Sham, Close-up view - Imam Ali A.S.'s Sahabi, Hijr Inb Oday who was martyred along with his son & many others by Mawiya (lanaat), for refusing to break alligence of Imam Ali.
1. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Whoever adopts greed as a habit devalues himself; whoever discloses his hardship agrees to be humiliated, and whoever allows his tongue to overpower his soul debases the soul.
2. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Miserliness is a shame; cowardice is a defect; poverty disables an intelligent man from arguing his case, and a destitute person is a stranger in his own home town.
3. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Incapability is a catastrophe; endurance is bravery; abstinence is a wealth; self-restraint is a shield (against sinning), and the best company is submission (to Allah’s will).
4. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Knowledge is a venerable estate; good manners are new outfits, and thinking is a clear mirror.
5. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The bosom of the wise is the safe of his secrets; cheerfulness is the bond of friendship; effective forbearance is the grave of shortcomings.
It is narrated that Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said the following in order to explain this meaning: Mutual reconciliation is the covering for shortcomings, and whoever admires himself attracts many opponents against him.
6. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Charity is an effective cure, and the actions of people in their present life will be before their eyes in the next.
7. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: How wonderful is man: He speaks with fat, talks with a piece of flesh, hears with a bone and breathes through a hole!
9. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: When this world advances towards anyone (with its riches), it attributes to him the good of others, and when it turns away from him, it deprives him of his own good.
8. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Deal with people in such a manner that if you die, they should weep for you, and if you live they should long for you.
9. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: When you gain power over your adversary, pardon him as your way of expressing thanks [to Allah] for being able to overpower him.
10. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The most helpless of all men is whoever cannot find a few brothers during his life, but still more helpless is whoever finds such a brother but loses him.
11. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: When you get (only) small favors, do not push them away by being ungrateful.
12. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Whoever is abandoned by near ones is dear to remote ones.
13. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Every mischief monger cannot even be reproved.
14. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: All matters are subject to destiny, so much so that sometimes death results from effort.
15. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him was asked to explain the saying of the Messenger of Allah that: “Banish your old age (by hair-dye) and do not acquire resemblance to the Jews.” Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) replied: The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said this at a time when the religion was confined to a few, but now that its expanse has widened and it is firmly settled, everyone is free in his action.
16. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following about those who avoided fighting on his side: They abandoned righteousness but did not support wrong.
17. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Whoever gallops with a loose rein collides with death.
18. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Forgive the shortcomings of considerate people because when they fall into error, Allah raises them up.
19. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The consequence of fear is disappointment and of bashfulness is frustration. Opportunity passes away like the cloud. Therefore, make use of good opportunities.
20. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: We have a right. If it is granted to us, that is good; otherwise, we will ride on the hind of the camel even though the night journey may be long.
Sayyid ar-Razi says the following: “This is a very fine and eloquent expression. It means that if we are not allowed to enjoy our right, we will be regarded as humble. This sense comes out from this expression because on the rear part of the camel only slaves, prisoners or other people of this type used to ride.”
21. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: If the deeds of someone accord (him) a back status, he cannot be given a front status simply on account of his lineage.
22. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: To render relief to the grief-stricken and to provide comfort in hardship means the atonement of great sins.
23. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: O son of Adam! When you see that your Lord, the Glorified One, bestows His favors on you while you are disobeying Him, you should fear Him.
24. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Whenever a person conceals a thing in his heart, it manifests itself through unintentional words from his tongue and (in) the expressions of his face.
25. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Keep walking in your sickness as long as you can.
26. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The best part of moderation is to conceal it.
27. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: When you are running away from the world and death is approaching, there is no question of delay in the encounter.
28. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Fear! Fear! By Allah, He has hidden your sins, so much so that it is as though He has forgiven them!
Faith, Unbelief, Doubt and Their Pillars
29. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him, was asked once about faith. He said the following: “Faith stands on four pillars: endurance, conviction, justice and jihad.
Endurance, again, has four aspects: eagerness, fear, abstention (from the allurements of the world) and anticipation (of death). So, whoever is eager for Paradise will ignore his passions; whoever fears the Fire (of Hell) will refrain from committing prohibited deeds; whoever abstains from the world takes hardships lightly, and whoever anticipates death will hasten towards good deeds.
