Masterpieces of Rhetoric Methood (nahj Al-balagha)

A Commandment To His Son Al-hassan After Siffin

O’ my son, make yourself the criterion between you and others. Thus, you should desire for others what you desire for yourself and hate for others what you hate for yourself. Do not oppress as you do not like to be oppressed. Do good to others as you like good to be done to you. Regard as bad of yourself whatever you regard bad of others. Accept that (treatment) from others which you would like others to accept from you. Do not talk about what you do not know even though what you know is little. Do not say to others what you do not like to be said to you.

O’ my son, beware, lest you become deceived by the leanings of people to wordly attractions and their rushing upon it. Allah has told you about it, and it has announced to you her death (mortality) and unveiled to you its evils. Those (who go) after it, surely are like barking dogs or devouring carnivore one growls at the other. The stronger of them eat away the weaker and the big of them tramples over the small.

Know that one whose mount is night and day is being moved on with though he is stopping, and he is covering the distance even though he is resident and resting.

Keep yourself away from every blemish even though they may take you to your desired aims, because you can not gain a worthy recompensation for what you spend of your dignity. Do not be the slave of others for Allah had made you free. The good which is not achieved but through evil is not good, and a facility that is achieved through (disgracing) hardship is not a facility.

Associate with people of virtue, you will become one of them. Part with people of vice, you will be distinguished from them. The worst food is that which is unlawful. Oppressing a weak person is the worst oppression.

Oblige yourself to assocciate with your brother when he break off; when he turns away be kind to him; when he withhold spend for him; when he goes away approach to him; when he is harsh be lenient; when he commits a wrong think of an excuse for it so much so as though he is the benevolent master over you. Be lenient to him who is harsh to you for it is likely that he will shortly become lenient to you. Treat your enemy with favours.

If you intend to cut yourself off from a friend leave som scope for him from your side by which he may resume friendship if it so occurs to him one day. If anyone had a good intention about you prove it to be true. Do not waste the right of your brother depending upon your terms with him, for he is not your brother whom you waste his interests. Your brother should not be more able in his breaking off kinship than you in establishing them, and you should exceed doing good to him than his evil to you. The reward of him who has pleased you is not to displease him.

How bad it is to bend down at the time of need and to be coarse in adequacy. If you feel sorry for what has gone out of your hands then you has to feel sorry for all that which didn’t reach your hand. Infer about what has not yet happened from what has already happened, as occurrences are ever similar. Do not be like those whom preachment does not benefit him unless it overdoes in paining him.

He who gives up moderation commits excess. The friend is he who keep your right during your absence. Many a distant one is nearer than a near one and many a near one is more distant than a distant one. The stranger is he who has no beloved, con-sult about the companion before the way and the neighbour before the house, when governor changes time changes too.

**Listen To My Saying

Addressing the Kharijites, going to their camp:**

Were all of you with us in Siffin? They replied some of us were but some of us were not. Imam said: Then would you divide yourself into two groups. One of those who were in Siffin and other of those who were not present there, so that I may address each with its suitable speech. Then he shouted to the people:

Stop talking and keep quiet to listen to what I say. Turn your hearts to me. Whomever we ask for witness, he should give it according to his knowledge of it.

Then he delivered a long speech with them during which he said:

Haven’t you said when they raised the Qu’ran as a deceit, craft, artifice and cheat “They are our brothers and our comrades in accepting Islam. They wanted us to cease fighting, and sought ease through the Book of Allah, the Glorified, so let us agree with them and end their troubles.” Then I said to you: “This is a matter the outer side of is Faith but the inner side is aggression. Its beginning is pity and its end is sorrow. Consequently, you should stick to your way, and remain steadfast on your path.

You should press your teeth in jihad and should not pay heed to a croaker. If he is answered he would mislead, but if he is left he would be humilliated.”

But when this thing (Arbitration) was done I found that you agree to it. By Allah, if I had refused it, it would not have been obligatory on me. Nor would Allah have laid its sin on me. And by Allah, now if I have accepted it, I alone am the rightful person who should be followed, for certainly the Qu’ran is with me. I never forsake it since I have accompanied it.

