RIGHTS OF DEEDS

RIGHTS OF DEEDS

10- THE RIGHT OF YOUR PRAYER

Then the right of your ritual prayer is that you should know that it is an arrival at the threshold of God and that through it you are standing before God. And when you realize that, then you will stand in the station of him who is lowly, vile, beseeching, trembling, hopeful, fearful, and abased, and you will magnify Him who is before you through stillness, and bowing of the head¹, and humbleness of the limbs, and yielding of the wing², and by saying the best supplications to him by yourself and beseeching Him to save you from the responsibilities which rest on your shoulders-surrounded by your faults and exhausted by your sins. And there is no power but in God.

11- THE RIGHT OF FASTING

And the right of fasting is that You should know it is a veil, which God has set up over your tongue, your hearing and your sight, your private parts and your stomach, to protect you from the Fire³. This meaning is asserted in the tradition: "Fasting is an armor against the Fire." Thus if your parts can calm down within the veil of fasting, you have hopes of being protected.⁴ But if you leave them agitated behind the veil and let them lift the sides of the veil, then they will look at things that are not lawful for them to look at -that incite lust and powers that are beyond the limits of being God-fearing. It is not safe for you to break through the veil and leave it.⁵ And there is no power but in God.

12- THE RIGHT OF PILGRIMAGE

And the right of pilgrimage⁶ is that you should know that it is an arrival at the threshold of your Lord and a flight to Him from your sins; and through it your repentance is accepted and you perform an obligation made incumbent upon you by God.

13-THE RIGHT OF CHARITY

And the right of charity is that you should know that it is a storing away with your Lord and a deposit for which you will have no need for witnesses. Then once you know this you will be more confident of it if you donate it in secret than if you donate it in public.⁷ It is more appropriate for you to do privately what you now do in public and keep the affairs between you and Him secret under all circumstances. And you should also not take your hearing and sight as witnesses for the donations that you make in charity as if you have the most trust yourself.⁸ It should not be as if you are not sure that your donations will be returned to you. Finally you should not remind others of your favors since you have done so for yourself. If you remind them of your favors, you will not be immune from being similarly reminded of others' favors to you. Moreover this will prove that your intentions were not pure. If you had pure intentions you would not remind anyone of it. And there is no power but in God.

14- THE RIGHT OF THE OFFERING

⁹And the right of the offering is that through it¹⁰ you purify your will toward your Lord, and expose yourself to His Mercy, and His approval and not the eyes of the observers lower than Him. If this is so, you will neither be hypocritical nor extravagant. You will only intend the offering for God's sake, and know that God wishes your ease, and does not wish your hardship. He also wishes His creatures to take it easy, and does not wish them to suffer hardships. Likewise, modesty is better than arrogance, for there lies extravagance and falsehood in the arrogant, while there are no formalities or falsehoods in the humble and the servile, since they are creatures and they exist in nature. There is no power but in God.¹¹

* By: IMAM SAJJAD Ali ibn al-Hussein (May God Bless Him). Research and Translation by: Dr. Ali Peiravi Ms. Lisa Zaynab Morgan

1. And fix your eyes looking down to the ground. In the other version it is followed by: "You will approach the prayer with humbleness, deep from your heart and you will perform it according to its bounds and its rights." Then it continues.
2. Being humble
3. of Hell
4. from the Fire of Hell
5. If you abandon the fast, you will have torn God's protective covering away from yourself.
6. This right has not been mentioned in the version transmitted in Tuhaf al-Uqoul
7. In the other version it is followed by: "You should know that it repels calamities and illnesses in this world and it will repel the Fire from you in the Hereafter.
8. That your donations in charity will be returned to you
9. The animal sacrificed during the holy pilgrimage
10. In the other version it continues: "you desire God and you do not desire His creation; through it you desire only the exposure of your soul to God's mercy and the deliverance of your spirit on the day you encounter Him."
11. In the other version it is followed by: "Through it you desire only the exposure of your soul to the Exalted, and the High- God's Mercy, and the deliverance of your spirit on the Day you encounter Him.