A great deal of words without deeds

289. Al-Husayn Bin Muhammad Al-Ashary, from Ali Bin Muhammad Bin Saeed, from Muhammad Bin Muslim Bin Abu Salma, from Muhammad Bin Saeed Bin Gazwaan, from Muhammad bin Bunaan, from Abu Maryam, who has narrated that Abu Ja’far (asws) said: "One day my father (Ali b. al-Hussein (a.s)) said in the presence of his companions: ‘Which one of you is good enough to hold a burning ember in his hand and extinguish it by squeezing it?’ All the people were silent and stressed out. So I stood up and said: ‘O father! Do you command me to do it?’ So he said: ‘It is not you I meant, but rather, you are from me and I am from you, but it is they that I have intended by it’. He (Abu Ja'far (a.s)) said: ‘And he repeated it thrice, then said: ‘How much is the description (talk) and how little the action. The people of action are few indeed. And we recognize the people of action and the description (talk) both, and this was only a pretense of blindness from us towards you. But, your news reaches us and we write down your impressions’. Then he said: ‘By Allah (azwj)! It is as if the earth has shaken them with the shame from what he had said to the extent that I looked at a man from among them sweating profusely and he was not raising his head from the ground’. So when he saw that (situation) among them, he said: ‘May Allah (azwj) have Mercy on you all, for I have not intended except the good. In the Paradise there are Levels, so the level of the people of action cannot be understood by anyone from the people of the talk. And the Level of the people of the talk cannot be understood by others’. He said: ‘By Allah (azwj), it was as if they had been released from the chains.'"

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.