Ten advices from an Infallible to another Infallible

Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni-may God be pleased with him-from Muhammad ibn Yahya, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn `Isa, from `Ali ibn al-Nu'man, from Mu'awiyah ibn `Ammar, who says: 

"I heard Abu `Abd Allah, may peace be upon him, say:
`In a counsel that the Prophet-may God bless him and his Family-gave to `Ali-may peace be upon him-he said: 

"O `Ali, I exhort you concerning certain characteristics (khisal) which you must preserve in yourself (as a trust) from me."
Then he prayed, "O God, help him." (Then he continued:) 

" - As to the first of them, it is truthfulness: never should a falsehood come out of your mouth. 
- The second is piety (wara'), and never venture upon a treachery. 
- The third is to fear God-sublime is His remembrance-as if you see Him. 
- The fourth is to weep a lot out of the fear of God, the Exalted, and a thousand mansions shall be built for you in the Garden for every tear. 
- The fifth is to offer your property and your blood for the sake of your religion. 
- The sixth is to follow my sunnah in respect of my salat, my fasting, and my charity (sadaqah). As to the salat, it consists of fifty rak'ahs. As to the fasts, they are to be kept on three days in a month: on the first Thursday, on the Wednesday at its middle, and on the last Thursday. As to the charity, that consists of the utmost that you can give, so much so that you say to yourself, 'I have been immoderate,' whereas you will not have been immoderate. 
- Commit yourself to the nightly prayer (salat al-layl)! Commit yourself to the nightly prayer! Commit yourself to the nightly prayer! Stick to the (supererogatory) noon prayer! Stick to the noon prayer! Stick to the noon prayer! 
- Accustom yourself to reciting the Qur'an at all times. 
- Make it your practice to raise your hands during prayer and to turn them. 
- Take care to brush your teeth every time that you perform wudu". 
Commit yourself to ethical virtues, practise them, and refrain from moral vices, and if you don't, don't blame anyone except yourself."

Imam Khomeini; Forty Hadith, Twenty Ninth Hadith

An Important Rule Often Neglected 5

A Code of Practice For Muslims in the West: 
Dealing with laws in non-Muslim countries » Questions and AnswersAyatullah al Uzama Syed Ali al-Husaini Seestani


234. Question: Is it necessary for the person who has got a visa to enter a non-Muslim country to abide by the laws of that country in all fields, like traffic laws, laws regarding work and employment, etc.?


Answer: If he has given an undertaking—even if indirectly [as is implied in the immigration documents]— to abide by the laws of that country, it is necessary for him to fulfill his commitment in issues that are not contrary to the sacred laws [of Islam].
As for example, it is necessary to obey traffic regulations regardless [of the fact whether you have given a commitment or not], if not obeying those rules could eventually lead to harming people’s lives and properties which are sacrosanct [in Islamic laws].

Ayatollah Tabrizi's secret to Ayatollah Isfahani

Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Isfahani known as Kompani was an outstanding Muslim Jurist and philosopher of his time.  In a letter to Ayatollah Tabrizi - known as ‘The Beauty of Wayfarers’ - he requested him to write a practical prescription for his spiritual perfection.
I quote parts of the prescription from my teacher Ayatollah Hasan-Zadeh (pictured) who quoted it from his teacher Allamah Tabatabaei:

“ … The beneficial way in knowing the self is to endeavour in reducing your animality by the following disciplines:
1. Reducing your meals in that you don’t have more than two meals a day and not to have meat more than two or three times in a week.
2. Reducing your sleeping hours in that you don’t sleep more than six hours.
3. Endeavour in safeguarding your tongue and abstaining from heedless people. These three will be very helpful in reducing the animality of man.

As for accelerating and reinforcing your spirituality:
1. Have permanent grief of the heart (not facial) in fear of not reaching your destination.
2. Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) and Fikr (to think and ponder) as these two are the wings of flying to the heaven of knowledge. As for the Dhikr, the Dhikr of Yunusiyah (Laa Elaaha Ellaa Ant Sobhanaka Enni Konto Mena dhalemin) in the morning and at night is very much experienced and brings about many blessings. The minimum times of reciting it is 400 times. As for the Fikr for a beginner the best is to ponder upon death.”

Ayatollah Hasan-Zadeh, 1001 Words, Word 301

An interesting story about Sayyid Razi - The compiler of Nahjul Balagah

There is an interesting story how Sayyid Razi and his elder brother 'Ali Abual-Kasim Sayyid Murtaza started their formal Islamic education. According to Ibn Abi al-Hadid in Sharh Nahj al-Balaghah, Shaykh Mufid saw a dream that a lady appearing to be the Prophet's daughter Hazrat Fatimah Zahra' ('a) entered his mosque in the Karkh locality of Baghdad with two small boys and asked him to teach them fiqh. The Shaykh woke up in a rather perplexed state of mind in view of his own paucity of knowledge when compared to Imam Hasan (a.s.) and Imam Husayn (a.s.).

Bural place of Shaykh Mufid - Kadhmain

But the next day when Fatimah, the wife of the Naqib al-Nuqaba ', entered the mosque with her two sons and requested him to teach them Islamic sciences, he understood the purport of his dream and accepted her request with great honour.

The two brothers together soon mastered different branches of Islamic sciences under Shaykh Mufid and other leading scholars of Baghdad, but unlike Sayyid Razi who was more inclined towards politics and literature, Sayyid Mortaza was deeply interested in fiqh.

Sayyid Murtaza, who acquired the epithet of 'Alam al-Huda, was four years older than his brother and died at the age of 81 years in 436/ 1044.  He served as Naqib al-Nuqaba' after the death of Sayyid Razi and was considered a master of kalam, fiqh, usul al- fiqh, literature, grammar, poetry and other fields of knowledge. His divan or poetical composition runs into more than 20,000 verses. He authored several books such as al-Shafi fl al-Imamah, al- Dhakh'irah fi Usul al-Fiqh, al-Ghurar wa al-Durar, and al-Tanzih.

Biography of Sayyid Sharaf Ar Razi - The compiler of Nahjul Balagah; By: Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Ja'fari