Social Support from the Perspective of Nahj al-Balagha: A Qualitative Study

The mechanism of managing society is directly and indirectly influenced by the support of both formal and informal institutions. Since social support is directly related to value-based infrastructure, prevailing patterns based on materialistic philosophies cannot provide a clear explanation of this concept and its dimensions. This research, considering the lack of a model for social support based on religious values, explores the teachings of Nahj al-Balagha regarding social support using content analysis. According to the findings, social support is a concept with both positive and negative manifestations, characterized by its bidirectional nature and encompassing all segments of society. Its central and core category is the granting of public rights, providing services, and doing good for others. Social support consists of five components: emotional support, spiritual support, instrumental support, informational support, and network support. The reasons for its importance include: delaying death, increasing sustenance, and prolonging governance, as well as forgiveness of sins and protection from the fire of hell. In implementing social support, ethical methods such as justice and fairness, patience, sincerity, avoiding doubt, and acting with goodwill and without partisanship should be employed. Among the obstacles to its realization are malicious intent and betrayal of trust.