Mouood Mouood English Edition
It is the principal of the prevalence of Mohammed’s doctrine over doctrines of the previous prophets. It also refutes the misclaims of prophesy a part of which emerged during his reign while others came forth thereafter.
Furthermore, this principal grants the Islamic nation the honor of sealing the prophets’ nations. It confines it with the responsibility of guiding the other nations. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) outlined the general strings of worshipping the Lord, performing the prayers, fasting and complying with the leaders. It is not unlikely that the reporter related only the paragraphs he could memorize, and that he missed the Prophet’s reference to others, such as the poor rate and the ritual pilgrimage.
The most distinguishable point in this principal is that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) refers to complying with the rulers. When God mandates compliance with a person without citing conditions, this shall mean that this person is sinless that he does not wrong any, and does not say but the truth. Since this prophetic instruction is empty of any conditions and qualifications, it is most surely that he refers to the twelve imams whom are divinely nominated, and prophetically predicted.
The eighth principal; principal of the Prophet’s being the witness on his people in the Hereafter and their joining him on the Divine Pool, is mentioned in various narrations. Some mention the form of, “I will precede you to the Divine Pool, and I will take pride in you before the other nations. Blacken not my face.” In other narrations, the following form is recorded: “I will take pride in you among the other nations. After me, do not fight each other.”
This is a unique prophetic style persisting that people shall join their Prophet before their Lord, and each shall be in need of a drink from the Kawthar Pool. That drink will save him against any further thirst and make his body fit to enter the Paradise.
This instruction is similar to a father’s saying to his sons, “O sons! Fulfill my will. I am leaving you. You shall join me when I will be having a great fortune. You will be living in a poverty. I will surely realize the persons among you who will keep my will, and, similarly, I will realize the dissidents.”
The ninth principal; principal of necessity of accuracy in acting, and admonishing against committing the insignificant actions that lead to deviation, attracts attentions to a remarkable rule in individual and social behaviors. It is the rule that deviation begins with an insignificant deed or a group of simple deeds seen as meaningless and unimportant. These deeds shall lead to others, till they lead to the abyss of the mundane or the supernal devastation.
This matter is practicable in individual and collective situations.
A Muslim may permit himself to gaze at a foreign lady he liked, and gives himself the license to exchange conversation with her, and to participate her in some acts, and, finally, this will lead him to perpetrate the obscenity.
A man may permit himself to befriend a bad man. He neglects the sounds of his religious consciousness and the advise of his associates. This will lead him to sink in the ocean of wronging people and deviation and corruption.
A nation may overlook assails of their enemies in states of political, economic or cultural power. This concern will lead the enemies to predominate and prevail this nation.
A society may overlook an aspect of corruption that first occurs in a certain point or among a certain group.
A society may overlook a law dictatorially issued by the ruler or his men. This will lead to a comprehensive injustice that drives the society towards putrescence.
The insignificant sins are those tiny situations and behaviors forming the invisible seeds of the giant trees of evil on individual and social levels. Consequently, reference books Muslims insist on referring to this affair.
Al-Kafi; 2/288:
Imam Jafar As-Sadiq (peace be upon him):
The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) resided in waste land. He asked his companions to fetch firewood. They apologized that the land had been barren. “Try to find as much as possible,” ordered the Prophet. They fetched a good quantity and provided the sum before him. As he saw the view, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) commented, “This is the way how sins gather. Beware of the insignificant sins. Everything has an observer. The observer of these sins records whatever they acted and their deeds, and everything is registered in a clear recording.”
Al-Baiheqi’s As-Sunan; 10/188:
Abdullah Bin Masud: The Prophet (peace be upon him) stated, “Beware of the insignificant sins. They accumulate against a man till they cause him to perish. Their like is a people who resided in a barren land. Each could fetch a small single wood till they gathered a considerable quantity sufficient for making fire and cooking their food.”
The previous prophetic sayings deal with the quantitative accumulation of the insignificant ill deeds and sins. They show how these deeds change into a great danger against the lives of individuals and societies.
The following prophetic sayings deal with the qualitative accumulation of the insignificant sins in the core and personality of the individuals and societies:
Al-Kafi; 2/287:
Imam Jafar As-Sadiq stated: “Beware of the insignificant sins. They are unforgivable.” “What are the insignificant sins?” I asked. Imam explained, “A man commits a sin and wishes if he had not committed others.”
Ibn Madga’s As-Sunan; 2/1417:
Aisha: The Prophet (peace be upon him) addressed at me, “O Aisha! Beware of the insignificant sins. They have an interrogator from the Lord’s side.”
It is also recorded in Ad-Darimi’s; 2/303, and Ahmed’s; 6/70 and 151.
One of the remarkable bases, inferred form this prophetic instruction, is that the Satan, when despairs of controlling a nation through misguiding them in the grand issues, takes the road of ruining and deviating through the insignificant deeds. This is the Prophet’s saying, “The Satan despaired of being obeyed on this land. But he will be obeyed in some sins you deem insignificant. He will be pleased by them.” This saying is recorded in Ibn Madga’s As-Sunan; 2/1015.
The Satan despaired of demolishing the fortified castle and the handsome structure of Islam erected by the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family); therefore, he went towards prevailing on the individuals to drag a single brick of that building incessantly. This process resulted in dragging the entire constituents of that great structure.
Another outstanding matter, deduced from Ali Bin Ibrahim’s narration, is that obeying the Satan in the insignificant sins is reckoned as an adoration to him. This means that those who commence aberration in a society are serving the Satan, not the Lord. As a result, they carry the advocacy to changing from serving the Lord into serving the Satan. This is the Prophet’s saying, “But he is pleased to be obeyed through your insignificant deeds. If the Satan is obeyed, he is then served.”
The Prophet’s declaring that the Satan is pleased to be obeyed through the insignificant sins is an information telling the Satan’s satisfaction for the success progressed in his project of deviating people and destructing their castles. This accords the exegesis of God’s saying, (And certainly the Satan found true his conjecture concerning them, so they follow him, except a party of the believers.)
The Prophet’s household regarded people’s struggle on power after the Prophet’s decease as the most menacing insignificant sin.
Biharul Anwar; 28/217:
Imam Al-Baqir (peace be upon him), through explaining God’s saying, (Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have wrought,) said, “By God, that commenced when Ansar suggested to elect a leader from them, and the Quraishis elect another from them.”
