A
man from Khorasan (a city in Iran) suggested to Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (the sixth
leader for the Shia and the grand son of the prophet Mohammed) to make an armed
campaign as the Imam had with him 100,000 followers. In order to test the man's quality of faith, the Holy Imam
said:
“Just get down into this burning oven.”
He, the man, became so
hesitant to obey the command of the Holy Imam. Meanwhile, a person came and
greeted the Imam and the Holy Imam said to him:
“Will you get down into this burning oven!?”
That man, without any
hesitation and with pleasure, got in to the burning oven. The Holy Imam then said to that
Khorasanian man,
“We have with us a few of those men who can get in to the burning oven on our command. Others are not real Shi’as. There is a lot of difference between one’s words and deeds.”
(Biharul Anwar, Vol. 11, page 139)
It is to be noted that
the man who got into the burning oven remained unaffected and was well and
hearty just like the Prophet when he was thrown in to the burning fire.
Talk about faith! Can we really do something like
that? If Imam Mehdi (the 12th
leader for the Shia) came out right now and told us to jump into a burning
flame could we do it? I'm sure we
can say yes now but in reality we would be hesitant.
What is tricky to people
these days is the outer faith—some people think that looking pious from the
outside makes them a religious person.
If so, then we’ve got a lot coming our way on the Day of Judgment, things
that we wished were 100 miles away from us. These types of people are on the wrong path, the wrong
belief, and absolutely the false Shia.
Better yet these types of people have a name. Their names are Hypocrites: people who put on a false
appearance of religion.
God says in the Holy
Qur’an:
“And of
the people (are some) who say, ‘we believe in God and the Last Day (of
Judgment’, (while in fact) they are not believers (at all).” 2: 8