Lessons from the Nahjul Balagah
Introduction
It is necessary, at the beginning, to provide our brothers and sisters with a
brief introduction to the Nahj-ul-Balagha. As you know, the Nahj-ul-Balagha is
a collection of Sermons, Letters and miscellaneous Sayings left as a memorial
from the Master of the Pious, the Commander of the Faithful, All, peace be upon
him. This book is divided into three sections of Sermons, Letters and short
Sayings or' wise Sayings' (hikam), as they are usually called, some of which
have been selected from among the Sermons and Letters.
The Nahj-ul-Balagha dates back to about one thousand years ago when the late
Seyyid Radi compiled these Letters and Sermons at the end of the third and the
outset of the fifth century (400A.H.) the Hejra after. It is, thus, a one
thousand year old book. It is to be noted, however, that before Seyyid Radi
made efforts in compiling All's Sermons and Sayings, they were scattered in the
books of the Traditions' and history. Other scholars had also begun to perform
this task in one way or another, but no one succeeded in accomplishing what
Sayyid Radi did. Therefore, we are indebted to the endeavors and initiatives of
this great scholar who left the Nahj-ul-Balagha for us.
Another point to be noted here is that, in addition to the contents of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, a number of Sermons, Letters and short Sayings of Ali, peace
be upon him, can be found in different books which recent scholars have tried
to compile and introduce as appendices to the Nahj-ul-Balagha. Therefore, in
addition to the N2hjal-Balagha which is, in itself, a rich and invaluable
treasure, here are some other books of All's Sayings which shall later be
introduced to the readers in detail so that they may obtain a general
acquaintance with the bibliography of the Nahj-ul-Balagha and its related
books.
Another point to note about the Nahj-ul-Balagha concerns the invalidity of this
book, a claim made by some people over the years. The motive behind such a
claim can easily be surmised, that is, the subject matter of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha threatened the interests of some groups or classes of people
who therefore found the best device, to be discrediting the book itself. It is
also true of the personality of individuals, and for this same reason those who
considered the personality of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, to be
against their personal or group interests, naturally tried to distort it. In
the same manner, they claimed that the Nahj-ul-Balagha was invalid on the
grounds that they said it was without any authority (sanad).
It is clear that the Nahj-ul-Balagha is in the category of Traditions upon
which we depend for the understanding of Islamic teachings, as well as the
Traditions of the Prophet and the Book (the Holy Qur'an). There is no doubt as
to the authority of the Holy Qur'an, but as to the Traditions, valid
authorities are needed to remove any doubts, i.e., the narrators of a certain
Tradition, including the Imams and the Prophet, should be known and
trustworthy. This has always been the main concern of our great narrators and
jurisprudents in eliciting and understanding the divine ordinances.
Thus, we have the 'science of rijal' which deals with the recognition of
narrators of Traditions and the 'science of diraya' which concerns the
recognition and analysis of Traditions and which determines the correct and the
unreliable Traditions. Thus, this attention to detail that a Tradition must
have an authority and that authority must be valid, is necessary. It is because
of this that today great emphasis is put on expertise in understanding Islamic
sciences. An individual, who is not an expert, accepts the Traditions which
accord with his own intellect, understanding and mental background and rejects
all others. This leads to the weakening of the religion.
When an expert wants to rely on a Tradition, he first tries to acknowledge its
authority and validity through his special expertise. This necessity has been
taken care of by our jurisprudents in their recognition and understanding of
Islamic laws and regulations. Now, some people asserted that the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, as a collection of Traditions which should be based on valid
authorities, was without any authority and, therefore, was invalid and
unreliable.
As a matter of fact, in one way these people were telling the truth for no
chain of narrators are mentioned in the Nahj-ul-Balagha in any of the Sermons
so that they can be attributed to the Commander of the Faithful and the
truthfulness of such narrators could be sought. However, in the books of
Traditions such as Vasa-al-Shi'a, al-Kafi and the like, as well as in the old
history books. such as those of Tabari, ibn Athir and Ya'qubi, no chain of
authorities can be found concerning the contents of the Nahj-ul-Balagha.
