NAHJ-UL-BALĀGHAH

The compiler of this book
is Sayyid-e
Radhī, Abul-Hasan Muhammad son of
Husein Mūsawī (359-406 Hegira).This noble book contains premium sermons, letters, and aphorisms of
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (Master of the Faithful) & Amir-ul-Bayān (Proficient of
Rhetoric), i.e. Imām Alī son of Abī-Tālib (A.S.), which have been stated by His
Holiness on various occasions, or written to different people.

Authenticity and Value:

The Holy Prophet of Islam (S.A.) left behind himself two precious things
for humankind, the Holy Qur'ān and Itrat (Ahl-ul-Bayt, or infallible Household
of the Holy Prophet S.A). Among the Ahl-ul-Bayt, Amir-ul-Mu'menīn Alī (A.S.)
enjoys a specific position, since the Holy Qur'ān has introduced him as the very
soul (Nafs) of the Holy Prophet (S.A.); and his virtues and merits are
countless.

A distinguished feature of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.), which neither friends
nor foes can deny, is the significant eloquence, fluency and brilliant decorum
in his speech, and his prominent rhetorical capability.

Rhetoric of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) enjoys two characteristics:

First, its matchless rhetorical beauty, eloquence, and consistency, which
turns it into wonderful words that are called superior to the words of
human, and inferior to the words of Creator', and second is its wonderful
impression and influence which affects everyone even after passing fourteen
centuries.

In order to recognize the value of Nahj-ul-Balāghah it would be
sufficient to know that it is called Akh-ul-Qur'ān (the brother of Holy
Qur'ān): the Holy Qur'ān in several cases has challenged the opponents and
infidels to bring forward a single equivalent or parallel verse to that of
Qur'ān if they could! The same fact is applicable to Nahj-ul-Balāghah because
Nahj-ul-Balāghah also implicitly calls the rivals to present a comparable text
if they could.

Nahj-ul-Balāghah is such a noble book that the greatest eloquent
lecturers throughout the history have been proud of taking advantage of
it.

However, Nahj-ul-Balāghah is a book, which is not only placed at the peak
of eloquence, but also its contents and essence is second to the Holy
Qur'ān.

Sayings of the
Compiler:

In his introduction to Nahj-ul-Balāghah, Sayyid-e Radhī (may Allah bless
his soul) has stated: "Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) has uttered words and sermons
in very many subjects and branches. When someone studies the words of His
Holiness on a specific subject, he gets an impression that such comments belong
to a person who undoubtedly spent his entire life just in that particular field.
For example, when Imām Alī (A.S.) speaks of piety, it strikes the mind that he
has been a man who has spent his life in an isolated nook of a mountain, far
from people, and had nothing to do but prayer and worship. No one would believe
that these words are the words of the same person who conducted those braveries
in the holy wars, beheaded the tyrannical rebellions, and killed the heroes of
disbelievers; but at the same time he is the most pious and most upright man on
the earth. These are surprising features of an extraordinary man who has been
able to gather round all these incongruous characteristics in one single
being."

The First
compilers:

Due to the high dignity and nobility of Imām Alī (A.S.) and the
attractiveness of his words, since the 1st century Hegira his
disciples and companions tried to collect and keep the sermons of His Holiness,
and transfer them to the next generations. In the meantime, a group decided to
preserve such a precious treasure by writing them down, and therefore some
pamphlets and books were left for the generations to come. As a result, there
were approximately 120 different books before compilation of Nahj-ul-Balāghah,
all or parts of which had been allocated to the valuable words of Imām Alī
(A.S.). The first person who collected
the words of His Holiness in a volume was his disciple Zayd son of Wahab' (died
in 96 Hegira). This book was named as Khutab-e
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn A.S. (Sermons of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn).
After him, dignitaries such as Nasr son of Muzāhim (died in 202 Hegira), Ismā'īl
son of Mehrān (died in 200 Hegira), Wāqidī (died in 207 Hegira), and Mus'adah
son of Sadaqah are those who have presented some works in this
field.

Who is Sayyid-e
Radhī?

The most important and most well known available collection of words of
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) is Nahj-ul-Balāghah, which is compiled by Sayyid-e
Radhī. He was one of the greatest Islamic scholars of his age, and further he
was measured as an outstanding poet and a brilliant man of letters. He was born
in 359 Hegira in Baghdād, and died in 406 Hegira in the same city. His body was
buried in the vicinity of the holy shrine of Kāzimayn (Imām Kazim & Imam
Jawād A.S.) near Baghdād.

