A Discussion of the Narrations

The Wilāyah of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.), an Instance of the Goodly Reward

It is narrated from the Messenger of God (s.a.w.): Gabriel came to me from his Lord – mighty and majestic is He – saying: My Lord sends you greetings and says to you: O Muḥammad! Give the believers who do righteous deeds, and who believe in you and in your Household, the glad tidings of Paradise; for with Me they have the goodly reward: they will enter Paradise – that is, the goodly reward, which is the wilāyah of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.), and entering Paradise and abiding in it forever in their neighbourhood (God’s blessings be upon them).(114)

Note: The human being is composed of a body and an immaterial spirit. Paradise, too, is of two kinds, bodily and spiritual; and the pleasure in both kinds is the spirit’s portion, but in one it is without intermediary and in the other through the intermediary of the body. The wilāyah of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.) is in itself a spiritual paradise, just as has come concerning wisdom: “I am the city of wisdom, and you, O ʿAlī, are its gate”.(115) Benefiting from the wilāyah of those holy beings is the cause of being gathered with them in the Paradise of the Hereafter, and this too is another pleasure.