We have been with the Prophet in battles where in those killed our fathers, sons, brothes, and relations of one another. Nevertheless, every trouble and hardship just increased us in our belief, in our treading upon the right path, in submission to (divine) command and in enduring the pain of wounds. We now had to fight our brethren in Islam because of what is inserted into Islam of misguidance, crookedness, doubts and (wrong) interpretation. If we find any way by which Allah may gather us together in our disorder and by which we may draw nearer to each other and protect the remains between us we would accept it and would give up other means.

They Abandoned The Right Despite Their Seeing It Revealing to the Kharijites the doubt they fall in If you insist that I have mistaken and been misled. Then why do you consider the majority of the nation of the Prophet Muhammad have gone astray by my error, and accuse them with my wrong, and hold them unbelievers on account of my sins. You are holding your swords on your shoulders and stricking with in wrong positions and confusing those who have com-mitted sins with those who have not.

May you have no father!, I have not caused you any misfortune, nor have I deceived you in any matter, nor created any confusion. Your majority had unanimously agreed to choose two men they deviated from it, and abandoned the right although both of them were looking at it. This wrong-doing was their desires so they carried it out, our reservation that they should. Practice justice and stick to rightfulness had preceded the deviation of their vice and the unfairness of their decision.

I Am Your Herald Threatening the people of Nahrawan before they started fighting him:

I am your herald not to be killed on the bank of this canal and on the level of this low area without a clear excuse before Allah nor any open authority with you. You might be flung into death have come out of your houses and ensnared by the divine decree. I had forbidden you the acceptance of this aribitration but you rejected my advice like adversaries and opponents till I turned my ideas towards your wishes. You are a group whose heads are devoid of wit and intelligence. May you have no father. I have not put you in any calamity nor wished you harm.

Where are the Amalekites?

Imam Ali delivered this sermon at Kufa standing on a stone which Ja’adah ibn Hubayral AL-Makhzumi had placed for him. He had put on a woolen apparel on his body, the belt of his sword was made of leaves and the sandels on his feet too were of palm leaves:

I advise you, slaves of Allah, to fear Allah who had dressed you good apparels and bestowed an abundance of sustenance upon you. If there was anyone who could secure a ladder to everlasting life or a way to aviod death it would be Sylayman Ibn Dawud who was given Control over the domain of the Jinn and men with prophethood and great position, but when he finished what was his due in food and exhausted his time the bow of destruction shot him with the arrows of death, His houses became vacant and his habitations became empty. Another group of people inherited them. Certainly, the by – gone generations have a lesson for you.

Where are the Amalekites and sons of Amalekites? Where are the Pharaohs? Where are the people of the cities of Al-Rass who killed prophets, put the light of messengers’ traditions off and revived the traditions of the tyrrants? Where are those who advanced with armies, defeated thousands, mobilised forces and populated cities?

Where is Ammar? Of the same previous sermon

Beware, the coming things of this world has runaway and what is running away of the next life has come. O’ virtuous people of Allah, deporture is resolved to begin. What loss did our brothers whose blood was shed in Siffin suffer by not being alive today? Drinking as we do turbid water. Where are my brethren who took the (right) path and trod in rightness. Where is Ammar? Where is Ibn Al-Tayyihan? Where is Dha Al-Shahadatayn? And where are their likes of their comrades who had pledged themselves to death and whose (severed) heads were posted to the wicked enemy?

Pride, Fanaticism, and Transgression Known as Al-Qasi’ah: Sermon of Disparagement Do not be like him who feigned superiority to the son of his mother without any distinction given to him by Allah except what feeling of pride has promped in himself of the enmity and the fire of anger has been kindled in his heart and what the Satan blew into his nose his own varity, after which Allah gave him remorse.

Allah! Allah! In feeling proud of your vanity and boasting over ignorance as they are the bellowses of Satan with which he has deceived past nations and by gone generations.