Backgrounds for
Compilation:

There are some basic incentives for compilation of Nahj-ul-Balāghah in
the 4th century Hegira. Thanks to the tendency and efforts of Shi'as
in recording and safeguarding the words of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.), the most
lasting piece of works in this regard was formed in the 4th century.
Hereunder are mentioned some factors and causes in this regard:

* Ghaybat-e Kubrā (major occultation of Imām-e Asr Mahdī, may Allāh
hasten his reappearance) started in the 4th century, and Shi'as who
were encountered with occultation of their Imām, decided to take actions for
preservation of precious treasure and glorious patrimony of their infallible
Imāms (A.S.) in order to restore and promulgate their school of thought and
withstand the storms of events.

The movement of Shi'as in that era was so significant that the
4th century Hegira is known as the century of compilation,
translation, and codification of Islamic books. In that era lots of Islamic
seminaries (Hawzah Ilmīyyah) were established in the Islamic countries and great
Ulamā (Islamic scholars) made their utmost efforts to train competent scholars
and promulgate the knowledge of Ahl-ul-Bayt (A.S.).

* The 4th century was the time of formation of the first Shi'a
government in the world of Islam. Āl-e Būyeh, a Shi'a dynasty, conquered Baghdād
in 334 Hegira, and the Shi'a scholars with their utmost effort got the
opportunity to publicize the Shi'a thought. Under the patronage of these
governments Shi'a Muslims could abandon their isolation and freely declare their
ideas and religious prescripts.

* The 4th century was the age of literary and poetical
prosperity, and Sayyid-e Radhī was among the renowned and outstanding figures of
the same period. During the 4th century, the number of libraries grew
and flourished. The library of Sayyid-e Murtadhā in Baghdād by itself contained
80,000 books. Dār-ul-Hikmah library in Baghdād was complete with 10,000
exquisite manuscripts and thousands of various books. The emancipation of Shi'a
was to the extent that about 80,000 people took part in the funeral ceremony of
Sheikh-e Mufīd (the mentor and distinguished teacher of Sayyid-e Radhī), a
number that had no precedence up to that time.

The abovementioned conditions discloses the very favorable situation for
Sayyid-e Radhī to offer the most important and lasting book of Shi'a - after the
Holy Qur'ān. Sayyid-e Radhī with an extreme care and tolerance compiled
Nahj-ul-Balāghah by using the valuable resources on hand.

Motive of
compilation:

Sayyid-e Radhī in the
preface of Nahj-ul-Balāghah declares his incentive as follows:

" When I was young, I
began to compile a book about characteristics of the infallible Imams (A.S.) to
prepare an anthology of selected stories and sayings of those great luminaries.
When I finished collection of characteristics of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.), some
difficulties prevented me to complete the work. At the very last chapter of that
book I had mentioned aphorisms of Imām Alī (A.S.) but no sermons or long letters
of His Holiness were mentioned therein.

When some of my friends
saw this very chapter of my book, they found it very interesting and asked me to
compile another book particularly on precious words and sayings of
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn(A.S.) in different subjects.

Lack of such a collection
made me to start the compilation of this great book and named it
Nahj-ul-Balāghah."

Why
Nahj-ul-Balāghah??

The reason why Sayyid Rdhī
named his book Nahj-ul-Balāghah is indicated in the preface of the book.
Sayyid-e Radhī, as a competent poet and literary man, recognized the miraculous
eloquence, fluency and decorum in Amir-ul-Mu'menīn's words, and decided to prove
the glory of His Holiness in this aspect along with all his other virtues. By
compilation of this book, Sayyid-e Radhī provided evidence that Imām Ali (A.S.)
is the sole contender and torchbearer of battlefields, pioneer in politics,
master of piety and worship, and the very first and most exalted Muslim, who
reached the apogee of eloquence and literature, and was in such a position that
no other human being had been able to achieve that miraculous position (of
course, the Holy Prophet of Islam S.A. whom Imām Ali A.S. is his soul is an
exception in this regard).

Since the purpose of Sayyid-e Radhī was to prove the
literary sublimity of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.), hence he chose the name of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah, which means
the bright way of eloquence'.
That's why Sayyid-e Radhī has disregarded any thematic order in this book, and
in many cases has just extracted some parts of sermons and letters which
attracted his utmost attention, and avoided quoting the whole texts.

Sayyid-e Radhī's
Method:

In collecting Imām Alī's (A.S.) words, Sayyid-e Radhī employed his
special method: since he did not intend to collect or quote the whole sayings
and words of Imām Alī (A.S.), so he has just made a selection out of the
abundant sources in hand. In the preface of book, he has referred to this point
that what he has quoted from Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) are actually a selection'
from the words and letters of His Holiness.

