One of the beautiful morals of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) is to protect human dignity, honor and personality. Since, the Ahl al-Bayt (a) are infallible and proofs of God on the earth, and people are supposed to follow them as examples, they (a) must surpass everyone; so that, they can invite people to practice the beautiful morals God wants human beings to practice in the Qur’an. Here we mention an example of the Ahl al-Bayt’s (a) manner of conduct:
A traveler came to Imam Reza (a) in a meeting and said:
“I just have returned from Hajj and I have run out of money; please give me some money to take myself home. There I will give alms on your behalf, since I am not poor in my hometown.”
Imam Reza (a) said:
“Sit down until the meeting ends.”
Everyone left, and only ‘Suleiman b. Ja’far’ and ‘Khaythama’ remained. Imam Reza (a) got up and went to another room.
After a few minutes, Imam (a) called the traveler and while standing behind the door, stretched his hand out of the door and said:
“Take these two hundred dinars and buy travel provisions, and you do not need to give alms on my behalf.”
The traveler took the coins and left happily.
After he left, Imam Reza (a) came out from behind the door and Sulayman b. Ja’far asked him: “Why did not you let the man see you when he was taking the money?
Imam Reza (a) replied: “I did not want to see humiliation on his face”. (1)(2)(3)
It shows that protecting the man’s dignity was highly important to Imam Reza (a). To make clear how important is to protect the dignity of a believer, we mention a hadith from the Prophet (s):
It is narrated that one day the Prophet (s) looked at the Ka’ba and said: “O Ka’ba! Blessed are you, how greatly God has honored and regarded your sanctity! By God, the dignity of a believer is greater than yours, because God has sanctified one thing for you, but He has sanctified three things of a believer: his property, his life and his honor, so as not to think badly of him. (4)
In another hadith, Imam Sadiq (a) also said: “The believer’s sanctity is greater than the Ka’ba’s”. (5)
These hadiths show that Islam emphasizes the importance of human beings’ honor and dignity, and invites believers to protect each other’s dignity. Given the importance of the believers’ dignity in Islam, the question raises as to why we are witnessing some disrespect and ugly behaviors from some seemingly Muslim people?
In response, it should be said that those groups and individuals, who kill and massacre people in the name of Islam in the Middle East countries and do not respect the sanctity of believers, attacking their houses and torturing and killing them, have nothing to do with Islam.
Those terrorist groups, such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, etc., are created by some leaders of the arrogant countries of the world, whose goal is to destroy the image of Islam.
Source:
(1) Manaqib Ale Abi Talib, vol. 4, p. 390.
(2) Al-Kafi, vol. 4, p. 23.
(3) Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 49, p. 101.
(4) Rawdat al-Wa’izin, vol. 2, p. 293.
(5) Al-Khisal, Al-Saduq, vol. 1, p. 27.
