A Historical Reflecting on letter 77 of Nahj al-Balaghah

One of the most cited and famous expressions of Nahj al-Balaghah is the phrase which is known as the seventy-seventh letter. According to historical reports, this text, which is addressed to Ibn Abbas, must be an oral advice given by Imam Ali (as) when he was sent to talk to the Kharijites. The two main recommendations in this text are not to cite the Qur'an and to use tradition. Attention to the appearances of the Qur'an and little attention to the hadiths were among the characteristics of the Kharijites who emerged from the readers of the Qur'an. The present study aims to validate this text by internal critique and comparison with historical data.  Numerous surviving accounts of the debates of the Amir al-Mu'minin and his companions with the Kharijites of Nahrawan challenge the accuracy of the narration mentioned in Nahj al-Balaghah. In addition to the doubts in the attribution and citation of this text, the results indicate that this historical evidences not only does not confirm the observance of the above recommendations by Imam Ali (as) and his companions but are an important examples of the Qur'anic debates in the early of Islam.