said,"Those who give up religion to better their lot in life seldom succeed.

The Wrath of Allah makes them go through more calamities and losses than the gains they gather for themselves."

says that Imam Ali (as) once said: "There were two things in this world which softened the Wrath of Allah and prevented its descent upon man:

One has been taken away from you; hold the other steadfastly.

The one which has been taken away from men is the Holy Prophet (saw) and the one which is still left with them and which they must hold steadfastly is repentance and atonement for sins because Allah at one place in the Holy Book addressed the Holy Prophet and, said Allah would not punish them while you were among them nor while they were asking for forgiveness."

•••

Those who transgress the limits set by Allah (swt) expose themselves to punishment in this life and Hereafter.

Throughout the Quran, Allah (swt) describes numerous past nations who rejected divine guidance and were subsequently destroyed.

These stories serve as warnings to humankind of the consequences of rebellion against the commandments of Allah.

Allah's Wrath is for the punishment of criminals and tyrants.

It's not about getting angry and upset like humans.

The bricks of Hell are made of people who disobeyed Allah (swt) in their life.

If everyone obeyed Allah (swt) then Hell wouldn't exist.

In Judgement day, there's going to be a Bridge on top of Hell described as thin as a string of hair and as sharp as a sword, leading to Paradise.

It's called Bridge of Siraat.

On top of this bridge there are other bridges which are called: Bridge of Salah, Bridge of Allah's justice, etc.

All humans on earth are going to cross these Bridges.

Some people are going to hung upside down due to their sins and weak faith, sometimes they slip & sometimes they're able to take a step further.

That's when Angels of Allah will surround them and pray: "O Allah! you're patient, kind and forbearing! Pardon, ignore their faults and forgive them."

Then people will fall on top of each other like butterflies.

•••

✦⋆· said "In Judgement day, Allah (swt) will grant some people from my Ummah wings to fly from their grave and enter Paradise.

Angels will ask them: "Are you all done with the calculation of your deeds?"

They'll reply: "We didn't go through any calculation."

Angels: "Did you cross the Bridge?"

People: "We didn't see any Bridges."

Angels: "Which Ummah are you from?"

People: "We're from Prophet Muhammad (saw) Ummah."

Angels: "What did you do in your life that helped you obtain such position?"

They'll respond: "We had two characteristics in our life and because of them Allah (swt) granted us such position.

. When Allah granted us blessings and everything else, we were happy with it & didn't complain or ask for more.

. When we had the opportunity to commit sins in private, we remembered Allah (swt) and felt ashamed. Thus we didn't commit."

•••

In Bani Israel, there was a hypocrite who was known as a pious man amongst people.

Allah (swt) told Prophet Dawud (as) through revelation (wahy) that this pious man is a hypocrite!

When the man passed away Prophet Dawud (as) didn't attend the funeral but other people went and forty of them prayed for the man and said, "Oh Allah we saw nothing but good from this man. Thus forgive him."

It's because they didn't know the man was a liar.

Then another forty people came and said the same thing.

Prophet Dawud (as) was asked by Allah (swt) through revelation (wahy), why he didn't attend the funeral?

His response was that the man was a hypocrite and not what he claimed to be all his life.

Allah (swt) said to Prophet Dawud (as) through Wahy, "I forgave this man because of those eighty people who prayed for him."

Allah (swt) is the Most Merciful.

But still, we shouldn't think that we can commit any sins and it will be forgiven. This way of thinking is absolutely wrong.

✦⋆· said, "If you truly knew Allah as He is worthy of being known, you would be able to walk on the seas and the mountains would fall by your command."

● "He who is most knowledgeable of Allah is most fearful of Allah (swt)."

● "When I was taken on my Night Journey to the heavens, Gabriel took me up until a place wherein he himself had never set foot.

The veils were pulled away for me and Allah, Mighty and Exalted, showed me whatever He liked from the light of His Greatness."

● "Allah's divine Unity is half of religion."

✦⋆· said, "Allah's divine Unity is the life of the soul."

