Holding in One ’s Arm

“When two believing people embrace each other, blessings engulf them. When they hold each other just for the sake of Allah and for no worldly reasons, it then will be said to them, ‘You are forgiven, resume your deeds.’ When they begin asking about each other the angels will say to each other, ‘Keep away from them; they have secret matters and Allah has granted them cover and privacy.’ I (Ishaq) then asked, ‘May Allah keep my soul in service for your cause, how is it that the angels do not write their words when Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, has said, “. . . he does not utter a word which is not recorded immediately by the watchful scribes”?’ (50: 17) The narrator has said that Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) took a breath of sigh and wept so much that his tears drenched his beard, and he said, ‘O Ishaq, Allah, the Most Blessed, the Most High, commands the angels to leave the believing people who meet each other alone just because of respect for them; otherwise, if the angels do not write their words or do not know them, He knows and saves them; He knows all the secrets and the hidden things.’”