Conviction, also, has four aspects: prudent perception, intelligence and understanding, drawing lessons from instructive things and following the precedents of past people. So, whoever perceives with prudence, wise knowledge will be manifest to him, and to whomsoever wise knowledge becomes manifest he appreciates instructive objectives, and whoever appreciates instructive objectives is just like past people.
Justice also has four aspects: keen understanding, deep knowledge, a good power of decision and firm forbearance. Therefore, whoever understands comes to acquire the depth of knowledge; whoever acquires the depth of knowledge drinks from the spring of Judgment, and whoever exercises forbearance never commits evil actions in his affairs and leads a praiseworthy life among the people.
Jihad, also, has four aspects: enjoining others to do good, keeping away others from doing evil, fighting (in the way of Allah) sincerely and firmly on all occasions and detesting anyone who is vicious.
So, whoever asks others to do good provides strength to the believers; whoever dissuades others from committing evil humiliates the unbelievers; whoever fights sincerely on all occasions carries out all his obligations, and whoever detests the vicious and becomes angry for the sake of Allah, then Allah will be angry in favor of him and will keep him pleased on the Day of Judgment.
Unbelief stands on four pillars: hankering after whims, quarreling with others, deviating from the truth and dissenting. So, whoever hankers after whims does not incline towards right; whoever quarrels much on account of ignorance remains permanently blinded from what is right; whoever deviates from the truth, for him good becomes evil and evil becomes good and he remains intoxicated with misguidance, and whoever makes a breach (with Allah and His Messenger), his path becomes difficult, his affairs become complicated and his way of escape becomes narrow.
Doubt has also four aspects: irrationality, fear, wavering and undue submission to everything. So, whoever adopts irrationality as his way of life, for him there is no dawn after the night; whoever is afraid of what befalls him has to run on his heels; whoever wavers in doubt, the satans trample upon him with their feet, and whoever submits to the destruction of this and the next world succumbs to it.
Sayyid ar-Razi says the following: “We have left out the remaining portion of this saying for fear of length and for being outside the purpose of this chapter.”
30. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The doer of good is better than the good itself, and the doer of evil is worse than the evil itself.
31. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Be generous but not extravagant; be thrifty but not stingy.
32. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The best of riches is the abandonment of desires.
33. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: If someone is quick in saying about people what they dislike, they will speak about him that with which they have no knowledge.
34. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Whoever prolongs his desire ruins his actions.
35. Once Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him was proceeding towards Syria when the countrymen of al-Anbar met him. Seeing him, they began to walk on foot then ran in front of him. He inquired why they were doing so. They replied that this was the way they respected their chiefs. Then he said the following: “By Allah, this does not benefit your chiefs. You are belaboring yourself in this world and earning misery for the next by it. How harmful is the labor in whose wake there is punishment, and how profitable is the case with which there is deliverance from the Fire (of Hell)!
The Imam Admonishing His Son:
36. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following to his son al-Hassan (p.b.u.h.): O son! Learn four things and (a further) four things from me:
Nothing will harm you if you practice them. The richest of all riches is intelligence; the biggest destitution is foolishness; the most wild of the wild is vanity, and the best achievement is goodness of the moral character.
O my son! You should avoid making friends with a fool because if he intends to benefit you, he will harm you. You should avoid making friends with a miser because he will run away from you when you need him the most. You should avoid making friends with a sinful person because he will sell you for nought. And you should avoid making friends with a liar because he is like a mirage, making you see far things as near and near things as far.
37. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Supererogatory worship cannot bring about nearness to Allah if it hampers what is obligatory.
38. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The tongue of the wise man is behind his heart, while the heart of the fool is behind his tongue.
39. This very notion has been related from Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him in a different version thus: The heart of a fool is in his mouth, while the tongue of the wise man is in his heart.
The meaning of both the saying (40 and 41) is the same.
40. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following to one of his companions during the latter’s sickness: May Allah make your illness a means for wiping out your sins because there is no reward for sickness but that it erases sins and makes them fall like (dried) leaves. Reward lies in saying by the tongue and doing something with the limbs. Certainly, Allah, the Glorified One, admits into Paradise by virtue of truthfulness of intention and chastity of heart whomsoever He wishes from among His servants.
