Nahj al-Balagha

What is the Nahj al-Balagha?

Nahj al-Balagha (نهج البلاغة) means “the path/peak of eloquence” — the text that sets the standard for what Arabic rhetoric and wisdom literature can be. It was compiled by al-Sharif al-Radi (Muhammad ibn al-Husain al-Musawi, 970-1015 CE), a distinguished Shia scholar and poet in Baghdad, who gathered materials from various existing sources — collections held by Imam Ali’s students, oral traditions, and early Islamic manuscripts.

The compilation consists of:

239 Khutab (Sermons): Delivered by Imam Ali as Caliph, commander, and imam
79 Rasa’il (Letters): Official letters to governors, commanders, and individuals
480 Hikam (Short sayings/aphorisms): Condensed wisdom on virtually every aspect of life

The text covers a remarkable range: theology (tawhid), philosophy of governance, social ethics, military strategy, personal spirituality, the nature of the divine, the human soul, death, judgment, and the love and grief that characterize a life lived in walayah.

The Major Sermons

Khutbah al-Shiqshiqiyya (Sermon 3) — The Sermon of the Groan

One of the most politically charged sermons in Islamic history. Imam Ali describes, in barely concealed allegory, the injustice of being passed over for the Caliphate after the Prophet’s death:

“Verily by Allah, Ibn Abi Quhafah dressed himself with it, while he knew that my position in relation to it was the same as the position of the axis in relation to the hand-mill… I saw that endurance was more proper. So I adopted patience, though there was an eye in the heart and a stifling sensation in the throat.”

He describes the first three caliphates and his own eventual acceptance of the Caliphate, only to face the wars of Jamal and Siffin. A man interrupts — and Imam Ali, saying he has lost the thread of his thought, refuses to continue. The man begs him to finish. Imam Ali refuses. This moment — the deliberate incompletion of the most politically explosive speech — is itself a teaching.

Khutbah al-Muttaqin (Sermon 193) — Description of the God-Fearing

Also called the Hammam Sermon — delivered in response to a man named Hammam who asked Imam Ali to describe the attributes of the truly God-conscious (muttaqin). Imam Ali described them so vividly and powerfully that Hammam fell unconscious and died. This sermon contains one of the most detailed moral portraits in Islamic literature.

Khutbah al-Ashbah (Sermon 1) — On the Creation

The very first sermon in the Nahj begins not with politics or law but with a comprehensive theological statement on the divine reality — how Allah is beyond description, how creation came to be, the nature of the angels, the creation of Adam, and the nature of human consciousness. This sets the tone for the entire work: the zahir of governance is grounded in a batin of profound metaphysics.

The famous opening of divine description: “He who attributes to Allah has not truly understood Him. He who represents Him has not truly acknowledged His unity. He who likens Him to something else has not truly pointed toward Him.” — a statement of tanzih (divine incomparability) that anticipates the Ismaili theological tradition’s core principle. See also: Tawhid Divine Unity

The Letters

Letter 53 — The Grand Covenant to Malik al-Ashtar

When Imam Ali appointed Malik al-Ashtar as governor of Egypt, he sent him a letter that has been described as the most comprehensive statement of ethical governance in classical Islamic literature. The United Nations displayed a portion of it in its New York headquarters as an example of foundational principles of just administration.

It covers:

The relationship between a ruler and the ruled
The ruler’s accountability to Allah and to the people
The importance of justice even toward enemies
The dangers of favoritism and the trap of wealth
The ruler’s responsibility to the weakest members of society: “Give to the poor special attention — the one who has no helper, the one who has been humiliated, those whose claims are too small to reach you. Devote a portion of every day to addressing the grievances of those who cannot reach you.”
The relationship of the ruler to scholars and soldiers and farmers

Letter 53 is not merely governance advice — it is a cosmological statement: the just ruler is a servant, not a master; the state exists to bring human beings to their highest potential, not to aggrandize itself.