Words of Amir-ul-Mu'menīn
(A.S.):

Some people think that words of
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) are limited to
what has been cited in Nahj-ul-Balāghah, or that Nahj-ul-Balāghah reflects the
whole number of sermons and letters of His Holiness, while it is not so. Mas'ūdī
who lived a hundred years before Sayyid-e Radhī, in his Murūj-uz-Zahab quotes:
"At the present time more than 480 sermons (Khutbah) of Imām Alī (A.S.) are
available." Āmadī in his Ghurar-ul-Hikam' has quoted 15,000 aphorisms from
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.); while there are only 480 aphorisms in Nahj-ul-Balāghah.
There are also lots of other books containing words of Amir-ul-Mu'menin (A.S.)
such as Tuhaf-ul-Uqūl, Rawdhat-ul-Wā'ezīn, etc.; and it is noteworthy that
sermons of Amir-ul-Mu'menin (A.S.) had already been collected under more than a
hundred titles of books before compilation of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah.

Categorization of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah:

Nahj-ul-Balaghah consists of three main chapters:

1-Sermons
(Khutbah):

Consisting of 239 Khutbah.

2-Letters:

Including 79 letters; almost
all of them have been written at the time of Imām Alī's
caliphate.

3-Aphorisms or
Qisār-ul-Hikam:

Containing 480 maxims on
various subjects.

Subjects of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah:

Variety of subjects in Nahj-ul-Balāghah is much significant, and there
are several books written on this matter. A number of topics are mentioned
below:

1-Sermons; reflect a series of subjects such
as:

Ethical sermons (Khutbah No.8,
10,20,21,24,63)

Political issues (Khutbah No.32, 37,41,50)

Disclosures/Revelations (of events) and parties
(No.19, 30,105)

Sociology (No.1, 32)

Foresight and anticipation of future events (No.13, 47,98, 101,
108)

And many other
subjects...

2-Letters; generally they may be classified as
follows:

Moral advices (No. 3, 22, 47)

Letters to enemies (No.6, 7, 10, 17)

Letters to governor-generals & provincial governors (No.5,
8,19,20,56)

Letters to military commanders and administrators of public treasury
(No.4, 13, 25, 26)

Letters to the public (No. 2, 29, 38)

Imām Alī's will (directions) (No.23, 24,
51)

3-Aphorisms; this chapter also covers almost all
essential issues of the society.

Resources of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah:
Sayyid-e Radhī has
utilized his personal library as well as other available libraries such as the
grand library of his brother Sayyid-e Murtadhā and Bayt-ul-Hikmah' library in
Baghdād. Although Sayyid-e Radhī has not
mentioned the names of reference books in Nahj-ul-Balāghah, other scholars who
have written explanatory' (Sharh) books on Nahj-ul-Balāghah exposed whatsoever reference books which have
been utilized by him. Some of these resources are listed below:

- Al-Bayān Wa
At-Tabyeen by Jāhiż

- Al-Muqtadhab by
Mujarrad

- Maghāzī by Sa'īd,
son of Yahyā Umawī

- Al-Jumal by
Wāqidī

- Al-Maqāmāt Fī Manāqib-e
Amir-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) by
Abū Ja'far
Iskāfī

- Tabari's History

Documentations of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah:

Since early days, many scholars criticized Nahj-ul-Balāghah as
Sayyid-e Radhī had omitted the chain of documentations of the narrations.
Therefore, the critics claimed that Nahj-ul-Balāghah was not academically
authentic and could only be considered as a literary book.

For the same reason, throughout centuries great Ulamā planned to seek and
collect all original resources and documentations of sermons, letters and
aphorisms of Nahj-ul-Balāghah out of the authentic reference books compiled
prior to the era of Sayyid-e Radhī.

At the present time several books are available, which provide various
documentary evidence for the whole narrations of Sayyid-e Radhī. In some cases,
there are tens of resources or documentations for a particular
sermon.

Among the resources of Nahj-ul-Balāghah, some titles are as
follows:

1-Masāder-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah Wa Asānideh (Resources and Documentaries
of Nahj-ul-Balāghah) by Sayyid Abd-uz-Zahrā Huseinī

2-Madārek-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah (Documentaries of Nahj-ul-Balāghah)
by Hādī Kāshif-ul-Ghitā'

3-Masāder-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah (Resources of Nahj-ul-Balāghah) by
Sayyid Hebatuddīn Shahrestānī
4-Asnād Wa
Madārek-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah
(Documentaries of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah) in Persian, by Muhammad Dashtī
and lots of
other titles in this regard.