Sayyid ar-Razi says the following: “Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) is right in saying that there is no reward for sickness as such because compensation is admissible with regard to how Allah, the Sublime One, deals with His creatures such as causing them grief, illness and the like. However, reward and recompense become admissible with regard to the actions of the creature. This is the difference between the two. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) has clarified it through his lustrous knowledge and sound view.
41. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following about Khabbab ibn al-Aratt:
May Allah have mercy on Khabbab ibn al-Aratt since he accepted Islam willingly, immigrated (from Mecca) obediently, remained content with what sufficed him, was pleased with Allah and lived the life of a mujahid.
42. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Blessed is the person who kept in mind the next life, acted so as to be able to render his account, remained content with what sufficed him and remained pleased with Allah.
43. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Even if I strike thenose of a believer with this, my sword, so he may hate me, he will not hate me, and even if I pile all the wealth of the world before a hypocrite (Muslim) so he may love me, he will not love me. This is so because it is a verdict pronounced by the tongue of the revered Prophet (p.b.u.h.) who said the following: “O Ali! A believer will never hate you and a hypocrite (Muslim) will never love you.”
44. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The sin that displeases you is better in the view of Allah than the virtue that makes you proud.
45. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The worth of a man is according to his courage, his truthfulness is according to his balance of temper, his valor is according to his self-respect and his chastity is according to his sense of shame.
46. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Victory is (won) with determination; determination is pondering over thoughts and thoughts are formed by guarding secrets.
47. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: Fear the might of a noble person when he is hungry and that of an ignoble person when he is satisfied.
48. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: The hearts of the people are like wild beasts. If someone tries to tame them, they will pounce back upon him.
49. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following: So long as your status is good, your defects will remain covered.
50. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The most capable of pardoning is whoever is the most powerful to punish.
51. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Generosity is that which is by one’s own initiative because giving on being asked is either out of selfrespect or to avoid rebuke.
52. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: There is no wealth like wisdom, no destitution like ignorance, no inheritance like refinement and no support like consultation.
53. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Patience is of two kinds: patience over what pains you, and patience regarding what you covet.
54. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: With wealth, a strange land is a homeland, while with destitution, even a homeland is a strange land.
55. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Contentment is wealth that does not diminish.
Sayyid ar-Razi says: “This saying has also been related from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.).”
56. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Wealth is the fountainhead of passions.
57. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: One who warns you is like one who gives you good tidings.
58. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The tongue is a beast; when it is let loose, it devours.
59. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Woman is a scorpion whose touch is sweet.
60. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: If you are met with a greeting, give better greetings in return. If a hand of help is extended to you, do a better favor in return, although the credit will remain with the one who was the first.
61. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: One who intercedes is the wing of one who seeks.
62. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The people of the world are like travelers who are being carried while they are asleep.
63. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: A lack of friends means strangeness.
64. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: To miss what one needs is easier than to beg from an inappropriate person.
65. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Do not feel ashamed for giving little because refusal is smaller than that.
66. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Charity is the adornment of destitution, while gratefulness (to Allah) is the adornment of riches.
67. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: If what you aim at does not come about, then do not worry as to what you were.
68. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: You will not find an ignorant person but at one extreme or another (i.e. a person who neglects or a person who exaggerates).
69. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: As intelligence increases, speech decreases.
70. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Time wears out bodies, renews desires, brings death nearer and takes away aspirations. Whoever is successful with it encounters grief, and whoever misses its favors also undergoes hardships.
71. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever places himself as a leader of the people should commence with educating his own self before educating others, and his teaching should be by his own conduct before teaching by the tongue. The person who teaches and instructs his own self is more entitled to esteem than whoever teaches and instructs others.
72. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Each breath taken by a man is a step towards his death.
73. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Every countable thing is to pass way and every expected thing must come about.
74. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: If matters get mixed up, then the last ones should be appreciated compared to the previous one.