Do not obey the allegers (of Islam) whose dirty water you have drunk by your clean one, and whose wrongs you allow to enter into your rightful matters. They are the foundation of vice. Satan has made them carriers of misguidance and soldiers with whom he attacks men. They are interpreters through whom he speaks in order to steal away your wits, enter into your eyes and blow into your ears. In this way he makes you the target of his arrows, the foothold of his footsteps and a handle for his hands.

Take a lesson from what afflicted previous arrogant nation of Allah’s agony. Take admonition from their lying on their cheeks and falling on their sides, and seek Allah’s protection from the motives of pride, as you seek His protection from calamities!

I cast my glance and noticed that no one in the world, except you, feels proud of anything without a cause which may appeal to the ignorant, or a reason which may deceive the minds of the fools, now you feel proud of something for which no reason is discernable, nor any ground. As for Satan he felt proud over Adam because of his origin and taunted him with his creation, since he said: “I am of fire, while you are of clay”. In the same way the rich groups of prosperous communities have been feeling proud of their riches, as Allah said: “And said they: We are more in wealth and in sons, and we shall not be chastised.”

In case you cannot avoid pride, your pride should be of good qualities, praiseworthy acts, and admirable matters with which the dignified and noble chiefs distinguished themselves, such as attractive manners and high thinking. You too should feel proud of praiseworthy habits such as protecting the neighbourhod, the fulfillment of pledges, obedience to charity, opposition to the mostives of haughtiness, abstention from agression, keeping aloof from blood-shed, doing justice to people, suppressing anger and avoiding corruption on the earth.

You should also fear what calamities had befallen nation before you because of their evil deeds and detestable actions. Remember, their good or bad circumstances and what happened to them, and be cautions not to become like them.

Indeed Allah Has commanded me to fight those who trans-gress and who break the pledge, and spoilers on the earth. As regards pledge-breakers. I have fought them; as regards deviaitors from truth, I have waged holy war against them, and as regards those renegaded, I have subdued. As for the Satan of the pit, I has dealt with him through a strike the loud cry of which the scream of his heart and shaking of his chest was also heard. Only a small portion of the aggressors has remained. If Allah allows me one more chance over them I will annihilate them except a few remnants that may remain scattered in the suburb of the cities.

Certainly I belong to a group of people who care not for the reproach of anybody in matters concerning Allah. Their countenance is that of the truthful persons and their speech is that of the virtuous. They are wakeful flourshing the nights with worship and thinking and over beacons in the day. They do not boast nor betray, nor spoil, nor create mischief. Their hearts are in Paradise, while their bodies are busy in fullilling (good) acts.

The world is being Wrapped From Behind you

An instruction to Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr when Imam oppointed him Governor of Egypt. It reminds of the circumstances of the world, urges the rulers to be just and kind lest they be tortured – which is expressed in a highly wonderful genius of eloquence:

You are the quarried of death. If you stop, it will catch you, and if you run away from it, it over takes you. It is more attached to you than your shadow. Death is tied to your fore-locks while the world is being wrapped from behind you. Therefore, fear a fire whose bottom is deep, whose heat is severe and whose torture is renewed. Wherein there is no mercy, and no call is heard.

The Law of Governors

A letter written for Al-Ashtar Al-Nakhai when Imam appointed him Governor of Egypt. It is the longest and grandest of his letters and ins-tructions, and the most comprehensive in containing the laws of civil deal-ings, general rights and special treat-ment in Imam’s approach. Besides, it is the most wonderful that the mind and heart have produced in stating the relation between the ruler and the ruled, concept of government, Imam preceded his age by a thousand year as what this law contains of affairs uttered by the bright mind and good heart.

Then, know, O’ Malik that I have sent you to a district where have come to pass governments of both justice and deviation people will now watch your dealings as you used to watch the dealings of the rulers before you, and they will criticize of you what you criticised of them. Surely the virtuous are known by the reputation that Allah circulated for them through the tongues of His slaves.

