Wiladat of our 10th Imam: Ali Al-Hadi, An-Naqi (AS)

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim - In the name of Allah the most Beneficent the most Merciful!

A day of joy is conferred unto us and the Ahlul Bayt with the birth of our 10th Holy Imam! In order to show our respect and please him, lets present him a present that would make him satisfied, he came to this earth to guide us, lets us learn from him and be guided:

"The thanking person is more happy for thanking than for the blessing causing the thanking , because the blessing is the article of this world ( while ) thanking is the blessing of this world and the hereafter." Imam Ali An-Naqi (AS)

The concept of thanking someone is one which has been around since a time long before, because of the feeling within us that a certain action is done for our pleasure, and that we are so pleased with it, that we would like to show some form of appreciation for it through gratitude toward the person who has done it for us.

But look at this concept, it shows us just how thankful we are supposed to be as Muslims, we are supposed to feel the happiness of thanking in itself rather than the happiness of having received the thing which we are thanking for!!

So the next time we want to thank someone, we should ask ourselves are we thanking properly? are we more happy to be thankful rather than to receive what we are thankful for?

And if we ponder upon this and relate it to thanking Allah(SWT), we realize the depth of being thankful for being able to be thankful... Subhanallah!!!

"Do not expect honesty and purity of intention from someone who has suffered from you malice, do not expect loyalty from someone you have been disloyal toward, do not expect good will from someone who you regard with ill-will, his heart towards you is the same as your heart towards him." Imam Ali An-Naqi (AS)

Another beautiful tradition from our Imam, this shows us the problems faced in our daily lives, we do bad to others without even noticing it at times, and then we expect the others to do good back to us... How we are mistaken in our conception.

But then again we do find situations where the person we do bad to does good to us in return, does this negate this hadith? does it cause its invalidity? Have we analyzed it sufficiently? Notice the use of the word "expect", we should not expect from those we have been bad toward to be good toward us, and in the end he says that their heart toward us is the same as our heart toward them...

we may not like someone and not show it, how do we know if that person also doesn't like us and is not showing it??

It is definitely something to ponder upon...

Let me end by relating an incident, our 10th Imam helped even his enemies when they were in need.

Al-Mutawakkil, the cruel Abbasid Caliph had fallen very ill. The doctors could not make him better. His mother was very sad and asked Imam Ali Al-Hadi (AS) to help him. Imam told her what medicine to use to make her son, Al-Mutawakkil better and when she used what Imam had told her to use, Al-Mutawakkil became well again.

All the doctors were very surprised.

Although Al-Mutawakkil was a cruel, bad man, Imam still helped him, because his mother had come to him for help.

Thus Zuhairs View:

In light of Imam's sayings and actions, we should learn how to become a better Muslim, firstly thank Allah like one who is reffered to as a thanking person, second show kindness and good nature to people around you, and try to avoid dishonesty, malice and disloyalty as these are traits mentioned and thus must be specifically wrong, and lastly we should look upon those in need with compassion and help where we can.

Please feel free to voice any opinions and may Allah guide us all to the straight path, on which are the best of his creation, the Anbia and Aimmah.