Divine virtues and status of Ali and his followers — Hadith 1

m the same way as family members become happy for the return of the absent after a long period of being away. O Ali, your Shia fear Allah secretly and advise people for His cause openly. O Ali, your Shia compete with each other for gaining the ranks, because they will meet Allah without being burdened with any sin. O Ali, the deeds of your Shia are presented before me every Friday. I become happy for their good deeds and implore to Allah to forgive their sins. O Ali, in the Torah and the Gospel, your Shia and you are mentioned in a good reference before they were created. Ask the people of the Torah and the people of the Kitab to tell you about ’Eli’; yet, you are well versed in the Torah and the Gospel. The scripturalists honor Eli, but they do not know his Shia. They know him as much as that which is recorded in their books. O Ali, the good reference to your companions in the heavens is greater than it is on the earth. Thus, they should be happy for so and should be more diligent. O Ali, the spirits of your Shia ascend to the heavens during their sleep. There, the angels, out of their longing for them and the ranks that Allah has decided for them, look at the spirits of the Shia in the same way as people look at the crescent. O Ali, ask your companions who acknowledge you to be too great for committing the acts that their enemies commit. No single day and no single night pass without having the mercy of Allah overshadowed over them. Hence, they should avoid impurity. O Ali, the wrath of Allah is intense on anyone who hates the Shia, disavows them and you, chooses anyone else other than them and you, inclines to your enemy, leaves your Shia and you, opts for deviation, wages war against your Shia and you, hates us-the Prophet’s family, and hates him who follows, supports, chooses, and offers his soul and wealth for your sake. O Ali, send my greetings to them whom I will not see and they will not see me and tell them that they are my true brothers that I long for meeting. They should deliver my knowledge to the coming generations, hold fast and cling to the tie of Allah, and work diligently. We will not take them out of the right guidance and will not lead them to deviation. Tell them that Allah is pleased with them, takes pride in them before the angels, looks at them every Friday with mercy, and orders the angels to seek forgiveness to them. O Ali, do not turn away from supporting them who loved you because they had heard that I love you and took their love for you as a belief that takes them nearer to Allah, gave you their pure affection of their hearts, preferred you to their fathers, brothers, and sons, pursued your path, stood all the misfortunes for our sake, rejected everything for backing us, sacrificed their souls for us, and endured harm, insult, and bitterness for our sake. Therefore, be merciful to them and satisfy yourself with them, for Allah has chosen them for us out of His knowledge from among the creatures, created them from the same clay from which He created us, deposited with them our secret, bound their hearts to acknowledge our right, comforted their hearts, and made them cling to our tie. They never prefer the dissidents to us even if this takes the worldly pleasures away from them and causes the Shaitan to inflict them with misfortunes. As Allah supported and led them to the right way, they have held fast to Him while people are plunging in the floods of deviation and perplexed in the midst of passions. They could not see the right path and that which has come from Allah; therefore, they begin and end their day with the wrath of Allah. On the other side, your Shia are on the course of right and straightforwardness. They do not like the company of those who dissented them. The world is not their concern and they are not its concern. Those are surely the lanterns of gloom. Those are surely the lanterns of gloom. Those are surely the lanterns of gloom.