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Back You are here: Home Eternal Words Nahj al-Balaghah Sayings saying - 421 to 440

saying - 421 to 440


421. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Do not try the sharpness of your tongue against the One Who gave you the power to speak, nor the eloquence of your speech against the One Who set you on the right path.

422. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: It is enough for your own discipline that you abstain from what you dislike from others.

423. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: One should endure like free people; otherwise, one should keep quite like the ignorant.
In an incident, it is related that Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said to al-Ash‘ath ibn Qays by way of offering his condolences on the death of his son: Either endure like great people or else you will forget like animals.

424. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: It deceives, it harms and it passes away. Allah, the Sublime, did not approve it as a reward for His lovers nor as a punishment for His enemies. In fact, the people of this world are like those riders that as soon as they descended, the driver called out to them and they marched off.

425. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said to his son al-Hassan, peace be upon him: O my son! Do not leave anything of this world behind you because you will be leaving it for either of two sorts of persons: a person who uses it in obeying Allah, in this case he will acquire virtue through what was evil for you, or a person who uses it in disobeying Allah and, in that case, he will be reaping evil with what you collected for him. So, you will be assisting him in his sinfulness. Neither of these two deserves to be preferred by you over your own self.

Sayyid ar-Razi says: “This saying is also related in another version thus: Whatever of this world is now with you was with others before you, and it will pass to some others after you. Thus, you are collecting things for either of two sorts of men: a man who uses whatever you collected in obedience of Allah and thus acquired virtues with what was evil for you, or a man who uses it in disobeying Allah, so you will be getting evil for what you collected. Neither of these two is such that you should prefer him over your own self, for you may burden yourself for his own sake. Therefore, hope for the mercy of Allah: Divine livelihood for whoever survives anyone who passes away.

426. Someone said “Astaghfirullah!” (I seek Allah’s forgiveness) before Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said: May your mother may lose you! Do you know what “istighfar” is? “Istighfar” is meant for people of a high status. It is a word that stands on six pillars: The first is to repent over the past, the second is to make a firm determination never to revert to it, the third is to carry out all the rights of people so that you may meet Allah quite clean with nothing to account for, the fourth is to fulfill every obligation which you ignored (in the past) so that you may now do justice with it, the fifth is to aim at the flesh grown as a result of unlawful earning, so that you may melt it by grief (of repentance) till the skin touches the bone and a new flesh grows between them, and the sixth is to make the body taste the pain of obedience as you (previously) made it taste the sweetness of disobedience. It is only on such an occasion that you may say: “Astaghfirullah!”

427. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Clemency is (like) kinsfolk.

428. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: How wretched the son of Adam is! His death is hidden, his ailments are concealed, his actions are preserved, the bite of a mosquito pains him, choking cause his death and sweat gives him a bad smell.

429. It is related that Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him was sitting with his companions when a beautiful woman passed by and they began to look at her. It was then that Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said: The eyes of these men are covetous, and such glances are the cause of their becoming covetous. Whenever anyone of you sees a woman who attracts him, he should meet his wife [for cohabitation] because she is a woman just like his wife.
One of the Kharijites said: “May Allah kill this heretic! How logical he is!” People then leapt towards him to kill him, but Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib (p.b.u.h.) said: “Wait a little bit. There should either be abuse [for an abuse] or else pardoning from the offence.”

430. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Suffices you if your wisdom distinguishes for you the ways of going astray from those of guidance.

431. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Do good and do not regard any part of it small because its small is big and its little is much. None of you should say that “Another person is more deserving than me” in doing good. Otherwise, by Allah, it will really be so. There are people of good and evil. When you leave either of the two, others will perform it.

432. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever mends his inward self, Allah mends his outward self. Whoever performs acts for the sake of his religion, Allah accomplishes his acts of this world. Anyone whose dealings between himself and Allah are good, Allah turns the dealings between him and other people good, too.

433. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Forbearance is a covering curtain, and wisdom is a sharp sword. Therefore, conceal the weaknesses in your conduct with forbearance and kill your desires with your wisdom.

434. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: There are some creatures of Allah whom Allah particularly chooses for His favors so that they may be of benefit to other people. Therefore, He keeps such favors in their hands so long as they give them out to others. But when they deny them to others, He takes away the favors from them and gives them to others.

435. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: It does not behoove a man to have trust in two things: health and riches, because there is many a man whom you see healthy but he soon falls and many a man whom you see rich but soon turns destitute.

436. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Whoever complains about a need to a believer, it is as though he has complained about it to Allah. But whoever complains about it to an unbeliever, it is as though he complained about Allah.

437. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said on the occasion of an ‘Id: It is an ‘Id for anyone whose fast is accepted by Allah and for whose prayers He is grateful, and (in fact) every day wherein no sin against Allah is committed is an ‘Id.

438. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: On the Day of Judgment, the greatest regret will be felt by the man who earned wealth through sinful ways, although it is inherited by a person who spends it in obeying Allah, the Glorified One, and he will be awarded Paradise on that account while the first one will be dragged into the Fire on its account.

439. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: The worst in bargaining and the most unsuccessful in striving is a man who exerts himself in seeking riches although fate does not help him in his aims and, consequently, he goes from this world in a sorrowful state while in the next world, too, he will face its ill consequences.

440. Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib, peace be upon him said: Livelihood is of two kinds: the seeker and the sought. Therefore, whoever hankers after this world, death traces him till it turns him out of it. But whoever hankers after the next world, worldly ease itself seeks him till he receives his livelihood from it.

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