Research into Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities in Nahj ul-Balagha

The unbridled growth of cities and burgeoning population during the recent centuries have led to accumulation of wealth and capital in urban space, so that enactment of urban rules and regulations and publicizing the citizenship rights and responsibilities for establishing social order and security in the cities have always been the major concerns of thinkers and city planners. The return to the teachings of Islam and the strategies and approaches remaining from the religious leaders such as Imam Ali (AS) offers solutions to many of these complicated problems. One of the major issues today, deals with the citizenship rights and responsibilities. One can assuredly claim that Imam Ali (AS) in his Nahj ul-Balagha has proposed the best approaches for handling citizenship rights and responsibilities. This is because Nahj ul-Balagha is known as the “brother of the Holy Quran” and Imam Ali (AS) is believed to be the second influential person in Islam after the Prophet (pbuh). In view of Imam Ali (AS), human beings are members of a unified Islamic umma with deep and friendly relations and mutual rights. This paper will proceed in two sections of descriptive study and strategic research. The research method is documentary and based on library and archive sources. The research hypothesis is this that Islam and those educated in the school of Islam, like Imam Ali (AS), have maintained a progressive approach toward citizenship and its rights and responsibilities.