Firstly, although the Nahj-ul-Balagha itself does not mention the chain of
authorities and narrators, this can be checked in the Shi'ite and Sunni books
of Traditions where from the Sermons, Letters and Sayings of this book have
been extracted and compiled. Several years ago, one of the Arab writers wrote a
book entitled Madarik Nahj-ul-Balagha wa Masanidu (The Documents and
Authorities of Nahj-ul-Balagha) which may later be introduced to the readers in
an analysis of the books written about the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In this book, the
writer has quoted the authentic authorities of the Sermons, Letters and Sayings
of the Nahj-ul-Balagha from the books of the Traditions. it is therefore,
concluded that the content, of the Nahj-ul-Balagha should not be considered to
be without authority on the mere ground that the book itself does not mention
any authority.
Secondly, although the authorities of Traditions are proper means of reliance
or vice versa, the text of Traditions can also be a means of obtaining
confidence for one who undertakes research, i.e. when you study a text and find
its contents miraculous (as you will, God-Willing, observe when interpreting
Ali's words), when you see that in one sentence the writer has referred to
something beyond the prevailing mentality of his own time, which others have
been able to understand only in the course of centuries, when you are faced
with a saying that predicts future events which cannot be presaged except by
the likes of Amir al-Muminin who are in contact with endless divine knowledge and,
in addition to all these merits, when you observe the highly eloquent words and
expressions of the writer, it becomes quite clear to you that he is not an
ordinary human being and that his saying cannot be but those of an immaculate
Imam.
Based upon this, Seyyid Radi states that certain words and expressions of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, are matchless in human expression, something which has never
been opposed, in the course of one thousand years, by eloquent writers, Islamic
thinkers and even the adversaries of Islam. These people have always accepted
that some statements of the Nahj-ul-Balagha are superior to human expression
and beyond the ordinary level of the human being's knowledge at that time. The
conclusion is therefore drawn that, despite the absence of the chain of
authorities and narrators in the Nahj-ul-Balagha, this book is undoubtedly that
of the Commander of the Faithful and reliable as such.
Thirdly, as you know and as we mentioned previously, the Nahj-ul-Balagha
consists of the Sermons (i.e. lectures, not the sermons delivered in the Friday
ritual prayers, although the book may have included some of these sermons as
well), Letters and short Sayings of Ali, peace be upon him, which he expressed
and wrote as a teacher, ruler and an Islamologist. Thus, in addition to
reflecting the general lines of Islamic thought, these Sermons and Letters also
cover daily matters, i.e. the current problems and difficulties of Amir al
Muminin's life.
In our own time, that is, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, many
similar aspects can be found between our social situation and that of Amir
al-Muminin's time, although our situation is more similar in many respects
(i.e. enemies, enmities and other problems) to the Medina social situation at
the time of the Prophet's migration. The difference, however, between the
social situation of Ali's rule and that of the Prophet lies in the fact that
under the Prophet's rule, the enemy had a clear and well-known position, that
is, not even one single group of the adversaries of Islam shared an aspect
common to the Prophet. The atheists among the Quraish, the Jews of Medina, the
western and eastern superpowers of the time and the Christians of Najran, each
had slogans of their own. In fact, there was no organized group to cry the same
slogan as that of the Prophet and, at the same time, to stand openly against
him in fight. Accordingly, the Prophet suffered a great deal but never felt the
heavy sorrows that All ibn Abi Talib tolerated during his reign.
There were hypocrites at the time of the Prophet as well but, first of all,
they were not organized; secondly, they did not have a manifest position
against the Prophet and they did not use the same slogans as those of the
Prophet so that the people might doubt as to whether the Prophet was truthful
or his rivals. Thirdly, the hypocrites were more or less known to all the
people. For instance, everyone, including his own son, knew that Abdullah ibn
Ubaid was the head of the hypocrites and even his son suggested to the Prophet
to kill his father or prevent him from entering Medina if the Prophet
permitted.