Therefore, the best provision with you should be the provision of good deeds. So, control your desires and be stringy to yourself with what is not lawful for her, because being stingy to oneself, means demanding justice from oneself to others of what onelikes and dislikes Habituate your heart to mercy for the subject and to love and kindness for them. Do not treat them like a greedy lion who seize the chance to devour them, since they are of two kinds, either your brother in religion or a counterpart to you in creation.

They commit slips and subjected to diseases. They may act wrongly, wilfully or by mistake. So, give them of your forgiveness and pardon, as you like Allah to extend His forgiveness and pardon to you, because you are over them, and your responsible Commander (Imam) is over you while Allah is over him who has appointed you.

Give Allah’s and peoples’s rights from yourself and from your near relatives and from those whom you love because if you do not do so you fall in injustice and when one oppresses the slaves of Allah, then, intead of His slaves, Allah becomes his opponent. Nothing is stronger to change Allah’s bounty or to hasten His retribution than continuance of oppression, because Allah hears the invoking of the oppressed and is waiting in ambush for the oppressors.

The way most coveted of you should be that which is the most moderate in right, the most universal profiting in justice, and the most comprehensive with regard to the contentedness of the commons because the disagreement of the common people sweeps away the agreement of the upper class while the dis-agreement of the upper class can be forgiven with the agreement of the common people.

No one among the governor’s subject is more burdensome to the ruler in the comfort of life, less helpful in distress, more disliking of equitable treatment, more insistent in asking favours, less thankufl at the time of giving, most slow in accepting the execuse at the time of withhold, and weaker in endurance at the time of distress of life than the upperclass.

Unfasten every knot of hatred in the hearts of people and cut away from yourself the cause of every enmity. Do not hasten to give credence to an informant because an informant is a cheater although he looks like those who wish well.

The worst minister for you is he who had been a minister for mischievous persons before you, and who joined them in sins. He should not be a suite for you, because they are assistant of sinners and brothers of oppressors.

You can find among them a good substitute of those who have never assisted an oppressor in his oppression or a sinner in his sin. Then, let the most preferable among them for you should be that who openly speak bitter truths before you and who support you the least in those of your actions which Allah does not approve to His friends, where ever this one may be near or far from your wishes. Associate yourself with God-fearing and truthful people; then train them, not to praise you or please you by a great action you have not performed.

The virtuous and the vicious should not be in equal position before you because this means renunciating the virtuous from virtue and encouraging of the vicious of vice, keep everyone in the position in which he has put himself. Know that nothing is more conducive for the good opinion of the ruler on his subjects than extending good behaviour towards them lighten their hard-ships, and avoid compelling them to unbearable troubles. You should, therefore, in this way follow a course by which you will leave a good impression with your subjects, because such good opinion will relieve you of great worries. Certainly, the most appropriate for good impression of you is he to whom your behaviour has not been good.

Keep on increasing your conversations with scholars and your discussions with the wise, to stabilize what the prosperity of the areas under you and to continue with that in which the earlier people had remained stead fast.

Put in charge of your forces the man who is in your view the most sincer to Allah, His Prophet, and your Imam the most pure – pocketed and the highest of them in endurcance is he who is slow in getting enraged, accepts excuse, be kind to the weak, and is strict with the strong; violence should not excited his temper and weakness should not hold him back.

The most pleasant thing for the ruler is the establishment of justice in their territories and the manifestation of the love of their subjects, but the subjects’ love manifests itself only when their hearts are sound. Their good wishes prove correct only when they protect their commanders, and do not regard their rule as a heavy burden over them.

Attribute to every one his action, do not attribute the perfor-mance of one to the other. The high position of a men should not lead you to regard his small deeds as big, nor should the low position of a man make you regard his big deeds as small.

For the settlement of disputes among people choose the most distinguished of your subjects in your view. The cases should not vex him, by apponants should not be enraged, he should not insist on slip; he should not lean towards greed and should not content himself with a cursory understanding without going thoroughly into it.

