We hereby present the Imam’s replies to queries posed to him by different people. Question: Is man helpless in his actions that Allah compels him to do whatever he wants? Imam: Allah is Just. How is it possible that He should compel one to do something and then punish him for it? Question: Is man completely free in his actions? Imam: How is it possible? That Allah should create the people and remove His law from over them completely, leaving all their affairs to them. Neither has Allah made the people absolutely helpless nor gave them free will. Rather it is an affair between the two (extremes). Question: There is a tradition: Allah created Adam in His own image. Does this not prove that Allah has a face?
Imam: People have not reflected on the circumstances surrounding this tradition. The actual matter is that one day the Messenger of Allah (S) passed by two people who were abusing each other. One of them said: May Allah make your face ugly and also of those who resemble you. The Prophet said: O man! Do not say this the Almighty Allah created Adam also with this same face.
Question: What does this tradition mean that the believers in Paradise would sit in their homes and continue to see their Lord?
Imam: The Almighty Allah has bestowed superiority to Prophet Muhammad al-Mustafa over all the prophets. He ordained his obedience as His obedience, his allegiance as His allegiance and his visitation as His visitation. Thus he said: One who visited me in my lifetime or after I pass away, he has visited Allah. Thus the tradition means that the believers in Paradise would be seeing the Messenger of Allah (S).
Question: What does this tradition mean: The reward of saying: There is no god except Allah (La ilaha illallaah) is equal to that of looking at the face of Allah? Does the Almighty have a face or a shape?
Imam: It is infidelity to attribute shape or face to Allah. The faces of Allah are in fact His prophets and their legatees through whom ones attention is guided to Allah. That is why they are the face of Allah. Looking at their faces carries great rewards and to remain deprived of their visitation (Ziyarat) causes loss.
Question: Are the Paradise and Hell already created?
Imam: Indeed, they are already created. Those who say that they are not yet created, they are merely in the intention of Allah, are not from us. Rather they deny us and are deniers of our Wilayat (mastership). On the Day of Judgment they would be cast into Hell forever, because they deny something that is one of the necessities of faith. The Almighty Allah says: “This is that very Hell that the people used to deny, the inmates of Hell will go about in it in boiling water.”
Question: Why are men allowed four wives and women are prohibited more than one husband? Imam: If a woman has more than one husband it would not be determined whose seed it was and in such circumstances it would be impossible to prove the paternity of the child. But in case of multiple wives this danger is absent. In addition to this, men are allowed four wives because in comparison to men the population and births of females is much more than that of males. Question: Please explain about the birth of the male and the female child.
Imam: In the womb, the place of the male child is towards the right side and for the female child it is to the left. If the sperm goes to the right side a male child is conceived and if it goes to the left a female child is conceived. Often women are pregnant with twins. Thus if both her breasts are equally heavy, it should be known that she is carrying twins, and if only one is heavy, she is carrying one child. If the right breast is heavy, it would be a female child. If a woman carrying twins has her right breast lighter than the left, the fetus of the male child would be aborted and if the left breast becomes light the female fetus would be aborted. If both fall light, both the fetuses would be aborted.
Question: Why is fornication made unlawful? Imam: Because, the lineage is broken. The inheritance goes away. The woman does not know by whom she has become pregnant and neither the child knows who its father is.
Reference :Akhlaq al-A’imma, Morals & Manners of the Holy Imams