وَلا تَفْضَحْني بِخَفِي مَا اطَّلَعْتَ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ سِرّى
Not to disgrace me through the hidden things You know of my secrets.
Secret-Keeping
The servant should know that Allah is well aware of the entire world, all the beings and their hidden and apparent aspects, so there is no unawareness, forgetfulness, or ignorance for Him. He is well aware of the past, present and future events. Human hidden side is evident for Him. If He reveals our hidden sins, we would get disgraced before our parents, spouse, children and others. If they know about our hidden sins, they would discard us, and perhaps not want to talk to us anymore.
The servant, in this section of the supplication, beseeches to the Lord to maintain his grace, not disgracing him for his hidden sins.
By murmuring these divine words, the supplicant should be sure that his Lord would never disgrace a repenting sinner servant. The Almighty conceals the sins to such an extent that He has stated about accounting for some of His servants’ deeds:
I account for their deeds Myself, so that their deeds would not get obvious for Prophet Mu¦ammad, who is so kind to his Ummah, and they don’t get disgraced before him.
The fourth infallible Imam has stated some of the attributes of the Almighty in Abu Hamza supplication like this:
سَتّارُ الْعُيُوبِ، غَفّارُ الذُّنُوبِ، عَلاّمُ الْغُيُوبِ، تَسْتُرُ الذَّنْبِ بِكَرَمِكَ، وَتُؤَخِّرُ الْعُقُوبَةَ بِحِلْمِكَ.
O the Concealer of faults, the Forgiver of sins, the Knower of the hidden, You conceal the sins out of Your Might, and You delay the punishments, out of Your Patience.
Some servants of Allah, with their limited capacity, astonishingly conceal others’ faults. If these are the Almighty’s servants, how concealer is He Himself?
Prophet Jacob (a.s) who wanted to persuade Josef (a.s) that his brothers had behaved unjustly to him, only heard from him:
عَفَا اللَّهُ عَمَّا سَلَفَ.
Allah forgives what is past… (5:95)
An Astonishing Story on Forgiveness
Abu Abd Al-Rahman °¡tam Ibn Yosuf Asam, a noble man from Khurasan, was highly knowledgeable and pious. It has been said that he was named al-A¥amm[1] because once a woman came to him to ask something. While talking to him, the woman unintentionally broke wind and got very ashamed. °¡tam pointed at his ear, implying that he could not hear her speech. The woman got so happy that she was not disgraced before this knowledgeable scholar. No one got aware of this happening. But °¡tam was named Asam from that time, because he pretended to hear badly until that woman was alive. When he passed away, another pious noble man dreamed him and asked him: “How did Allah account for you?” °¡tam answered: “Because I considered what I heard unheard, the Almighty forgave what I had ever done and heard altogether.”
وَلا تُعاجِلْني بِالْعُقُوبَةِ عَلى ما عَمِلْتُهُ في خَلَواتي مِنْ سُوءِ فِعْلي وَإساءَتي وَدَوامِ تَفْريطي وَجَهالَتي وَكَثْرَةِ شَهَواتي وَغَفْلَتي
And I ask You not to hasten me to punishment for what I have done in private: my evil acts in secrecy, my misdeeds, my continuous negligence, my ignorance, my manifold passions and my forgetfulness.
According to the Islamic teachings, if the Almighty hastened the people to punishment, not a single being would have remained on earth. But He does not hurry in punishing the sinner servants, due to His Mercy, so that they profit from the opportunity, come to Allah by real repentance, reform their previous faults and compensate for the previous duties. Moreover, the Almighty does not hasten the sinners to punishment so that if a believer progeny is to appear from them, the punishment would not hinder it. Also He postpones the punishment because of the children’s crying, the believers’ sincere supplication, and the supplicants’ night weeping and repentance. And if there is no such hindrance, he does not delay the punishment.
Though hastening the sinners to punishment, due to their boldness, exists in Allah’s system anyway, it can be removed by repentance, reforming the faults, and beseeching to Him, as the people of prophet Jonah (a.s) removed the punishment from themselves.
It should be highlighted that if Allah’s punishment arrives, no one has the power to return it. Also sometimes the divine punishment is represented in the world as catastrophes such as famine, heavenly disasters, expensiveness of goods, distrust among people, and eventually spiritual metamorphosis.
