Nahjul Balagha - An English Reading of Imam Ali’s sermons and sayings by Seyyed Aleem Naqvi

How do you know what is for me and what is against me? ! Curse of Allah and others be on you. You are a weaver and son of a weaver. You are the son of an unbeliever and yourself a hypocrite. You were arrested once by the Unbelievers and once by the Muslims, but your wealth and birth could not save you from either. The man who contrives for his own people to be put to sword and invites death and de...

Commentary

When a problem is put before any one of them he passes judgement on it from his imagination. When exactly the same problem is placed before another of them he passes an opposite verdict. Then these judges go to the chief who had appointed them and he confirms all the verdicts, although their Allah is One (and the same), their Prophet is one (and the same), their Book (the Qur'an) is one (and the s...

Commentary

Among(1) all the people the most detested before Allah are two persons. One is he who is devoted to his self. So he is deviated from the true path and loves speaking about (foul) innovations and inviting towards wrong path. He is therefore a nuisance for those who are enamoured of him, is himself misled from the guidance of those preceding him, misleads those who follow him in his life or after hi...

The responsibility for what I say is guaranteed, and I am answerable for it. Whoever has been shown clearly — through lived experience and historical examples — the punishments that Allah inflicted on past nations, piety will hold him back from falling into doubts and misgivings. Know that the very same tribulations and disorders that existed when Allah first sent the Prophet (in the Days of Ignor...

Commentary

Commentary

“By Allah! Even if I found that by means of this money (taken unjustly from the public treasury) women have been married off or slave-girls have been purchased, I would still take it back and restore it (to the treasury). For indeed, there is vast room and latitude in (acting with) justice, and whoever finds justice too restrictive, oppression will be even more restrictive and unbearable for him.”

Sermon 14

Commentary

Condemning the people of Basrah You were the army of a woman and in the command of a quadruped. When it grumbled you responded, and when it was wounded (hamstrung) you fled away. Your character is low and your pledge is broken. Your faith is hypocrisy. Your water is brackish. He who stays with you is laden with sins and he who forsakes you secures Allah's mercy. As though I see your mosque promine...

Commentary

Sermon 12 Delivered on the afternoon of the Battle of Jamal

Commentry

Mountains may move from their position but you should not move from yours. Grit your teeth. Lend to Allah your head (in fighting for Allah, give yourself to Allah). Plant your feet firmly on the ground. Have your eye on the remotest foe and close your eyes (to their numerical majority). And keep sure that succour is but from Allah, the Glorified.

Sermon 10 - Commentary

“Beware! Satan has gathered his party and mustered his cavalry and infantry. Yet with me is my penetrating insight (firāsa). I have never deceived myself, nor have I ever been deceived. By Allah! I shall fill to the brim for them a cistern from which I alone will draw water. They will neither turn away from it, nor return to it.”

Commentary

“They thunder like clouds and flash like lightning, yet despite both these things they displayed cowardice. As for us, we do not thunder until we have pounced upon the enemy, nor do we let our words flow until we have truly rained (upon them).”

Regarding az-Zubayr's Allegiance "He asserts that he swore allegiance to me with his hand but did not swear with his heart. So he does admit allegiance. As regards his claiming it otherwise than with his heart, he should come forward with a clear argument for it. Otherwise, he should return to wherefrom he has gone out."

They (1) have made Satan the master of their affairs, and he has taken them as partners. He has laid eggs and hatched them in their bosoms. He creeps and crawls in their laps. He sees through their eyes, and speaks with their tongues. In this way he has led them to sinfulness and adorned for them foul things like the action of one whom Satan has made partner in his domain and speaks untruth throug...

Sermon 6 - Commentary

Sermon 6: On Pursuing Talhah and az-Zubayr "By Allah, I shall not be like the badger that feigns sleep amidst the ceaseless pelting of stones until the seeker finds it or the watcher overpowers it. Nay, I shall ever strike those who deviate from the truth with the aid of those who advance toward it, and the sinners and doubters with the support of those who heed and obey me, until my appointed day...

Sermon 5. - Commentary