On the contrary, at the time of the rule of Amir al Muminin, those who fought
him used exactly the same slogans as his. Moreover, they were among the
distinguished personalities of the time, with long, past records. For example,
the group of the Nakithin (the breakers of allegiance or the front in the
'Battle of the Camel' comprising Talha, Zubair and Ayesha) fought the Commander
of the Faithful with his own slogans - slogans in favor of Islam and the truth.
The group of Qasitin, (the front of Mu'awiya, the Damascus front), too,
pretended in such a way that the impartial observers fell in a state of doubt
as to which group was telling the truth. When you study Mu'awiya's letters to
Ali, you find exactly the same words as those of Ali to him. For example, Ali
addresses, „From the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib to Mu'awiya
ibn Abi Sufyan", and Mu'awiya writes, „From the Commander of the Faithful,
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan to All ibn Abi Talib".
Mu'awiya does not introduce himself as 'the commander of the faithless' or 'the
commander of the polytheists' but, exactly like Ali, as the Commander of the
Faithful. Then Ali advises Mu'awiya, for instance, to be pious to fear God and
to refrain from wasting the blood of Muslims, and Mu'awiya uses the same advice
for Ali. Therefore, the problem of Ali is that his enemy is not a manifest
enemy in the eyes of the people, for whatever he offers is also offered by the
enemy and, as a result, he cannot show the real character of the opposing front
to the people. It is true, of course, that Ali had a great deal to say but not
all the words spoken can necessarily be understood by those who hear and this
was Ali's constant sorrow. Perhaps this was the reason why he used to sit
beside a well and speak into it about his grievances. In fact, other than a
group of people who were completely faithful to Ali for a special reason, and
not because they observed his doings and prayers or they heard about Mu'awiya's
evil deeds, others were always in doubt as to which side was telling the truth,
for they witnessed, as an example, that in the Battle of Siffin, both sides
performed the congregational ritual prayer with humility and modesty.
Thus, a hypocritical atmosphere was characteristic of society during the time
of Ali. This does not imply, however, that all the people were hypocrites. Even
the followers of Mu'awiya were a group of honest, tribal Arabs, from the area
around Damascus, who had, from the very outset of their conversion to Islam,
seen and known no governors except Mu'awiya and his family.1 They knew Islam
through the words of these people. They had heard so many good things about
them - that they were scribes of the divinely revealed Book, that since
Mu'awiya's sister was the Prophet's wife and thus called 'Umm al-Mu'minin
(mother of the believers), Mu'awiya was Khal al-Muminin (maternal uncle of the
believers)2 - that they supported Mu'awiya and fought against All with the best
of intentions. So they were not hypocrites. However, unlike the time of the
Prophet, society enjoyed an air of hypocrisy, about which more explanation may,
God-willing, be provided when discussing the words and sayings of the Commander
of the Faithful.
This atmosphere of hypocrisy is also a peculiarity of our own time, although
from the point of view of social conditions, enmities, manner of opposition,
hostile parties and so forth, our time is more comparable to the time of the
Prophet. Today, the so-called followers of 'progressive Islam' in our society
are those groups who oppose each other quite openly. Also, those who claim to
be followers of the 'line of the Imam' sometimes draw swords against one
another. Those who claim to act for the benefit of the Islamic Republic or to
follow the policy of 'neither East nor West' are often so divided among
themselves that nothing but a hostile relationship can be attributed to them.
In fact, it cannot be said that they have differences of opinion, for they are
exactly at the opposite side of one another. Therefore, taking into account
that each of these groups finds some followers for itself, we see that our
society resembles the society at the time of Ali.
