✦⋆· said, "Perform the obligations [laid down by] Allah and you will become the most pious of people."

✦⋆· "Obligations! Obligations! Fulfil them for Allah and it will lead you to Heaven."

●"Make your quest that which Allah has made obligatory upon you, and ask Him to [enable you to] fulfil the right of what He has asked of you."

● "Lure your soul to worship, and be lenient towards it, and do not force it.

Accept its excuse and take advantage of its vitality, except what has been prescribed for you as an obligation; for they must be performed, and carried out at their right time."

● "If you were to preoccupy yourself with supererogatory acts instead of the obligatory, you will not gain a single merit by losing an obligation."

● "Allah, most High, has made obligatory upon the leaders of justice [truth] to equate themselves with the weak ones from among of people, so that the poor cannot be intimidated as a result of his poverty."

● "Allah, Glory be to Him, made the provisions of the poor incumbent upon the wealth of the rich; so no poor person goes hungry except as a result of what the rich person enjoys."

● "Allah made faith incumbent in order to purify [people] from polytheism, and prayer to eliminate arrogance, and the alms-tax as a mediator for [the descent of] sustenance."

● "Allah has ordained a duty for all of your body parts, and they will be used as proofs and witnesses over you on the Day of Resurrection."

● "The limits of the greatest obligations that Allah has ordained upon His creation are five: prayer, the alms-tax (zakat), the obligatory pilgrimage (Hajj), fasting, and the guardianship [of those divinely appointed by Allah] (wilayat), which is the protector for the former four."

● After the Battle of Siffin, somebody asked Imam Ali (as) whether they had been destined to fight against the Syrians.

Imam Ali (as) replied if by destiny you mean a compulsion (physical or otherwise) through which we are forced (by nature) to do a thing then it is not so.

Had it been an obligation of that kind there would have been no question of reward for doing it and punishment for not doing it (when you are physically forced to do a thing, like breathing, sleeping, eating, drinking etc. then there can be no reward for doing it and no retribution for not doing it.

In such cases nature forces you to do a thing and you cannot but do it), then the promised blessings and punishments in life after death will have no meaning.

The Merciful Lord has given his creatures (human beings) complete freedom to do as they like, and then prohibited them from certain actions and warned them of the consequences of such actions (His Wrath and His Punishments).

These orders of Allah carry in them the least trouble and lead us towards the most convenient ways of life and the rewards which He has promised for good deeds are many times more than the actions actually deserve.

He sees people disobeying Him and tolerates them not because He can be overruled or be compelled to accept human supremacy over Him.

He did not send His prophets to amuse Himself or provide amusement for them.

He did not reveal His orders without any genuine reason nor has He created the galaxies and the earth without any purpose.

The Universe without plan, purpose and program is the idea of infidels and the pagans, sorry will be their plight in the leaping fires of Hell.

Hearing this the man asked Imam Ali (as), "Then what kind of destiny was it that we had?"

Imam Ali (as) replied: "It was an order of Allah to do it like the order He has given in His Holy Book: You are destined by Allah to worship none but Him, here 'destined' means 'ordered' it does not mean physical compulsion."

✦⋆· "When Allah with His Generosity and Benevolence made the obligations a duty upon you, He did not do so for a need He has for them. Rather, it is as a result of the Benevolence He has over you - there is no God but He - and in order to distinguish between the bad and the good, and to test what is in your chests, and to purify what is in your hearts."

✦⋆· "Those who act according to what Allah has made obligatory are the best of people."

✦⋆· "Allah, Blessed and most High, said, "There is nothing more beloved to Me, through which My servant may endear himself to Me than through the duties I ask him to fulfil."