoever obeys you is blessed, and whoever disobeys you is miserable, and your friend has benefited and your enemy has lost.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
The cornerstones of Islam are three things:
Prayer, Zakat and Wilayah, none of which can be made without the other.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said:
O Hafs! Surprising of what Ali (AS) encountered! He could not get his right with ten thousand witnesses (on the day of Ghadir), while a person with two witnesses gets his right.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP) said on the day of Ghadir:
Ali (AS) is the interpretation of the Book of Allah, and the inviter to Allah, be aware that what is lawful and what is forbidden is more than what I introduce and command and forbid and count them. So I was instructed to make a covenant with you to accept what I brought from Allah Almighty about Ali the commander of the faithful and his successors.
O people! Think and understand the divine revelations, pay attention to its courts and do not follow its similarities. I swear by Allah, no one can ever utter the verses of the Qur'an and clarify its interpretation, except the one whom I have taken (and introduced).
All of us as human beings desire a peaceful and easy death; some people consider euthanasia as a way to achieve this end. The word Euthanasia comes from Greek origin (eu: well, good- Thanatos: death) and is commonly known as the practice of intentionally ending a life to relieve pain and suffering. It is classified into three types: voluntary (with the consent of the patient), non-voluntary (the approval of the patient is unavailable) and involuntary (against the will of the patient). Voluntary euthanasia has been legalized in some countries such as Netherlands, Belgium and some states of America. It seems that proponents of euthanasia developed a strictly materialistic view of life and death; in other words, the existence of God and the value of human life are ignored. Moreover, the patient’s condition when consenting for euthanasia is not considered at all.
The first issue that can be argued against euthanasia is that being terminally ill does not seem to have a precise definition. There is no way to determine the life expectancy of a person even if he/she is diagnosed as terminally ill. There are cases in which the patient healed miraculously and without any explanation; the proponents of it seem to ignore the God’s will in the human’s life and death.
What's more, the consent that a patient who is suffering severely gives to end his/her life is not really of much validity. Obviously, due to the health condition of the patient, he/she is in a depressed mood and cannot think clearly. In some cases, such as an older adult who has lost his common sense, the consent given by him/her is apparently not valid. On the other hand, in non-voluntary in which a patient’s relative gives permission, the patient’s will is not included; it seems more like murdering rather than helping that patient.
Euthanasia activists ignore the value and importance of human life and the fact that the more you fight for life, the more precious your soul becomes. People who support this, often say that it is already considered permissible to take human’s life under some circumstances such as self-defense -e.g., in the case of wars- while, they miss this point that when one kills for self-defense, they are saving innocent lives either their own or someone else's. With euthanasia no one's life is being saved; life is only taken [3]. Human beings have the instinct for survival and immortality; euthanasia is clearly against the nature of human being. Somehow, it overlooks the spiritual side of human beings. Besides, it is an absolute act of suicide which many religions including Islam do not approve of [1].
Finally, the decision to take someone’s life is not for anybody even that person to make; God has given life to us, and He will take it as He wishes [2]. The proponents of Euthanasia have ignored moral issues and the spiritual side of human beings. Even in the hardest situations still, we can find hope if we have faith. By committing it, we lose the opportunity to see our unpredictable future; there may be a chance to embrace a beautiful life!
References:
- Euthanasia
- 5:32, 6:151, 4:29.
- what is Euthanasia
In the era we are living in today, stress and stress-related illnesses such as depression and anxiety are becoming of the biggest killers, and the effects that they have on our emotional and physical health can be devastating. Stress, as a highly personalized phenomenon, varies between people depending on individual vulnerability and resilience. How could one build up that strength required to beat the stress in Islam?
Here are some of the solutions that Islam proposes.
In Islamic teachings and narrations, the faith in God is known to be the first and the most efficient approach to achieve the inner peace and the control over anxiety and stress in Islam. Imam Ali (AS) said that having faith in God equals being safe and secure [1] &[2]. Believers know that there is a goal behind every happening. They believe that God is just; hence, they have not been just created and left to live some days in this world and suffer for nothing. But, they are created to pass all the difficulties to reach the perfection that they deserve.
That is why a believer rarely loses hope and even if gets disappointed, knows that he/she has a God who has promised to help him/her: “you who have faith, if you support Allah, He will support you” (47:7); “Whoever is wary of Allah, He shall make for him a way out [of the adversities of the world and the Hereafter]” (65:2). The opposite view on this matter is that life evolved spontaneously. This implies that there is no wisdom or goal behind the actual and future happenings, and this can be stressful by itself.
As stated earlier, the faith in God is the key to the inner peace. To be efficient, the faith should be practiced and manifested in one’s acts. Here are some practices that increase one’s faith in God and also relieve the stress in Islam.
The two possible ways to remember God are prayer (Salat) and invocation (Dua). In Surah R’ad it is stated that the hearts find rest in Allah’s remembrance (13:28). Also, God has promised: “Remember Me, and I will remember you” (2:152). The more consciously and concentrated one does the prayer and invocation, the more relief he\she will experience. During prayers, one spends some moments talking to God as the superior infinite power in the universe. This helps to overcome sorrow, just as talking with another person might do.
Reading the Quran and perceiving the divine messages is another practice that brings considerable relief. The caring advises that exist in Quran and that nice feeling of knowing that the creator of the whole universe is mindful of us, are relaxing. It is narrated from Imam Ali (AS) that the cure for the illnesses can be found in the Quran [3]. Also, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has advised reading Quran regularly as it lightens the heart and makes it alive [4].
Fasting is known to be an anti-stress practice [5]. One of the reasons that one feels stressful and anxious is the lack of determination. He/she often thinks that he/she is not able to ameliorate such a condition, nor can he/she control his/her confusing thoughts. But fasting is a good chance to strengthen one’s character and to change the attitudes and acts.
In addition to spiritual practices mentioned above, some other activities are known in Islam to heal the stress:
Seeking knowledge and wisdom is believed to enlighten the heart and keeps it alive and active. Imam Ali (AS) said: “Surely the hearts get tired just like the bodies, so seek for them new objects of wisdom” [6]. It is encouraged to seek wisdom, for Allah enlivens the dead heart through the light of wisdom just as He enlivens the dead earth through water from the sky [7]. So, one should dedicate some time every day to read or listen to the wisdom that inspires him spiritually.
Idling the days away and almost doing nothing in life are severely blamed in Islam since it is believed to corrupt one’s mind and body [8]. A corrupted mind might tempt to perverted thoughts and imaginations, evil intentions, laziness, etc. that will ruin one’s life in this world and the Hereafter [9]. Imam Sadeq (AS) has strongly disapproved laziness and apathy [10]&[11]. The reason is that these two characteristics hinder one to profit from this world and the Hereafter [10] and cause him to be humiliated by the others [11] which can lead to the isolation of the lazy person and the consequent psychological problems.
References:
- “Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim”, T. 771.
- “Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim”, T. 2839.
- “Nahj al-Balagha”, p. 223, no. 158.
- H. al-Bahrani,“Al-Burhan fi tafsir al-Quran”, vol. 1, p. 19.
- M. Reyshahri, "Mizan al-Hikma," T. 10671".
- “Nahj al-Balagha”, No. 197.
- stress in life
- Al-Shaykh al-Mufid, "Al-Irshad", vol. 1, p. 298.
- “Tuhaf al-Uqul”, p. 300.
- M. al-Kulaynī, “Al-Kafi”, vol. 5, p. 85.
- “Tuhaf al-Uqul”, p. 304.