The signs of inner metamorphosis are mentioned in an important tradition of the Prophet’s (a.s), in address to Imam `Al¢ (a.s):
يَا عَلِيُّ! إنَّ القَوْمَ سَيُفْتَنُونَ بَعْدِي بِأمْوَالِهِمْ وَيَمُنُّونَ بِدِينِهِمْ عَلَى رَبِّهِمْ وَيَتَمَنَّوْنَ رَحْمَتَهُ، وَيَأمَنُونَ سَطْوَتَهُ، وَيَسْتَحِلُّونَ حَرَامَهُ بِالشُّبُهَاتِ الكَاذِبَةِ وَالأهْوَاءِ السّاهِيَةِ، فَيَسْتَحِلُّونَ الخَمْرَ بِالنَّبِيذِ، وَالسُّحْتَ بِالهَدِيَّةِ وَالرِّبَا بِالبَيْعِ.
O `Al¢! Soon after me, the nation is examined by its properties, they ask favor from their Allah for embracing the religion, they hope for His Mercy, and consider themselves safe from His punishment, they make His unlawful lawful, with lying and passions, so they make the intoxicant drink a lawful drink, the unlawful wealth lawful gift and granting, and the usury lawful business for themselves.[2]
In fact, if people’s hearts have not metamorphosed to a satanic state, due to insistence on evil doing, how can they consider Allah’s unlawful issues, such as the intoxicant drink, unlawful wealth, and usury as lawful so easily? These are the signals of heart metamorphoses, which is in reality part of Allah’s punishment, as was depicted in the appearance of the disobedient Israelite people whose sinners were addressed by Allah’s punishment call:
…فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ.
…so we said to them: ‘Be as apes, despised and hated. (2:65)’
Imam `Al¢ (a.s) in these sentences has referred to four evil doings: 1. Dissipation, 2. Ignorance, 3. Passion, 4. Forgetfulness.
Dissipation
By dissipation, it is meant negligence in worshiping and obeying Allah, as well as serving His servants and doing good. The divine teachings have warned people against dissipation, considering it as an extreme harm that prevents them from benefiting the divine blessings.
التَّفْرِيطُ مُصِيبَةُ القَادِرِ.
Dissipation is the competent person’s disaster.[3]
ثَمَرَةُ التَّفْرِيطِ النَّدَامَةُ، وَثَمَرَةُ الحَزْمِ السَّلاَمَةُ.
The result of dissipation is regretful ness, and the fruit of prudence is safety.[4]
الجَنَّةُ غَايَةُ السَّابِقِينَ، وَالنَّارُ غَايَةُ المُفَرِّطِينَ.
Paradise is the fate of the forerunners and Inferno is the destiny of the dissipaters.[5]
The sixth infallible Imam, Imam ¯¡diq (a.s), stated:
مَنْ فَرَّطَ تَوَرَّطَ.
One who dissipates would severely get into troubles.[6]
Ignorance
Ignorance of the truths of the world and the Hereafter, as well as of the duties and rights of oneself and the others is like a dangerous illness. If this illness is not cured via acquiring knowledge and understanding, it would bring about permanent harm, disgrace, and ruin. Some of the traditions on ignorance were mentioned in previous pages under the explanation for the phrase “I have been audacious in my ignorance.”
Passion
Passion means an extreme desire for anything, gaining of which is human goal. If this desire is for untrue and unlawful issues, it leads to committing sins and to the corruption of the spirit, and the punishment in this world and the next one eventually.
The cause of passions is too much longing for the worldly issues. This extreme craving, together with satanic temptations and accompanying the sinners, grows the wrongdoing tree, the damned branches of which are various sins. It causes farness from Allah, deprivation from His Mercy, disgrace in the world, and punishment in the Last Day.
This dangerous tree would not be destroyed except by accepting advises, repentance and returning to Allah, reflection and concentration on the lessons of the events.
The truthful servants say: The most dangerous branches of the passion tree, which have grown in most souls and led to many sins and immoralities, are seven: 1. Passion for positions and superiority, 2. Passion for wealth and belongings, 3. Passion for palaces and expensive mansions, 4. Passion for relationship with pretty women, 5. Passion for delicious foods and intoxicant drinks, 6. Passion for various splendid clothes, and 7. Passion for associating with the wrongdoers and the sinners.
These seven passions unintentionally create seven satanic vices, depriving human heart from the rays of sun of understanding: 1. Proud, 2. Hypocrisy, 3. Jealousy, 4. Greed, 5. Stinginess, 6. Oppression, and 7. Wrath.
Explanation of each of these seven vices and their destructive outcomes requires a separate book.
Those who have fell down into the well of passions, when startled by the messenger of death, understand that they have harmed themselves greatly, constituting a fine blissful Hereafter with a humble world, whose happiness is simultaneous with grief and whose enjoyment with displeasure.
The Unlucky Prince
The state of those entangled in the trap of the world and drowned in the darkness of passions is like that of a young prince whose father inclined to prepare his marriage, so a uniquely beautiful princess was proposed for him.
