The Sermon of The Pious (part 8)

44. The pious have determination along with leniency.

They are not lenient towards anyone without reason, nor do they become boisterous. They become intimate with people by thinking and according to social morale values. Moderation in social affairs is to be lenient to the extent that they do not break the moral values.The major issue in encountering people is leniency associated with kindness and passion. This leniency and amenity is a great way for achieving big goals.

45. And they have faith with conviction.

Faith in God means the admission at God’s existence and what religion has brought for human beings, and this admission consists of intensity and infirmity. There are three types of faith:
a) Sometimes this faith is imitative which is related to theism and it means since my parents and ancestors are religious, I will become religious too, and this type of faith is not coequal to a real believer, because due to a difficulty or an event he/ she will lose his faith.
b) Sometimes this faith is logical which the religious person gains with reason and logic. Even if this kind of faith is strong, it will become unstable due to infusions and difficulties and gradually temptation will influence his/ her heart, therefore this kind of faith is undependable.
c) A faith accompanied with certainty is that in which the religious person reaches a level of belief that he/she believes in the truth, since the correct path is truth and nothing else.

46. They have eagerness in seeking knowledge.

The pious have a great interest in gaining knowledge and science. The pious are not only highbrow but also have a specific and distinct boundary for learning knowledge. Although greed is not an admirable personality but in this case it does not have a bad meaning. If this interest is towards knowledge and felicity of society and the salvation of self, it is appropriate. But if the greed and extreme interest is to the mundane life, wealth, wife, and child, it is absurd. The pious may have a limit and boundary for everything, but they don’t have any limit for acquiring knowledge.

47. They have knowledge along with patience.

The pious should have perseverance and be patient against difficulties which they encounter while acquiring knowledge. If the God- fearing jitters during gaining knowledge the result will not be desirable.

48. They have moderation in riches.

The pious are moderate in opulence. They are moderate in life; this means they are neither strict nor lavish. The unsparing belong to the Hell. If all of the people of the world observe this acceptable personality, the world will become Heaven. If people use the resources of the world square and distribute them fairly, poverty won’t exist at all. Moderation should be executed in all of the aspects of life: in demanding wealth and gaining money, in behavior and manner and also in using ones wealth. A pious has chosen the sect of contentment and is away from prodigality. He neither lavishes so that he/ she is prodigal, nor is he strict to be in the category of skinflints.

49. They have devotion in worship.

He has piety and humility in worshipping God. Devoutness in worshipping is the result of thinking about the Glory of God and his Magnificence.

Devoutness is related to the heart and other parts of body, it means to empty the heart from everything except Allah and also paying attention to prayer and not doing useless actions (playing with hair, beard, etc.).

50. They have gracefulness in starvation.

A pious is patient in distress and does not complain to people about distress and also does not ask people anything. He/she shows his/her needlessness and this is due to his satisfaction about fate and fatalism and also contentment in life. The God-fearing show themselves needless and rich in destitution and poverty. They hide their poverty from others. A pious tolerates poverty and is not afraid of it, although poverty is ungracious in Islam, but sometimes it is imposed to human beings, for example imposed war, earthquake, flood, drought, aridity, and other natural disasters which cause destitution and destroy assets.

To be continued...

^{* Fahimeh Mahdavi}