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Back You are here: Home Eternal Words Nahj al-Balaghah Sayings saying - 441 to 460

saying - 441 to 460


441. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The lovers of Allah are those who look at the inward side of the world, while the other people look at its outward side. They occupy themselves with its most remote benefits while the other people occupy themselves with the immediate benefits. They kill those things which they feared will have killed them, and they leave here in this world what they think will leave them. They took the amassing of wealth by others as a small matter and regarded it like losing. They are enemies of those things which others love while they love things which others hate. Through them, the Qur’an has been learned, and they have been given knowledge through the Qur’an. With them, the Qur’an is staying while they stand by the Qur’an. They do not see any objective of hope above what they hope and no objective of fear above what they fear.

442. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Remember that pleasures will pass away while the consequences will stay.

443. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Try (a man) and you will hate him!

Sayyid ar-Razi says: “Some people say that this saying was articulated by the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), but what confirms that it is the saying of Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) is the statement related by Tha‘lab from Ibn al-Arabi, that is, that (caliph) al-Ma’man said, “If Ali had not said ‘ukhbur thiqlihi’ (try a man and you will hate him),” I will have said: ‘aqlihi takhbur’ (hate a man in order to try him).”

444. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: It is not that Allah, to Whom belongs Might and Majesty, may keep the door of gratitude open for a person and close the door of plenty upon him, or to open the door of prayer to a person and close the door of acceptance upon him, or to open the door of repentance on a person and close the door of forgiveness upon him.

445. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The most appropriate person for an honorable status is whoever descends from the people of honor.

446. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him was asked: “Which of the two is better: justice or generosity?” Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) replied: “Justice puts things in their places while generosity takes them out from their directions. Justice is the general caretaker, while generosity is a particular benefit. Consequently, justice is superior and more distinguished of the two.”

447. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: People are enemies of what they do not know.

448. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The whole of asceticism is confined between two expressions of the Qur’an: Allah, the Glorified One, says: “... lest you should distress yourselves because of what you miss and be over-joyous for what He has granted you” (Qur’an, 57: 23). Whoever does not grieve over what he misses and does not revel over what comes to him acquires asceticism from both its sides.

449. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: What a breaker is sleep for the resolutions of the day!

450. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Governing power is the proving ground for people.

451. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: No town has a greater right on you than the other. The best town for you is that which bears you.

452. When the news of the death of (Malik) al-Ashtar (may Allah have mercy on him), reached Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him, he said: Malik, what a man Malik was! By Allah! If he had been a mountain, he would have been a big one (a find), and if he had been a stone, he would have been quite stiff. No horseman could have reached it and no bird could have flown over it.

Sayyid ar-Razi says: “find” means a lonely mountain (rising in height above the others in the range).

453. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: A little that lasts is better than much that brings grief.

454. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: If a man possesses a revealing quality, wait and see his other qualities.

455. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him asked Ghalib ibn Sa‘sa‘ah, father of al-Farazdaq (the famous Arab poet), during a conversation between them: “What about the large number of your camels?!” The man replied: “They have been swept away by (the performing of) obligations, O Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.)!” Whereupon Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said: “That is the most praiseworthy way of (losing) them.”

456. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever trades without knowing the rules of religious law will be involved in usury.

457. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever regards small distresses as big, Allah involves him in big ones.

458. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever maintains his own respect in view, his desires appear light to him.

459. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whenever a man cuts a joke, he separates himself away a bit from his wit.

460. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Your turning away from the one who inclines towards you is a loss of your share of advantage, while your inclining towards one who turns away from you is selfhumiliation.

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