75. It is related that when Dirar ibn Hamzah (the correct: Damrah) ad-Dibabi (or as-Suda’i) went to Mu`awiyah and Mu`awiyah inquired from him about Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him, he said the following: “I testify that I have seen him on several occasions when night had spread and he was standing in the niche (of the mosque) holding his beard, groaning like a man bitten by a snake and weeping as a grieved man, saying: O world, O world! Get away from me! Why do you present yourself tome?! Or are you eager for me?! You may not get that opportunity to impress me. Deceive some other person. I have no concern with you. I have divorced you thrice after which there is no restitution. Your life is short, your importance is little and your liking is humble. Alas! The provision is little, the way is long, the journey is far and the goal is hard to reach.”
On the Subject of Predestination
76. A man inquired from Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him saying, “Was our going to fight the Syrians destined by Allah?” Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) detailed his reply, a selection from which is here:
Woe unto you! You take it as a final and unavoidable destiny (according to which we are bound to act). If it were so, there would have been no question of reward or chastisement and there would have been no sense in Allah’s promises or warnings. (On the other hand) Allah, the Glorified One, has ordered His servants to act according to their free will and has cautioned them and protected them (from evil). He has placed easy obligations on them and has not put heavy obligations. He gives them much (reward) in return for little action. He is disobeyed, not because He is overpowered. He is obeyed but not by force. He did not send prophets just for fun. He did not send down the Book for the people without a purpose. He did not create the skies, the earth and all that is in between them in vain. That is the imagination of those who disbelieve: “...then woe unto those who disbelieve because of the fire” (Holy Qur’an, 38: 27).
77. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Take wise points from wherever they may be because if a wise saying is in the bosom of a hypocrite, it flutters in his bosom till it comes out and settles with others of its own category: in the bosom of the believer.
78. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: A wise saying is a lost article of the believer. Therefore, get wise sayings even though from people of hypocrisy.
79. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The worth of every man is in his attainments.
Sayyid ar-Razi says that this is the statement whose value cannot be assessed, with which no wise saying can be weighed and with which no other sentence can be matched.
80. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: I impart to you five things which, if you ride your camels fast in search of them, you will find them worth the effort:
None of you should repose hope save in his Lord (Allah); none of you should fear anything save his sin; none should feel ashamed of saying, “I do not know” when he is asked about a matter which he does not know; none should feel ashamed of learning a thing that he does not know and you should practice endurance because endurance is for belief what the head is for the body: Just as there is no good in a body without the head, there is no good in belief without endurance.
81. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said the following about a man who praised him much, although he did not admire him: I am below what you express and above what you feel in your heart.
82. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The survivors of the sword are large in number and have many offspring.
83. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever abandons saying, “I do not know” meets his destruction.
84. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: I love the opinion of an old man more than the determination of a young man: (or according to another version: more than the martyrdom of a young man.)
85. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: I wonder about the man who loses hope despite the possibility of seeking forgiveness.
86. (Imam) Aba Ja`far Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir, peace be upon him, has related from Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) that the Imam had said: There were two sources of deliverance from the punishment of Allah: one of them has been raised up, while the other is before you. You should, therefore, adhere to it. The source of deliverance, which has been raised up is the Messenger of Allah Muhammad (p.b.u.h.), while the source of deliverance that remains is the seeking of forgiveness. Allah, the Glorified One, has said the following: “And Allah is not to chastise them while you are among them, nor is Allah to chastise them while yet they seek [His] forgiveness’ (Holy Qur’an, 8: 33).
Sayyid ar-Razi says that this is one of the most beautiful ways of deriving the meaning and a most delicate manner of an interpretation.
87. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: If a man behaves properly in matters between himself and Allah, then Allah will keep proper the matters between him and other people. And if a man keeps proper the affairs of his next life, then Allah keeps proper for him the affairs of this world. Whoever is a preacher for himself is protected by Allah.
88. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The perfect jurist of Islam is whoever does not let people lose hope from the mercy of Allah, does not make him despondent of Allah’s kindness and does not make him feel safe from Allah’s punishment.
89. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The hearts get disgusted as bodies get disgusted; so look for beautiful wise sayings for them.
90. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The most humble knowledge is that which remains on the tongue and the most honorable one is that which manifests itself through (the action of) the limbs and the organs of the body.
91. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: None of you should say, “O Allah! I seek Your protection from affliction” because there is none who is not afflicted. But whoever seeks Allah’s protection should seek it from misguiding troubles because Allah, the Glorified One, says the following: “And be admonished that your wealth and your children are a trial” (Holy Qur’an, 8: 28). It means that He tries people with wealth and progeny in order to distinguish one who is displeased with his livelihood from one who is happy with what he has been given. Even though Allah, the Glorified One, knows them more than they know themselves, yet He does so to let them perform actions with which they earn reward or punishment. This is so because some of them like to have male (children) and dislike to have female (children), whereas some like to amass wealth and dislike adversity.
Sayyid ar-Razi says that this is a wonderful interpretation related from the Imam (p.b.u.h.).
92. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him was asked what is good; he replied thus: Good is not that your wealth and progeny should be much, but good is that your knowledge should be much, your forbearance should be great and that you should vie with other people in worshipping Allah. If you do good deeds, you should thank Allah, but if you commit evil, you should seek forgiveness of Allah. In this world, good is for two persons only: the man who commits sins but rectifies them by repentance, and the man who hastens towards good deeds.
93. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Action accompanied by fear for Allah does not fail; how can a thing fail that has been accepted?!
94. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The persons most attracted to the prophets are those who know most what the prophets have brought.
Then Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) recited this verse: “Verily, of men, the nearest to Abraham are surely those who followed him and this (Our) Prophet (p.b.u.h.) (Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)) and those who believe” (Holy Qur’an, 3:68). Then he said the following: The friend of Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is whoever obeys Allah, even though he may have no blood relationship [with him], and the enemy of Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is whoever disobeys Allah even though he may have near kinship [with the Prophet (p.b.u.h.)].
95. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him heard about a Kharijite who said the mid-night prayers and recited the Holy Qur’an, then he said: Sleeping in a state of firm belief is better than praying in a state of doubt.
96. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: When you hear a tradition, test it according to the criterion of intelligence not to that of mere hearsay because those who relate knowledge are numerous, but those who safeguard it are few.
97. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him heard a man reciting the following: “Verily, we are Allah’s, and verily to Him shall we return” (Holy Qur’an, 2: 156). The Imam (p.b.u.h.) said: Our saying, “Inna li’llah (Verily we are Allah’s) is an admission of His majesty over us, while our saying, “Wa inna ilayhi raji’un” (and verily to Him shall we return) is an admission of our being mortal.
98. Some people praised Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him in his presence. The Imam (p.b.u.h.) said: O Lord! You know me better than I know myself, and I know myself better than they know. O Lord! Make us better people than what they think and forgive us for what they do not know.
99. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The fulfillment of (others’) needs becomes a lasting virtue in three ways: regarding it as small, so that it attains bigness, concealing it so that it may manifest itself, and doing it quickly so that it becomes pleasant.
100. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: In man, there is a piece of flesh attached to him: a vein, and it is the strangest thing in him. It is the heart. It has a store of wisdom and things contrary to wisdom. If it sees a ray of hope, eagerness humiliates it, and when eagerness increases, greed ruins it. If disappointment overtakes it, grief kills it. If anger rises in it, a serious rage develops. If it is blessed with pleasure, it forgets to be cautious. If it becomes fearing, it becomes heedless. If peace extends all round, it becomes neglectful. If it earns wealth, freedom from care puts it in the wrong. If trouble befalls it, impatience makes it humble. If it faces starvation, distress overtakes it. If hunger attacks it, weakness seats it. If its food increases, heaviness of stomach pains it. Thus, every shortness is harmful to it and every excess is injurious to it.
This is the end of our selection of the utterances of Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him. We praise Allah, the Glorified One, for having enabled us to collect the scattered utterances from various sides and to bring together from different places the material that was lying far away. We intend, as we stipulated in the beginning, to leave some blank pages at the end of every chapter for the insertion of whatever we may get and the addition of whatever comes to us, for it is possible that some material which is not in our view at present or which is not available may become known to us and fall in our hands. We have no ability save through Allah. In Him we trust, and He is Sufficient for us. He is the best Supporter.
This book was completed in the month of Rajab, in the year 400 A.H. (1009 A.D.). May Allah bless our master Muhammad, the last of the prophets and the one who guided us towards the best path, and bless his virtuous descendants and companions who are the stars of conviction.