● "[Faith in] Allah's divine Unity is that you do not subject Him to the limitations of your imagination."

● "He who [undertakes to] describe Him has defined Him, and he who defines Him has numbered Him, and he who numbers Him has nullified His eternity.

He who asks "How?" [about Allah] has indeed sought to describe Him, and he who asks "Where?" has indeed confined Him."

● "So blessed be the One Whom the highest ambitions cannot reach and Whom the conjecture of intelligent minds cannot grasp."

● "[He is] One, but not by enumeration.

He is everlasting without extremity.

He exists without any support."

● "The inner knowledge of Allah, Glory be to Him, is the highest of knowable truths."

● "I would not be pleased to die as a child and be made to enter Paradise without being able to grow up and get to know my Lord, Mighty and Exalted."

● "The fruit of knowledge is attaining inner knowledge of Allah."

● "Verily it does not befit one who has attained inner knowledge of the grandeur of Allah to behave proudly, for verily the elevation of those who acknowledge His grandeur comes from their abasing themselves in front of him."

● "The peak of inner knowledge of Allah is fear [of Him]."

● "The gnostic's face is cheerful and smiley whereas his heart is apprehensive and sorrowful."

● "Get to know Allah through Allah, and the Prophet (saw) through the message he brought, and those vested with authority through their command to do good, their justice and righteousness."

● Imam Ali (as) said in his description of the angels, "They are in their own places [distinct] from You, [and yet] their positions are near You.

Their desires are all concentrated on You, their worship for You is abundant, and their neglect of Your command is little.

If they were to witness the essence of what is hidden about You from them, they would regard their deeds insignificant, they would reproach themselves and would realize that they have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped, and have not obeyed You as You deserve to be obeyed."

● Imam Ali (as) said in reply to Dha'alab's question about his being able to see his Lord,

"Woe to you O Dha'alab! I do not worship a Lord Whom I cannot see!"

So Dha'alab asked, "But how do you see Him? Describe Him to us."

Imam (as) replied, "Woe betide you! Eyes do not see Him by looking with the sights; it is the hearts that behold Him with the realities of faith."

● "He never ceases to exist and will always be, the First before all things without a beginning, and the Last after all things without an end."

● Imam Ali (as) was once asked by a Jew, "When did our Lord, Mighty and Exalted, come to be?", to which he replied, "O Jew, It is not that our Lord was not and then came to be, for the question "When did x come to be?" is posed regarding something that is not there and then comes to be.

He exists without coming into being; He is ever existing having nothing before Him.

He is before 'before' itself, before any limit.

Limits do not apply to Him for He is the ultimate limit of all limits."

● "The number of droplets of water, or of stars in the sky, or of gusts of wind in the air are not unknown to Him, and neither is the crawling of ants on rocks, nor the settling place of tiny particles in the darkness of the night.

He knows the spots where leaves fall and the subtle movement of the pupils of the eyes."

● "He knows the howls of beasts in the forests, the sins of the people committed in secret, the fish's frequenting the deep seas and the rising of the waters by tempestuous winds."

● "His knowledge pierces through the inside of unknown secrets and encompasses the innermost beliefs of the hearts."

✦⋆· said in one of his supplications, "My God! My own obscure doubts about the signs [in nature] has caused my distance from my goal, so draw me near to You through Your service that may allow me to reach You.

How can something that needs You for its very existence be used to prove Your existence?!

Are other things more manifest than You that they be used to point to You?!

When were You ever absent that You should need anything to prove Your existence?!

Through You alone do I arrive at You, so guide me with Your light to Yourself."

✦⋆· said in one of his supplications, "I have attained knowledge of You through You, and You are the One Who indicated me to Yourself and called me to Yourself, and were it not for You, I would not know who You are."

● Imam Zayn al-Abidin (az) said in one of his supplications, "The intellects are incapable of fathoming the essence of Your Beauty, the sights are restricted to looking at other than the splendour of Your Countenance, and You have not set aside any means for Your creation to get to know You except through their complete incapacity of knowing You."

