 In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful, respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you. Hello and welcome to the 23rd episode of the Treaties of Rights series. Today we will discuss the right of him whose advice you seek. Regarding this, Imam Sajjad Zain al-Abdina alaihi salam has said, and the right of him whose advice you seek is that you should not accuse him when he gives you advice that does not conform to your own opinion. It is quite natural that opinions are divergent and people have various views about their affairs in which they disagree. You are free not to accept his advice if you doubt it. However, you are not permitted to accuse him of providing you with ill advice as long as you consider him to be one of those worthy of consultation. Do not stop thanking him for the thoughts and the good advice he has given you. And if it was appropriate for you, you should thank God for it. Accept it from your brother with gratitude and be ready to act similarly for him should one day he seek your advice. Then there is no power but in God. Here Imam Sajjad alaihi salam advises us not to accuse the one whose advice we seek. If what they suggest does not agree with our own opinion. If his advice is an agreement with our own opinion then we should thank God and be grateful to the person who advised us. When wanting to approach someone and take his opinion regarding a specific matter you must take many factors into consideration. Some of these factors include but are not limited to that person's honesty, trustworthiness, and knowledge. Commonly speaking, truthfulness is restricted only to the truthful speech. Islam however teaches that truthfulness is far more than having an honest tongue. In Islam, truthfulness is the conformity of the outer with the inner, the action with the intention, the speech with belief, and the practice with the preaching. Truthfulness is one of the building blocks in achieving one's full potential and achieving success. It is a way through one can live a peaceful and restful life. The individual who is constantly lying seems to be always anxious or un-relaxed. This is because they are in constant fear that someone will find out the truth. Truthfulness is of such great magnitude that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is pure progeny constantly emphasized on it. The Prophet has said, I order you to be truthful, for indeed truthfulness leads righteousness, and indeed righteousness leads to paradise. A man continues to be truthful and strives for truthfulness until he is written as a truthful person with God, and beware of falsehood, or indeed falsehood leads to sinning, and indeed sinning leads to the fire. A man continues to tell lies and strives upon falsehood until he is written as a liar with God. From this we can conclude that truthfulness is an extremely important trait in an individual whose advice is taken from. Honesty, a term that is mentioned in every religion that exists, is a trait that not only assists in strengthening individualities, but acts as one of the most important factors in society. Being the basic foundation on which all relationships are built, honesty incorporates the concept of truthfulness and reliability, and has a strong effect on all human thoughts, words, actions, hence having an impact on relationships. Honesty is more than just accuracy and truthfulness. As it also denotes integrity and moral soundness, Islam being the religion that is known as the completion to the other religions that exist, commands truthfulness and honesty and strongly forbids lying and dishonesty. Through the beautiful quote said by Ma'am Ali alayhi salam, it is trying to teach that the end result of being honest leads to nobility and honor, whilst dishonesty is one of the main reasons behind the destruction of one's self and faith. Now one may ask what is honesty? Honesty basically refers to a facet of moral character, connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and bans the destructive traits of lying, cheating, and dishonesty. This trait is mentioned in the religion numerous times and is known to be part of the character of every single messenger, whether it is a prophet or an Imam. Because it is present in these holy individuals, Allah's panama ta'ala also wanted it to be present in the individualities of His other creations. Allah wanted all of His creations to be on the side of those who are with the truth and to be honest with themselves when it comes to their relationships with one another and their creator. This is mentioned in the holy verse, O you who believe fear God and be with those who are true in words and deeds. This holy verse is addressing those who fear God to be with the truth. In order to be with the truth, one must be honest in terms of their words and deeds. By doing this, one saves themselves from calamity and earns many solutions to any problems they may have. Allah's panama ta'ala set the perfect example of remaining by the truth no matter what the consequence may be through His prophets and the Ahlul Bayt alaykum as-salam. Each prophet and each member of the Ahlul Bayt were sent with a specific message and were faced with numerous people who were against them, yet they remained by the truth no matter how tough the situations they were in were. We witness this through the saying of Imam Ali as-salam, as he says, remain