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Friday 6th of December 2024
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EXTRACTS FROM FEW LETTERS WRITTEN BY IMAM ALI (A.S.) TO DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS

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"O time! O world! how I wonder at your vagaries. People have started considering such a person (Hazrat meant Moavia) equal to me, who in his whole life time never exerted himself in the service of Islam and God as I have done in each and every day of my life. In Islam there is no rank, no honor, no position and no merit for him as for me. None can pretend to to claim any superiority and excellence over me but a pretender. I donot know of anybody who served Islam and the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) as sincerely and consistently as I have. The Almighty Lord knows that I am not wrong in saying what I have said and nobody can be compared to me in this respect. All Glory, Praise and Greatness belongs to Him and to nobody else. Letter, 9. p. 210, para 3. written to Moavia.

"Have you ever seriously considered what would happen to you if all your wealth and property is taken away from you. The possessions, the riches and the luxuries that you have surrounded yourself with, they all belong to this world. A world which has profusely decorated itself and is bent upon alluring you with its enjoyment and pleasures. It enticed you and you fell an easy pray to its allurements. It dragged you and you followed it like a tame animal at the end of rope. It ordered you and you obeyed its orders submissively". Letter. 10, para 1, written to Moavia.

"If you do not faithfully and sincerely follow the dictates of religion and donot act as I have advised you then I want to warn you of something that  you have forgotten. It is that you are unthankful to God for all which He has granted to you and are ungrateful to Him for the favors bestowed upon you. Satan has taken possession of your soul. Its desire to secure you as his obedient slave, is fully fulfilled. It has a firm hold on your mind". Letter. 10, page 211, para 3, written to Moavia.

"O Moavia! were you ever entrusted with the important position and noble status of dispensing peace and justice to mankind? Have you the necessary knowledge for the work? Do you really know the canons of equity and justice as laid down by Islam? You and your ways of government may God protect me and withhold me from behaving towards mankind the way that you have behaved and from tyranny, exploitation and murder committed by you. Take care, you are being madly driven by the lust of wealth, power and vicious indulgences, you are behaving hypocritically against man and God, and you may be damned for eternity". Letter 10, page. 211, para 4.

"Do not take initiative to begin a battle, let them begin it. Because by the favor of God you are on the side of truth and justice (and God does not like men to be keen upon fratricide). Leave them until they begin their hostilites and then you are at liberty to take fighting. Their keen ness to begin a battle will be another proof of your sincere belief in the orders of God". Letter 14, page. 213. para 1. to his army in Siffeen.

"If God favors you with your success and their defeat then donot attack those who have surrendered, do not injure disabled and weak, do not assault wounded; and do not excite women and make them angry with rude and insulting behavior and molestation, even when they use harsh and insulting words against your commander and officers because they are physically and mentally weak and get  excited easily and frightened quickly. During the days of the Holy Prophet (may the peace be upon him and his descendents) we had strict orders not to touch , molest or insult women though they were unbelievers. Even in pre-Islamic days it was the custom that if a man strikes a woman even with a stick or a stone the revenge would be carried to his sons and descendent". Letter 14. page. 213 para 2.

"O Lord! our hearts seek Thy protection, our faces turn to Thee, our eyes look, towards Thee, our feet move towards Thy path, and our bodies are sincerely used in obedience to Thy Command. O Lord! Hidden enemies and concealed spite are exposed; hearts are boiling over with envy and malice. O Lord! we place before Thee our difficulties; absence of the Holy prophet (A.S.) from amongst us. Lord ! let truth prevail and let our people realise the justice, honesty and virtuousness of our case". Letter 15. page. 213. When Hazrat faced the enemy.

"After prayers to God and praise of the Holy prophet (A.S.) be it known to you that villagers, farmers, and husbandmen of the provinces under you, complain of your harshness, arrogance and cruelty. They complain that you consider them as mean, humble and insignificant and treat them insultingly and you are cruel and harsh with them. I deliberated about their complaints and about the situation and I found that if on account of their heathenism they do not deserve any favorable treatment or extra privileges yet they do not deserve to be treated insultingly, cruelly and harshly. They are governed by us they made certain agreements with us and we are obliged to respect and honor the terms of those agreements.