Letter 31 — The Testament to Imam Hasan (AS)

One of the most personal and spiritually intimate texts in the entire Nahj, written by Imam Ali to his son Imam Hasan after returning from the Battle of Siffin. It is simultaneously a father’s letter, an Imam’s teaching, and an elder’s testament:

“My son, from the time I reached old age and realized the weakness of my body, I moved quickly to advise you fully, before death overtakes me. Since I possess a living heart, a reflecting mind, and a soul purified by experience, I have gathered here what I know of the world’s deceptions and its adornments, of this life and the next — and I give it all to you.”

The letter covers: the nature of time, the certainty of death, the treachery of the world, the value of a faithful friend, the importance of silence, the danger of arrogance, the virtue of patience, and the supreme importance of Allah’s love.

The Aphorisms (Hikam)

The 480 short sayings of Imam Ali include some of the most quoted lines in Arabic literature:

“The value of a person is what they know.” (Al-mar’u bi-‘ilmihi)
“Do not be ashamed of giving little — refusal is less than little.”
“The tongue is a lion: if you free it, it will devour you.”
“The best of riches is to give up excessive desires.”
“Bewilderment at an action suspends it.” (Hesitation has its wisdom)
“He who knows his own soul knows his Lord.”
“The one who has too high a view of himself has enemies he does not know of.”
“Poverty is the greatest death.”
“Knowledge is the friend of the believer, patience is the commander of the armies of the soldier of faith, forgiveness is the badge of nobility, and contentment is the capital of the merchant of righteousness.”

These aphorisms circulate throughout Islamic civilization — quoted by Sunni and Shia scholars, poets and philosophers, mystics and rulers. Their authority derives not from Imam Ali’s political position but from their intrinsic truth.

Nahj al-Balagha and the Bohra Tradition

In the Ismaili-Tayyibi and Bohra understanding, Nahj al-Balagha is more than the collected speeches of a great leader — it is the preserved ‘ilm of the first Imam, transmitted through the centuries to every generation of the Dawat.

The Bohra community engages with the Nahj in several ways:

Quotation in waaz: Passages are regularly cited by the Syedna and Amils in their sermons
Study in Al-Jamea-tus-Saifiyah: The curriculum includes systematic study of Imam Ali’s speeches and letters
Personal devotional reading: Many Bohra households keep a copy alongside the Quran for daily reading

The theological importance: Imam Ali’s words in the Nahj extend and complement the Quran’s teaching — where the Quran gives the divine word, Imam Ali’s Nahj gives the divine word’s application to human life. The walayah that the Quran declares in verse 5:55 (“Your ally is only Allah and His Messenger and those who have believed — those who establish prayer and give zakah, and they bow down in worship” — understood in the tradition to refer to Imam Ali giving his ring in charity while in sujud) is given its fullest expression in Imam Ali’s own words.

Ta’wil of Nahj al-Balagha

The zahir of the Nahj is the literary and historical record: the greatest prose work in Arabic literature, the preserved speeches of the first Caliph, a document of early Islamic history and political thought.

The batin of the Nahj is the Imam’s ‘ilm made audible. Every Imam possesses ‘ilm — the inherited knowledge of the Prophetic mission, transmitted through the chain of walayah from the Prophet (SAW) to Imam Ali to the successive Imams. Most of this ‘ilm is samit (silent) — preserved inwardly, transmitted through initiation rather than publication. The Nahj is the portion of Imam Ali’s ‘ilm that he chose to make natiq (speaking) — the visible face of an interior knowledge that has no end.

When Imam Ali speaks of the divine in Sermon 1 — describing what Allah is not rather than what He is, in the great tradition of apophatic theology — he is doing ta’wil: showing the seeker how language itself must be released in order to approach the divine reality. The one who can do this in words, in public, before thousands of listeners, while simultaneously managing a civil war and the largest empire in the world, and while carrying the unbroken chain of walayah from the Prophet’s own hand: this is the First Imam, and this is his Nahj.

Nahj al-Balagha — Peak of Eloquence