The Sermon of The Pious (part 7)

36. If anyone looks at them he believes they are sick, but they are not sick and he says that they have gone mad.

In this part the effect of fear towards God which dominates the soul is explained.

Fear of God means to observe the divine gamut and its self gamut. He/she does not exceed his/her boundary Due to the fear which they have, others think that they have a problem, but their problem is the discipline and exactness which they bear towards the divine gamut. The God- fearing is busy with an important issue and this means his/her heart is headed towards God's Grandeur and Glory.

37- 38- They are not satisfied with their little good acts, and do not regard big their big acts.

The God-fearing don't become content with their little efforts and they don't consider their great efforts as great because they are aware of the prominent results which are related to their actions. When a person considers everything sufficient he/she will not develop. They are always avaricious.

39- They always blame themselves and are afraid their deeds.

This phrase is an outgrowth of the previous phrase. It means when they are not content with their previous actions and they don't consider them great, they accuse themselves for delinquency. Most human beings want to acquit themselves, but the pious always accuse themselves and never consider themselves a creditor.

40- When anyone of them is spoken highly he says "I know myself better than others and my Allah knows me better than I know.

The praise of adulators and the eulogy of eulogist do not affect them. The pious are their own critic, when they are praised they start to criticize themselves. The pious have proceeded in knowing themselves and when they know themselves they don't become happy of others praise and adulation. When a person becomes aware of his/her own self, due to the obviation of his/ her internal and external impediments and obstacles, he/she will know God. The God-fearing consider the praise of adulators as duplicity.

41- 42- My Allah do not deal with me according to what they say, and make me better than they think of me and forgive me (those shortcomings) which they do not know.

The God-fearing say: "O' God, don't blame us for what the adulators say about us because these eulogies cause hypocrisy and hypocrisy causes irritation. 'O' God place me in a better and higher position than everyone thinks of me, if we really have these features, we want you to increase our degrees. 'O' God forgive me for the sins and faults that you are aware of and it is latent to others and those praisers condone me."

43-The peculiarity of anyone of them is that you would see that he has strength in religion.

One of the features of the pious is that they have constancy and stability in religion. Strength in religion means that they have exploited their heart and bodily strength on religion, their constancy in religion is attributed to both belief and faith and doing his commandments.

To be continued...

^{* Fahimeh Mahdavi}