He should be most ready to step (to ponder) on doubtful matters, most regardful of arguments, least disgusted at the dispute of litigants, most patient of probing matters and most fearless at the time of passing judgement. When truth becomes clear praise should not make him boast and temptation should not make him lean (to any side).

Such people are very few. Then, very often check his decisions and allow him so much money that cures his disease he has no cxcuse worth hearing (for not being honest) and there remains no occasion for him to need others. Give him that dignity among your audience for which no one else among your dignitaries hopes, so that he remains safe from being assassinated (in fame) by others in your view.

Thereafter, look into the affairs of your executives. Appoint them as a test, and not because of favourtism or partiality because these two things constitute sources of injustice and treason. You should also check their activities and have people who report on them who should be truthful and faithful, because your watching their activities secretly will urge them to preserve trust with and to be kind to the people.

Be careful of assistants. If anyone of them extends his hands towards a misappropriation and the reports of your reporters reaching you confirm it, that should be regarded enough evidence. You should then inflict corporal punishment on him and recover what he has misappro-priated. You should put him in the position of disgrace, blacklist him with misappropriation and make him wear the necklace of shame for his offence.

Look after the revenue (land tax) affairs in such a way that those engaged in it remain prosperous because in their upright-ness lies the uprightness of all others. The others cannot prosper without them, because all people are dependent on revenue and its payers. You should also aim at the cultivation of the land more than at the collecting of revenue because revenue cannot be possessed without cultivation and whoever asks for revenue without cultivation, ruins the countries and brings death to the people.

His rule will not last for long. The remission granted by you to the removal of distress from them should not be found heavy for you, because it is a reserve which they will return to you in the shape of the prosperity of your country.

For prosperity is capable of bearing whatever you spend on it. The ruin of the land is caused by the poverty of the cultivators, while the cultivators become poor when the rulers concentrate on the collection (of money), having little hope for remaining (in their offices) and driving no lesson from past warning.

Then you should take care of your secretarial workers. Put the best of them in charge of your affairs, who should not be ignorant of his dignaty and his own position in matters because he who is ignorant of his own position is even more ignorant of the position of others. Your selecting of them should not be on the basis of your physiognomy, confidence and your good imp-ression, because people introduce themselves to rulers through affectation and good personal service and after that there is no well – wishing or trustfulness. Whenever defect is there in your secretaries which you overlook, then are held responsible of it.

Now take some advice about traders and industrialists. Give them good counsel whether they are settled (shop-keepers) or travelling traders because they are the sources of profits and the means of provision. Look after their affairs in your presence or where they may be in your area. Know, along with this, that most of them are very narrow-minded, and ugly stinginess. They monopolize goods for profitearing and ask high prices for goods. This is a source of harm to the common people and a blot on the rulers in charge.

Forbide people from monopolizing because the Messenger of Allah has prohibited it. The sale should be easy, with correct weights and prices, not harmful to either party, the seller or the purchaser; whoever commits monopolizing after you have prohibited it, punish him severly without excessiveness.

Take care for the sake of Allah of His obligations towards the needy for which He has made you responsible. Allot for them a share of your public funds because in it the remote ones have the same shares as the near ones. All these people are those whose rights have been specified in your charge. Therefore, a luxurious life should not keep you away from them. You cannot be excused for wasting small matters in order to decide big problems. Consequently, do not be unmindful of them, nor turn your face from them out of vanity.

Take care of the affairs of those of them who do not approach you because they are of unsightly appearance or those whom people regard as low; since of all of the subjects these people are the most deserving of equitable treatment; take care of the orphans and the aged who have no means (for livelihood) nor are they ready for begging. This is heavy on rulers; in fact All right is heavy.

And designate a time for complainants wherein you make yourself free for them, and sit for them in a common meeting and feel humble there in for Allah who has created you. You should keep away (on that occasion) your army and your assistant such as the guards and the police so that anyone who like to speack may speak to you without stammering, because I have heard the Messenger of Allah saying in more than one place, “The people among whom the right of the weak is not secured from the strong without stuttering will never become sacred”. Tolerate their awkwardness and inability to speak. Keep away from you nar-rowness and haughtiness.