with the truthful no matter how few and stay away from the false no matter how many. Time for a quick break. Stay tuned. Having knowledge is regarded as one of the most important aspects of life. It allows us human beings to see the world in a different way, a way which Allah is pleased with. When one has prior knowledge about Allah and the Islamic values and morals, their outlook towards life will unconsciously change. One must have knowledge of what Allah wants and also how He wants it performed. The Prince of Believers or the Commander of the Faithful, Amir al-Mumin, says, O you who carry knowledge around you, are you only carrying it around you for surely knowledge belongs to whoever knows and then acts accordingly so that his action corresponds to his knowledge, there will be a people who will carry knowledge around with them, but it will not pass beyond their shoulders. Their innermost thoughts will contradict what they display in public and their actions will contradict what they know. Imam Ali as-salam explains that an individual should not only learn about Islam, he should also act upon what he says. There's a quote from Amir al-Mumin as-salam that is quote alarming and the quote he says, when a dead person is placed in his grave four kinds of fire will cover him, but then the prayer will come and put one of them out, then the fast will come and put another one of them out, and then charity will come and put another one out, and the knowledge will come and put the fourth one out, and it will say, if I had come sooner I would have put all of them out, and given you delight for I am with you now and you'll not see anything else distressing. This quote evidently embodies the importance and magnitude of knowledge. Imam Ali as-salam also says, knowledge and wisdom are really the privilege of a faithful Muslim. If you have lost them, get them back even though you may have to get them from the apostates. Imam Sadr as-salam says, a man went to see the commander of the faithful and said, I have come to seek your advice and that of Hasan Hussain and Abdullah bin Jaafar about marriage. The blessed Imam Ali said, one whose advice is sought is a confident. He told the man his viewpoints. In the second tradition, we read that Imam Sadr al-asbis and blessings be upon him said, one whose brother seeks counsel from him and he does not counsel him with sincerity, God will deprive him of his soundness and judgment. Two important points have been mentioned in these two traditions. First of all, one whose advice is sought is trustworthy, therefore he will never cheat one. Therefore one who seeks advice should never accuse the one whose advice he seeks. He should not be suspicious of him. As Imam Sajjad has said, secondly, the one whose advice is sought should sincerely express whatever he thinks. Should he hesitate to do so, God will take away his effective point of view, since he has not been grateful for the blessing of being asked for an advice. An interesting point about seeking advice is that we can even seek the advice of those who are lower in rank than we are. We do not necessarily have to seek the advice of those in a higher position than we are. There is a chapter in wassad as shia in this regard. In the second tradition in this chapter, we read, Fadal ibn Yasir said that Imam Sadr sought his advice on some issue. Fadal asked the Imam, how could such a lowly person like himself give advice to such a person like the Imam? The Imam replied, whenever I seek your advice. Hassan ibn Jaam narrated that he was with Imam Ar-Rada al-Islam when the Imam remembered his noble father and said, his intellect was extremely superior to the intellect of the people of his time and sometimes he used to seek the advice of one of his black slaves. Then he was asked, can you seek the advice of such people? Then Imam Ar-Rada al-Islam replied, in fact, God the blessed and the high expresses facts when they talk. And on many occasions my father used to act upon their advice regarding the garden. The compiler of Najal Balaghah, who said, narrated that once Abdullah ibn Abbas sought Imam Ali's advice and was in disagreement with the advice given to him by the commander of the faithful. Imam Ali said, it is up to you to give me your advice. But whenever my advice is in disagreement with what you think, you must obey me. In another tradition, we read, Ali ibn Masjiar narrated that Imam Al-Baqr wrote him a letter and asked him to tell so-and-so to consult with him. But choose to do what they themselves think is the best to do since they are better aware of the conditions of their own town and know how to deal with the rulers. This is because consultation is blessed and God has ordered the Prophet in the Holy Quran to consult with the people and make a decision himself as to what is best to do so and rely on God after he makes up his mind. Then if what the advisor says is correct and you can benefit from his advice and if it's not correct, then you can hope to guide him in the straight path with God's will. And it is said, seek their advice in affairs. It is meant seek the good, Imam Ali said. There is no aid like seeking advice. With this, we conclude this episode. Stay tuned for another episode on the treaties of rights. Thank you all for watching. May Allah hasten the be appearance. Wa-al-mahdi wa s-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.