The Characteristics of the True Shiites; Faith According to Imam Ali, the Commander of the Faithful

This paper is a commentary on the words of the Commander of the Faithful about the characteristics of the true Shiites. The Imam says: «والعدل منها علی اربع شعب: علی غائص الفهم وغور العلم وزهره الحکم ورساخه الحلم. فمن فهم علم غور العلم، ومن علم غور العلم صدر عن شرائع الحکم، ومن حلم لم یفرط فی امره وعاش فی الناس حمیدا» “And there are four kinds of justice among them: having accuracy in understanding, reaching the truth of knowledge, being good at judgment, and being resilient and patient; So whoever was careful and understood correctly received the truth of knowledge, whoever found the truth of knowledge was good at judgment according to the rules of religion, and whoever was patient did not fall short in performing his duties and was creditable among people.” Based on the words of the Commander of the Faithful, faith is supported and strengthened by four factors: patience, certainty, justice and jihad. The first two factors - patience and certainty – are manifested in mans’ individual behavior and the two factors of justice and jihad are manifested in his social behavior. Justice and jihad have been chosen because man is a social being and he must know how to live in society, what his duty is to others and what he should do.