Therefore, you in future be kind to them, tolerate them and give them the respect, but at the same time keep your prestige and guard well the position and honor of the authority which you hold, therefore govern with a soft  but strong hand. Treat them as they individually deserve, kindly or harshly and with respect or with contempt. Letter 19, page. 215 . written to Governors.

"O creatures of God! remember that the Almighty Lord is going to take account of every one of your sins, major or minor and whether committed openly or covertly. If he punishes you for your sins, it will not be an act of tyranny and if He forgives you it will be because of His Great Mercy and Forgiveness". Letter 27, page. 219, para 2. written to Mohammad bin Abu Bakr.

My first and foremost advice to you, my son, is to fear God. Be his obedient servant. Keep his thought always fresh in your mind. Be attached to and caefully guard the rope which connects you with Him (Islam). Can any other connection be stronger, more durable and more lasting than this to command greater respect and consideration or to replace it.  Letter 31. page. 225, para 4 .

"Adopt piety and kill your inordinate desires with its help. Build your character with the help of sincere faith in religion and God. Subjugate your self-willed, obstinate and refractory nature with the vision of death, make it see the mortality of life and of all that it holds dear, force it to realise the actuality of misfortunes and adversities, the changes of circumstances and times and compel it to study the histories of past people. Persuade it to see the ruined cities, the dilapidated palaces and decaying signs and relics of fallen empires and past nations"  Letter 31. page. 225. para 5.

"RESERVES YOUR PRAYERS, YOUR REQESTS, YOUR SOLICITATIONS, YOUR SUPPLICATIONS AND YOUR ENTREATIES TO HIM AND HIM ALONE.BECAUSE TO GRANT, TO GIVE, TO CONFER AND TO BESTOW, AS WELL AS TO WITHHOLD, TO DEPRIVE, TO REFUSE AND TO DEBAR LIES IN HIS AND ONLY HIS POWER. ASK AS MUCH OF HIS FAVOURS AND SEEK AS MUCH OF HIS GUIDANCE AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN" Letter 31. page. 225, para 10 last part.

"I leave you like an unbroken and untrained colt. Because young and fresh mind is like a virgin soil and which allows things sown in it to grow verdantly and to bear luxuriously. There, I have made use of early opportunities to educate and train you, before your mind uses freshness, before it gets hardened or wrapped, before you start facing unprepared for encounter and before you are forced to use your decision and discretions without gaining advantages of cumulated traditions, collected knowledge and experience of others. Letter 31. page. 226. part of para 12.

"Remember that this world is working under the laws ordained by Him and it consists of assemblage and aggregate of actions and reactions, causes and effects, calamities and reverses, pains and pleasures, rewards and punishments; but this is not all which the picture depicts; there are things in it which are beyond our ken, things which we do not and cannot know and the things which cannot be foreseen, foretold, for instance the reward and punishment of the day of judgement". Letter 31, page. 227, para 28 (part).

"My dear son, so far as your behavior with other human beings is concerned let your self act as scales to help you judge its goodness or wickedness. Do unto others as you wish others to do unto you. Whatever you like for yourself like for others and whatever you dislike to happen to you spare others from such happenings. Do not oppress and tyrannize any body because you surely do not like to be oppressed and tyrannized. Be kind and sympathetic to others as you certainly desire others to treat you like kindly and sympathetically”. Letter 31. page. 228, part of para 32.

“Be it known to you, my son, that you can not have every wish of yours granted, you cannot expect to escape death, and you are passing through your days of life as others before you have done. Therefore, control your expectations, desires and cravings; be moderate in your demands, earn your livelihood through scrupulously honest means, be contented with what you get honestly and honorably”. Letter 31. page. 231 para 42. This letter is much lengthier than produced. In the introduction the author has attributed it written to Hazrat Imam Hussain (A.S.) or Hazrat Mohammede-Hanafia, Allah knows better.

 

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