Reflecting on one of the Sermons in Nahj al-Balagha

Imam Ali’s beautiful, pleasant words include letters, instructions, sermons, parables, and advices formed through a variety of numerous events during his momentous lifetime; the volume of his words has been more extensive to be written down or remembered. Some of his words were not written down due to various reasons such as war or the absence of recording conditions, subsequently removed from the course of history. Nevertheless, all that is accessible today are valuable information that require examinations from different perspectives.

Review of Literature:

What is present in old references to Imam Ali is a selection of eloquence and rhetoric, the best of which were compiled into a book titled Nahj al-Balagha by Sayyed Razi (359-406 AH) and his younger brother Sayyed Mortaza (355-436 AH); though Sayyed Mortaza was inferior to his older brother in terms of scientific aspects, jurisprudence and other techniques, he occupied a special position in self-esteem, self-respect, religious valorization, poetry, and literature. During its multi-century background, this book has been examined both as a whole and in detail through a variety of perspectives.
The present study revolves around one of the sermons in the book titled “Iman”, which has a set of specific features. Certain aspects of this sermon including its use of brief terms, thought-provoking intentions, condensed contents, heavy concepts, indexed themes and formal separation of certain sentences from others pose a number of questions in the mind of the reader; these questions would, in turn, result in the reader to speculate whether these laden words that are presented in 10-line long sections might have been a part of a full sermon, since some commentaries on the sermon have used the expression, “Va min kalam laho Alayha al-Salam” (Mohammad Abdoh, 386/1).

This study was conducted on a Nahj al-Balagha sermon called “Iman”. It was attempted to search and examine a number of valid references with respect to this area; to this end, consecutive days and weeks were spent examining original Arabic commentaries. Finally, a set of specific commentaries and opinions were collected from examining and reflecting on the contents of the sermon.

There are seven themes in the examined short sermon, “Iman”:
Faith and its types.
Acquitting someone and leaving them.
Immigration and leaving the homeland.
Immigration conditions.
The poor and their types.
Proof and management.
Making use of opportunities.
The main question that was formulated involved why the form of sentences are not closely intertwined? Why are there heavy contents presented in an indexed form? Dealing with insights and evaluation of these concepts, two subjects were confronted; first, the addition of a new type to the conventional two types of faith in versions accessible to the public. Second, to provide answers to a question with respect to a number of expressions in the sermon which appeared to be devoid of any connections with each other.
Then, the original content was researched in Ibn Abi al-Hadid’s description and a fresh subject was identified: the categorization of faith (Iman) in three types based upon Nahj al-Balagha text:
A) Fa min al-iman ma yakoun thabitan mustaqaran fi al-qolub.
B) Va avaari fi al-qholoub.
C) Va avaari bayn al-qholoub va al-sodour.
These types are briefly explained in the following:
The first type refers to a real, sustainable faith that is fixed at heart and separate from arguments of certainty. The second type deals with an unsustainable fiduciary faith at heart, separate from unfounded quarrels devoid of certainty arguments. The third and final type refers to a fiduciary faith between the heart and the chest, unsustainable and fluctuating in nature, separate from imitation and trust towards others, and devoid of controversial reasoning and argumentations (Ibn Abi al-Hadid: Nahj al-Balagha Description, 2008, 102/13).

The “Iman” sermon is a ten-line long sermon with diverse, condensed, laden, brief, and thought-provoking contents that require interpretations of its somewhat unrelated expressions. These features provoke the readers’ thoughts and poses a set of questions in their mind. Given the reference to valid, primary Arabic descriptions published at a time close to the edition of Nahj al-Balagha as well as other references, two new phenomena were observed including: first, the addition of a new type of faith (Iman) to Nahj al-Balagha text by a prominent descriptor. The second was related to correlation between two sentences that appeared separate and contradictory. These two new phenomena are discussed and examined in detail in an atmosphere full of thoughts and reflections; strengths and weaknesses are manifested through a mirror reflecting purity, so that the author would not be considered as the sole agent behind such reflection.