When everything was ready for the wedding ceremony, anyone from the ordinary people to the noble ones came to the palace, were treated with gifts and various meals, and got happy of the joyfulness and astonished by the splendor of the reception.
The angel-like bride was brought into the bridal chamber with make-up and diverse adornments, but the groom was absent and was not found after much searching. On that very night, the groom had excessively drunk wine, and his mind had darkened, just as his luck. Due to drunkenness, he leaved the feast unintentionally and passed some alleys. Then he reached a crypt of the Zoroastrians, in which they usually lay the bodies of their dead, lighting up fires and candles beside them.
Seeing the crypt, the young intoxicated prince conceived it as the bridal chamber and entered it. There, the body of a dead old woman, still intact, was put by the Zoroastrians. The unlucky drunk prince hugged the dead body passionately all night.
When he got sober again with the next morning breeze and found himself in a terrifying crypt by an ugly dead body, he was nearly dying from hatred and shame. He was thinking of hiding this happening from others when suddenly his father, along with their servants, found him and knew about that disgrace!
This is a panorama of the lives of those deceived by an unpleasant world of passions, exchanging a lucky Hereafter with it! Imam Sadiq (a.s) has narrated from his father, from the messenger of Allah (s.a), who stated:
طُوبَى لِمَنْ تَرَكَ شَهْوَةً حَاضِرَةً لِمَوْعُودٍ لَمْ يَرَهُ.
Blessed is the one who leaves a present passion for getting an unseen promised Paradise.[7]
حُفَّتِ الجَنَّةُ بِالمَكَارِهِ وَحُفَّتِ النَّارُ بِالشَّهَوَاتِ.
The Paradise is enveloped with the hardness of worship and obedience, and the Fire is surrounded by the passions.[8]
Someone told the fifth infallible Imam, Imam al-B¡qir (a.s): “My worship and fasting are little, but I am willing not to have unlawful sustenance.” The Imam (a.s) told him:
وَأيُّ اجْتِهَادٍ أفْضَلُ مِنْ عِفَّةِ بَطْنٍ وَفَرْجٍ!
No deed is better than avoiding unlawful sustenance and passions.[9]
The messenger of Allah (s.a) said:
أكْثَرُ مَا تَلِجُ بِهِ أُمَّتِي النَّارَ الأجْوَفَانِ: البَطْنُ وَالفَرْجُ.
The most common reason for which my nation enters the Hell is passion of the belly and sexual passion.[10]
Forgetfulness
Forgetfulness means unawareness of something one has been aware of before. Too much engagement in worldly issues, appearance, and desires are all due to forgetfulness of Allah, the Day of Judgment, obedience, and worship.
Amir al-Mu’min¢n, `Ali (a.s), in his wise advices, warns people of the damages of forgetfulness:
الغَفْلَةُ أضَرُّ الأعْدَاءِ.
Forgetfulness is the most harmful enemy.[11]
وَيْلٌ لِمَنْ غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْهِ الغَفْلَةُ فَنَسِيَ الرِّحْلَةَ وَلَمْ يَسْتَعِدَّ.
Woe to the one who is overcome by forgetfulness, hence he forgets his immigration to the next world and would not get prepared for it.[12]
[1] Asam in Arabic means severe deafness.
[2] Nahj Al-Balagha: sermon 156, wa min kalam lah a.s khataba bihi ahlu Basra…; Bi¦¡r al-Anw¡r: 56/ 100, Bab 4, tradition 32.
[3] Ghurar al-°ikam: 479, Mutafarriqat Ijtima’i, tradition 11009.
[4] Nahj Al-Balagha: Hikmat 181.
[5] Nahj Al-Balagha: 221, sermon 157, wa min khutbat lau a.s yahuthu Al-nas ala Al-taqwa.
[6] Tu¦af al-`Uq£l: 356.
[7] ;Amali mufid: 51, Al-majlis Al-Sadis, tradition 18.
[8] Bi¦¡r al-Anw¡r: 68/ 72, Bab 62.
[9] Bi¦¡r al-Anw¡r: 68/ 269, Bab 77, tradition 4.
[10] Bi¦¡r al-Anw¡r: 68/ 269, Bab 77, tradition 5.
[11] Ghurar al-°ikam, 265, tradition 5744; M¢z¡n al-°ikmah: 9/ 4362, Al-Ghifla, tradition 15135.
[12] Ghurar al-°ikam, 146, tradition 2656; M¢z¡n al-°ikmah: 9/ 4362, Al-Ghifla, tradition 15143.
source : `Allamah Husayn Ansariyan
