Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Selection from Glimpses of the Nahj al-Balaghah

Authors(s): Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari

Translator(s): Ali Quli Qara'i

Publisher(s): al-Tawhid Islamic Journal

Table of Contents

Preface 5

Introduction 6

Nahj al-balaghah and the Present-Day Islamic Society 9

A Literary Marvel 10

Al-Sayyid al-Radi and the Nahj al-balaghah 11

Two Distinctive Characteristics 12

Literary Beauty and Elegance 12

Influence of 'Ali's Oratory 13

The Opinions of Ancient and Modern Scholars 14

Modern Perspectives 15

The Nahj al-balaghah Among Literary Classics 17

Imam 'Ali's Versatility 19

The themes of the Nahj al-balaghah 21

A Glance at the Varied Problems Covered by the Nahj al-balaghah 21

Notes 22

Theology and Metaphysics 24

A Bitter Fact 25

Shi'i Rationalism 26

Philosophical Notions Concerning Metaphysics 28

The Value of Study of the Natural Phenomena 32

Purely Rationalistic Problems 32

The Divine Essence and Attributes 34

The Divine Essence 35

Divine Unity an Ontological, not a Numerical Concept 36

God, The First and the Last; the Manifest and the Hidden 37

An Appraisal 38

The Nahj al-balaghah and the Notions of Kalam 39

The Nahj al-balaghah and Philosophical Concepts 40

The Nahj al-balaghah and Western Philosophic Thought 42

Notes 43

Suluk and 'Ibadah 44

Levels of Worship 44

The Approach of the Nahj al-balaghah 45

The Worship of Freemen 46

God's Remembrance 46

Levels of Devotion 46

Nights of the Devout 47

The Profile of the Pious 47

Night Vigils 48

The Spiritual Experience 48

Purging of Sins 49

Moral Remedy 49

Intimacy and Ecstasy 49

Notes 50

Government and Justice 51

The Nahj al-balaghah on State 51

The Importance of Politics 51

Justice, a Supreme Value 53

Indifference to Injustice 56

Justice Should not be Compromised 57

The Rights of the People 58

The Church and the Right of Sovereignty 58

The approach of the Nahj al-balaghah 60

The Rulers are the People's Trustees Not Their Lords 61

Notes 64

Moral Lectures and Aphorisms 65

Inimitable Moral Teaching 65

A Comparison 65

Spiritual Counsel and Wisdom 66

Maw'izah and Khitabah (Exhortation and Oratory) 67

The Nahj al-balaghah's Recurring Themes 68

The Themes in Spiritual Advices 69

Imam Ali's Logic 69

Taqwa 69

Taqwa is Immunity not Restraint 72

Taqwa as Immunity 72

A Reciprocal Commitment 73

Zuhd and Piety 73

Islamic Zuhd and Christian Asceticism 75

Two Questions 75

The Three Essential Principles 77

The Zahid and the Monk 78

Zuhd and Altruism 79

Sympathy and Kindness 80

Zuhd and Freedom 81

Zuhd And Spirituality 85

Zuhd, Love, and Worship 85

Zuhd: Minimum of Intake for Maximum Output 88

Notes 91

The World and Worldliness 92

Renunciation in the Nahj al-balaghah 92

The Danger Created by War Booty 92

The Intoxication of Affluence 93

The General Aspect of 'Ali's Warnings 94

The Terminology of Every School 94

The 'World ' that is Condemned 95

The Relation Between Man and the World 95

The Logic of Islam 96

'The World' in the Qur’an and the Nahj al-balaghah 99

Freedom and Bondage 103

The Existentialist Viewpoint 106

Does Evolution Involve Self-Alienation? 106

Forgetting and Losing the Self 107

The Discovery of the Self and of God 109

Worship and the Rediscovery of the Self 111

Some Relevant Issues 112

The World Versus the Hereafter 112

The Primary and the Secondary 113

A Tradition 114

Concluded; wal-hamdu lilla-h 116

Notes 116

Preface

This is the translation of sections from Martyr Mutahhari's book Sayri dar Nahj al-balaghah. This book consists of seven sections. In the first section the author discusses the two main characteristics of the Nahj al-balaghah; its literary excellence and its multidimensionality, quoted various opinions expressed about Imam Ali's eloquence in general and about the Nahj al-balaghah in particular.

In the second section, the author discusses the theological and metaphysical ideas propounded in the Nahj al-balaghah and compared them with the parallel notions familiar to the Muslim mutakallimun and philosophers.

The third section deals with ibadah (worship) and its various levels. The fourth section deals with Islamic Government and Social Justice. The fifth, dealing with the controversial issue of caliphate (khilafah) and the superior status of the Ahl al-Bayt (A), has been deleted in this translation.

The sixth and the seventh sections discuss the Nahj al-balaghah's ethical teachings, in particular the Islamic Concept of zuhd (abstinence); the meaning of the world (dunya), so often condemned in the Nahj al-balaghah; and the meaning of the contradiction between the world and the hereafter, which is also recurring theme.