And it is also mentioned in the foregoing narration of Jabir that Imam al-Baqir (A) said:
O Jabir, do not let false doctrines and opinions deceive you into imagining that the love of ‘Ali (A) is sufficient for you. Can it be sufficient for a man to declare, “I befriend ‘Ali (A) and am an adherent of his wilayah,” without being diligent and without working much (good) works? Truly, were he to say that I love the Messenger of Allah (and the Messenger of Allah was better than ‘Ali) while neglecting to follow him in his conduct (sirah) and failing to act in accordance with his sunnah, his love would not be of any avail to him.
There is a famous episode that once Tawus (a companion of the Fourth Imam) heard someone crying, lamenting, and pleading. The cries continued until they ceased and it appeared as if the one who was lamenting had fallen unconscious. On approaching, he saw that it was Imam ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn (A). He took the Imam’s head into his arms, and said to him: “You are the son of the Messenger of Allah and the beloved of Fatima Zahra’. After all the paradise belongs to you!” He said these words in order to console the Imam.
That master replied, “God has created paradise for one who worships Him and obeys him, even if it were an Ethiopian slave, and He has created the hell for those who disobey him even if it were a Qurayshite” (or the chief of the Quraysh)!
These were solve of the sacred traditions, clear and explicit, suggesting the falsity and wrongness of these false hopes of ours, as sinners and lovers of the world-hopes which derive from satanic longings and are contrary to reason and revelation (naql).
Add to these the noble Qur’anic verses, such as these statements of God, the Exalted:
Every soul is pledged for what it has earned. (74: 38)
And such statements of God, the Exalted, as:
And whoso doth good an atom’s weight will see it, and whoso doth ill an atom’s weight will see it. (99: 7-8)
And such other statements as:
For it (the soul) is what it has earned and against it is what it has merited. (2: 286)
And there are other noble verses besides, present on every page of the Divine