Explanatory Books
(SHARH):
There are abundant
explanatory books written about Nahj-ul-Balāghah. The number of these books is
so many that some scholars have written Index' books on their titles.
Sheikh Husein Jum'ah, for example, in his Shorūhe Nahj-ul-Balāghah' has listed
210 explanatory books. Mr. Reza Ostādī, as another example, has mentioned 370
explanatory- books in his Ketābnāmeye Nahj-ul-Balāghah' (Biblio-graphy of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah).
Further to
importance and authenticity of Nahj-ul-Balāghah, its impenetrability and
complexity intensifies the necessity of explanatory books.
The most famous
explanatory books (SHARH) of Nahj-ul-Balāghah are listed
below:

1) Sharhe Ibn-e
Maytham Bahrānī (died in 679 H.)

2) Sharhe Ibn-e
Abil-Hadīd Mu'tazilī (died in 655 H.)

3) Sharhe Sheikh
Muhammad Abduh (the incumbent MUFTI, or Chief Jurisconsult of Egypt, died in
1323 H.)

4) Sharhe Allāmah
Muhammad Taqī Ja'farī (a contemporary scholar)

5) Minhaj-ul-Barā'ah,
by Qutbuddīn Rāwandī (died in 573 H.)

6) Sharhe Fakhre Rāzī
(great Sunnī exegete, died in 606 H.)

Supplementary Books
(Mustadrakāt):

Due to the significance of Nahj-ul-Balāghah from scholars' point of view,
several supplementary books (Mustadrakāt) have been written.
The objective for
writing a supplement for a specific book is to preserve its order and volume
from any alteration as well as avoiding any deterioration in its authenticity
and reputation; and at the same time, to collect and present every missing
relevant subject and text - in a separate book. Some of the supplementary
books (Mustadrakāt) of Nahj-ul-Balāghah are as follows:

1) Mustadrak-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah, by Hādī
Kāshif-ul-Ghitā'

2) Nahj-us-Sa'ādah (in 8 volumes), by Muhammad Bāqir
Mahmūdī

3) Ghurar-ul-Hikam Wa Durar-ul-Kalim, by
Āmadī

4) At-tadhyeel, by Ismā'īl Halabī

5) Mulhaq-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah, by Ahmad son of
Yahyā

Translations:
Nahj-ul-Balāghah
is a book, which even many native speakers of Arabic language are not capable of
perceiving its concepts, let alone non-Arab people; hence Nahj-ul-Balāghah has
frequently been translated into various languages. Translations of
Nahj-ul-Balāghah into Persian can be listed under about 30 titles, which have
gradually been published throughout centuries.
The most
distinguished Persian translations of Nahj-ul-Balāghah may be stated as
follows:

1) Translation by
Feidh-ul-Islām

2) Translation by Mr.
Mubashsherī

3) Translation by
Ayatullāh Makārim Shīrāzī

4) Translation by
Allāmah Muhammad Taqī Ja'farī

5) Translation by Dr.
Shahīdī (the most recent translation)

6) Translation by Mr.
Mustafā Zamānī

Thematic'
Books:
One of the
most splendid works, which is carried out on Nahj-ul-Balāghah is thematic
extraction of texts. Some Shi'a or non-Shi'a scholars have provided thematic
indexes of Nahj-ul-Balāghah and some others have selected some of its general
themes, classified them, and added annotations.
Some of thematic
books on Nahj-ul-Balāghah are listed below:

1) Nahj-us-Sabāghah, by Allāmah Tastarī. This book contains 67 general
themes along with some explanatory notes and interpretations on each
theme.

2) Ad-Dalīl, by Alī Ansāriān (including 100
themes)

3) Al-Hādī, by Ayatullāh Meshkīnī (including 625
themes)

4) Tasnīf-e Nahj-ul-Balāghah, by Labīb Baydhūn (including 425 themes)

5) Al-Kāshif, by Dr. Mustafawī

6) Al-Mu'jam-ul-Mufahras, by Muhammad Dashtī. Mr. Dashtī has assigned 45600
titles for different themes of the expressions of Amīr-ul-Mu'menīn (A.S.) in
Nahj-ul-Balāghah.

Manuscripts:

As far as availability of manuscripts is concerned, the noble book of
Nahj-ul-Bālaghah is ranged among the richest Islamic resources in this regard.

All of the manuscripts of Nahj-ul-Balāghah from 5th century
(Hegira) up to now are chainlike available. More than 130 authentic manuscripts
of Nahj-ul-Balāghah have been found in different libraries such
as:

1) Manuscript dated 421 Hegira, available at Ayatullāh Hasanzādeh Āmolī's
library

2) Manuscript dated 485 Hegira, belonging to Allāmah Sayyid Muhammad-Alī
Rawdhātī

3) Manuscript dated 483 Hegira, which is matched up to the manuscript of
Hasan son of Ya'qūb Neishābūrī.

And many other manuscripts which are available in the library of Imām
Ridhā's Holy Shrine in Mashhad, Ayatullāh Mar'ashī Najafī's library in Qum,
etc.