The use of Inter-textuality to understanding Nahj al-Balaghah proverbs

Inter-textuality is a method to understanding more accurately the texts to survey the relation between them. It states every text or speaker is affected by other texts or speakers in past or synchronic and has been benefited from their words or thoughts consciously or unconsciously. Imam Ali (AS) sometimes used in Nahj al-Balaghah some words or expressions from past texts (including Quran, prophetic traditions, Arabic poems and proverbs) in his sermons, letters and short sentences. And sometimes he used their concepts and instructions in his speech to state contents in his words. By using the above method and to understanding more accurately the speech of Imam Ali (AS), we should determine the relation between these texts and the speech of Imam Ali (AS). There are 220 proverbs in Nahj al-Balaghah that Imam has narrated some of them from others. In this article we try to survey some of these proverbs in aspect of inter-textuality relations to answer these questions: At first which kind of the inter-textuality of Arabic proverbs in Nahj al-Balaghah is? And second what is the effect of using this method to understanding Imam Ali (AS) traditions? According to this, firstly by using descriptive and inferential methods we find whole the proverbs that Imam Ali (AS) wasn’t the first speaker of them. Then by surveying the history and the meaning of the proverb, we determine its relation with the speech of Imam Ali (AS). Inter-textuality relationships can be separated into three types: obligatory, optional and accidental. The results of using inter-textuality are determining the kind of relation between the speech of Imam and the famous Arabic proverb. Using the inter-textuality in this article shows that the most kind of proverbs inter-textuality in Nahj al-Balaghah is verbal inter-textuality from optional type. Imam Ali (AS) has said the main content of proverb in his speech, but he has moderated the main intention of first speaker with his speech.