✦⋆· said, "The creature of Allah most eligible for submission to the decree of Allah, Mighty and Exalted, is he who knows Allah, Mighty and Exalted."

● "Verily Allah, Blessed and most High, existed when nothing else did, He is light not darkness, truthful with no falsehood about Him, all-knowing with no ignorance about Him, ever-living with no death about Him, and He is such today, and thus will He remain forever."

✦⋆· said, "If people knew the virtue of knowing Allah, Mighty and Exalted, they would never extend their gaze to the splendour and bounties of the life of this world that Allah has granted to the enemies.

They would then regard such people's worldly goods to be more insignificant that the dust under their feet, and they would take great pleasure at attaining knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Exalted, and would savour it as if they were tasting the experience of being in the gardens of Paradise with the friends of Allah.

Verily the inner knowledge of Allah is an intimate companion in every type of desolation, a friend in every type of loneliness, a light in every darkness, a source of strength from all weakness, and a cure for all ailments."

● "Trust in Allah and you will attain inner knowledge [of Him]."

● "Beware of pondering about Allah, for verily pondering about Allah only increases one's bewilderment.

Verily Allah, Mighty and Exalted, cannot be perceived by the sights or described by any type of criteria."

● "How ruined is the one who examines Allah!"

● Imam Sadiq (as) asked a man who said "Allah is Greater" (Allahu Akbar), "Greater than what?"

So the man replied, "Greater than everything",

to which Imam (as) retorted, "Then you have defined Him."

The man then asked him, "So what should I say?"

Imam replied, "Say, Allah is too great for description."

● "[Faith in] Allah's divine Unity is that you do not deem applicable to your Lord that which applies to you, and [faith in] His divine Justice is that you do not blame Him for that which you are blameworthy."

● Imam Sadiq (as), when he was debating with an atheist, said, "If you say that there are two gods, then they are either in complete agreement on everything or completely separate in their spheres of influence.

But when we look at this orderly creation, the continuous orbits, the alternation of night and day, and the sun and the moon, the soundness of the situation and the organisation and sound management of it indicates that the Director [of all creation] is One."

● Imam Sadiq (as), when asked to give proof that Allah is One, said, "The continuous unity of management [in the cosmos] and the perfection of creation, as Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has said,

"Had there been gods in them (i.e. the heavens and the earth) other than Allah, they would surely have fallen apart"[ Qur'an 21:22].

✦⋆· when he was asked about the lowest degree of inner knowledge, replied, "It is to affirm that there is no God but He, and that He has no likeness or match, and that He is eternal, positively proven to exist, present and not absent, and that there is nothing like Him."

● "Verily Allah is too High and too Exalted and too Great for the reality of His description to ever be possible, so describe Him as He Himself has described Himself, and desist from anything other than that."

● "Allah is Omnipresent without any external source of life ... rather He lives through Himself."

✦⋆· said, "His essence is a partition between Himself and His creation."

● Imam Reza (as) said in his description of Allah, Glory be to Him, "He is too exalted for sight to be able to perceive Him, for imagination to be able to fathom Him, and for the intellect to be able to grasp Him."

● Imam Reza (as) was asked the following by a man believing in dualism, "I believe that the creator of the world are two, so what is the proof that He is One?"

Imam replied, "Your belief that there are two is proof in itself that He is One, for verily you have only claimed the second after having affirmed the existence of the One.

So the One is already a unanimous fact - it is more than one that is controversial [and remains to be proven]."

✦⋆· said, "Verily the Creator can only be described by that which He Himself has described Himself, and how can the Creator ever be described anyway, Whom the senses are incapable of perceiving and the imaginations unable to grasp and the ideas unable to confine and the sights unable to contain?!

He is too exalted for the description of those who undertake to describe, and too high to be attributed by those who seek to attach attributes to Him."

✦⋆· said, "Verily Allah, Blessed and most High, displayed to His Prophet in his heart, whatever He liked from the light of His Greatness."