Many years ago, I spoke about the issue of freedom during my Friday prayer sermons for ten to fifteen weeks. I said during those sermons that we, Muslims, consider ourselves as servants of God, but certain religions consider humans and themselves as “children of God.” I said, at that time, that what they say does not really mean anything; since, they claim to be children of God, yet they are slaves to thousands of humans and thousands of other things. However, Islam does not require this: A belief of Islam proclaims, "It does not matter who your parents are, you just need to be a servant of God and nobody else." The majority of Islamic principles, regarding freedom, revolve around this point.
The famous narration... by Imam Hadi (as) states, "Is there any liberated man who will throw this worthless thing at those who want it?" So far, it is not clear what the Commander of the Faithful (as) wanted to say. The only thing that can be understood is that a liberated man is one who throws this worthless object at those who want it and does not go after it himself. He continues, “There is nothing other than paradise that is worthy of your soul, so do not trade your soul for anything other than that." Here, it becomes clear that there was a price to be paid for that worthless thing. That is to say, one had to give up one's soul and identity for the sake of something worthless. In other words, it was a business deal, and this narration advises against such a decadent deal. If you want to make a business deal, why do trade your soul for a worthless object? You should only trade your soul for paradise and worship of God: this is the essential point. Of course, there is another essential point, which is human dignity, and it is and clearly indicated in the following: "there is nothing other than paradise that is worthy of your soul,” but let us not enter this discussion for now.
