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Lesson 36: What Breaks The Back

Tradition

ثَلثُ قَاصِماتُ الظَّهْرِ: رَجُلٌ إسْتَكْثَرَ عَمَلَهُ وَ نَسِىَ ذُنُوبَهُ وَ أَعْجَبَ بِرَأيِهِ

Imam al-Baqir (‘a) is narrated to have said: “There are three things which break a person’s back: Counting one’s good actions as being immense in scale, forgetting one’s sins, and being obstinate in one’s personal opinions.”1

Brief Commentary

Those who count their good deeds as being immense in scale will surely become satisfied with them, no matter how few or how small they happen to be. This acts as a preventative factor for further growth and progress. Those who forget their sins will soon commit new ones, until they have destroyed themselves.

Those who only rely upon their own opinions are deprived of the collective intellect of their society. They are deprived of many forms of knowledge which others oftentimes possess. As a result, they are soon overtaken by their mistakes and destroyed with the passing of time.

  • 1. Wasa’il al-Shi’ah, vol. 1, p. 73.