The importance of the Nahj-ul-Balagha then lies in two dimensions. First, it
speaks about the fundamental of Islam such as the matters concerning God, the
human being, Islamic views of humanity, prophethood and its position in human
history, the dignity and prophethood of the Prophets and other matters which
are today, a means of understanding Islam and thus necessary for us to study.
Secondly, the Nahj-ul-Balagha refers to the social problems of a hypocritical
society with which we deal today. Accordingly, this book can be a source of
Inspiration for us as regards the social and political problems of life and the
possible solutions to them.
The fourth point about the Nahj-ul-Balagha is that a great number of its
sermons are unfortunately incomplete, i.e. either from the beginning or from
the end of each sermon some statements have been omitted. Even, in some cases,
Seyyid Radi has omitted statements from the middle of a sermon and then
continued the rest of it with the phrase "and from that", which is
what the journalists and reporters do repeatedly today. Now, we know nothing
about the omitted parts and this creates some difficulties in interpreting the
content of the Nahj-ul-Balagha. The reason why Seyyid Radi has made these
omissions is that the Nahj-ul-Balagha (The Peak of Eloquence), as its name
indicates, has been compiled from an artistic point of view, i.e. eloquence of
expression. This does not mean, however, that he has been heedless of the
subject matter and has merely paid attention to the artistic aspects of Ali's
Sayings. Yet', this eloquent man, one of the great Arab poets of his own time,
has dealt with the Nahj-ul-Balagha with a poetic outlook.
He has endeavored to pick out All's most beautiful and eloquent words and
statements just as one tries to choose the best distich of a sonnet. This is
why a type of semantic disconnection is observed among the statements of some
Sermons.
It is to be noted, of course, that both the highly eloquent and non-eloquent
Sayings of Ali carry very magnificent purports, and it is these purports which
make us appreciate the Nahj-ul-Balagha, now, in the fourteenth century (A.11.)
more than a great scholar of the fourth century (Seyyid Radi) did. As a matter
of fact, the human being has naturally faced so many hardships in the course of
centuries that he or she understands Ali's words and message and the call of
Islam from his tongue more easily than those who lived centuries ago.
It is important, as well, to know that when Seyyid Radi was compiling Ali's
words and sayings, there were few people who valued All and his words as much
as you value them today. Thus, Ali's lines of thought were only followed by a
minority.
On the other hand, those people who took care of All's Sayings and tried to
compile them, attached more (or at least equal) importance to the form and
beauty as to the content of his statements and omitted some parts which they
considered less beautiful than others. If you were Seyyid Radi you would
definitely not treat Ali's words in this way. You would instead, try to benefit
more from the contents of Ali's sayings. This is why we believe that today Ali
and his words are more appreciated than in the fourth century, and this is why
history is moving towards All and his message, something that we should
accelerate.
The main subjects of the Nahj-ul-Balagha which we are going to discuss in this
book are as follows:
Fundamental Beliefs
A part of Nahj-ul-Balagha is about monotheism, humanity, the Last Day,
prophethood, Imamat and other fundamental principles of Islam. Of course,
contrary to the manner of the dialecticians in the third and the fourth
centuries, these subjects have been discussed in the Nahj-ul-Balagha with a
kind of mystical and spiritual approach. Thus, the words of All about
monotheism, for instance, are quite different from the words of Nasir al-din
Tusi and other Islamic philosophers and theologians.
Social and Political Matters
These matters consist of both general and specific social affairs including the
administration of or Islamic country, the relation between governors and
subordinates, letters to the rulers of different states (the famous letter to
Malik Ashtar, for instance), the, way of facing the enemy, decisiveness free
from improper hate and revenge, treating both friends and enemies exactly as
they deserve, being not subjected to credulity and naivety and many other
social matters of that time and of the whole history.
Morality
The training and purification of the human being's soul are among other
subjects discussed in the Nahj-ul-Balagha, which we shall, God-willing, talk
about in the coming pages.
Peace and the mercy of God be upon you.