Then there are certain matters which you cannot avoid performing yourself such as, replying to your Governors when your secretaries are unable to do so, or disposing of the needs of people when your assistants shirk disposing them fulfill the work of everyday for everyday has its own work.

Then, do not keep yourself secluded from your subject for a long time, because the concealment of those in authority from the subjects is a kind of narrow-mindedness and a deficiency of knowledge about their affairs. Concealment from them also prevents them from knowing of those things which they are concealed from and as a result they begin to regard big matters as small and small matters as big, good matters as bad, and bad matters as good, truth becomes confused with falsehood.

After all, a governor is a human being and cannot have knowledge of things which people keep hidden from him. There is not symtoms on the face of truth to distinguish various expressions of falsehood. Then you are no one except one of two kinds of men: either you are a truth generous in granting rights; and then why this hiding in spite of (your) discharging the obligations and good acts that you perform?

Or, you are inflicted with stinginess; in that case people will soon give up asking you since they will lose hope of generous treatment from you. In spite of that there are many needs of the people towards you which do not involve any hardship on you, such as the complaint against an oppression or a request of justice in a matter.

Then, a governor has a group of special people and a suite. They misappropriate and audacious and do not observe justice in matters. So terminate the circumstances of which those profit to harm common people. Do not make any land grants to your hangers or suite. They should not expect of you the possession of a land or another thing which may cause harm to adjoining people over the question of irrigation or common services whose burden the grantees lay on others. So they enjoy its advantages than you, while the disgrace will lie on you in this world and the next.

Apply rights to whom soever it is due, whether near you or far from you. In this matter, you should be enduring and watch-ful even though it may involve your relations and favourites, and keep in view the reward of that which appears burdensome on you because its result is commendable.

If the subjects suspect of a prejudice, explain to them your excuse openly and remove their suspicion with your explanation, because this is a training for your soul and a kindness to the subjects and not to be blamed then. While this explanation will secure your aim of keeping them straightened on truth.

Do not reject a peace to which your enemy may call you and wherein there is a content of Allah, because peace brings rest, and relief from your worries and a security for your country. If you conclude on agreement between yourself and your enemy or enter into a pledge with him then fulfil your agreement and discharge your peldge faithfully. Plea yourself as a shield to protect your self from violating the pledge .

do not betray your pledge and do not abolish an agreement, and do not deceive your enemy. Do not enter into an agreement which may admit of different interpretations and do not change the interpretation of vague words after the conclusion and confirmation (of the agreement). If an agreement involves you in a hardship do not seek its repudiation after giving Allah’s pledge without a justification.

Do not strengthen your authority by shedding prohibited blood because this will weaken and lower the authority, moreover destroy and shift it. You have to excuse before Allah and me for killing willfuly.

Avoid reminding them of your obligation on your subjects for having done good to them or praising your son actions, or making promises and then breaking them, because reminding of obligation invalidates good, self-praise takes away the light of truth, and breaking promises leads to the hatred of Allah and people.

Avoid haste in matters before their time, laxity at their proper time, or being weakened when they become clear. Assign every concern its proper place and do every job at the appropriate time.

Do not appropriate to yourself a thing in which people have an equal share, nor be regardless of matters which have come to light that you are accountable for others. Shortly, the curtains of all matters will be removed from your view and you will be required to render redress to the oppressed. Have control over (your) sense of prestige, any outburst of anger, the power of your arm and the sharpness of your tongue. Guard against all this by avoiding haste, and delaying severe action till your anger subsides and you regain your self – control.

It is necessary for you to recall how matter went with those who preceded you and their just government or prais worthy tradition of our Prophet. You should strive to follow what I have enjoined upon you in this document in which I have exhausted my argument over, least you have an argument when your soul hastens towards her desires. I ask Allah that He may grant us his help to me and you to have always a clear argument before Him and His slaves.