Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 3/133
Newsletter for September 2012
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
WILL OF IMAM ALI IBN ABU TALIB (ع)
TO HIS SON
IMAM AL-HASSAN (ع)
Excerpted from Nahjul-Balagha - the Sermons of Imam Ali
bin Abi Talib (a)
Translated by
Yasin al-Jibouri
Note: Amir al-Mumineen wrote this epistle for his son al-Hassan
ibn Ali (ع)
when he camped at al-Hadirin on his way back from Siffin:
“From the father who is (soon) to die, who acknowledges the
hardships of times, who has turned away from life, who has
submitted himself to the (calamities of) time, who realizes the
evils of the world, who is living in the abodes of the dead and
is due to depart from them any day..., to the son who yearns for
what is not to be achieved, who is treading the path of those
who have died, who is the victim of ailments, who is entangled
in the (worries of the) days, who is a target of hardships, a
servant of the world, a trader of its deception, a debtor of
wishes, a prisoner of morality, an ally of worries, a neighbor
of griefs, a victim of distresses, the one who has been
overpowered by desires and a successor of the dead.
“Now (you should know that) what I have learned from this world
turning away from me, the onslaught of time over me and the
advancing of the Hereafter towards me is enough to prevent me
from remembering anyone except my soul and from thinking beyond
myself. But when I confined myself to my own worries, leaving
aside the worries of others, my intelligence saved me and
protected me from my own desires. It clarified to me my affairs
and led me to seriousness wherein there is no trickery, and to
the truth which is not tarnished by falsehood. Here, I found you
to be a part of myself, rather I found you my whole, so much so
that if anything befalls you, it is as though it befalls me, and
if death comes to you, it is as though it comes to me.
Consequently, your affairs meant to me what my own matters
meant. So, I have written this piece of advice (to you) as an
instrument of seeking help, whether I remain alive or cease to
exist.
“I admonish you to fear Allah, O my child, to abide by His
commandments, to fill your heart with His remembrance and to
cling to hope from Him. No regard is more reliable than the
regard between you and Allah provided you take hold of it.
Enliven your heart with preaching, kill it by renunciation,
energize it with firm belief, enlighten it with wisdom,
humiliate it by recalling death, make it believe in mortality,
make it see the misfortunes of this world, make it fear the
authority of the time and the severity of some changes during
the nights and the days. Place before it the events of past
peoples, recall to it what befell those who were before you.
Traverse their cities and ruins, then see what they did and from
what they have gone away, where they have gone and stayed. You
will find that they departed from (their) friends and remained
in loneliness. Shortly, you, too, will be like any of them.
Therefore, plan for your place of stay and do not sell your next
life for this one.
“Give up discussing what you do not know and speaking about what
does not concern you. Keep off the track from which you fear to
go astray because refraining (from moving) when there is fear of
straying is better than embarking on dangers. Ask others to do
good deeds; you will thus be among the doers of goodness.
Discourage others from evil deeds with your own deeds as well as
speech. Keep off, to the best of your ability, from whoever
commits evil. Struggle for Allah as is His due, and the reviling
of a reviler should not deter you in matters relevant to Allah.
Leap into dangers for the sake of what is right wherever it may
be. Acquire insight into religious laws. Habituate yourself to
endure hardships since the best trait of character is endurance
in matters of righteousness. In all your affairs, resign
yourself to your Lord because you will thus be resigning
yourself to a secure shelter and a strong Protector. You should
ask only from your Lord because in His hand is all the giving
and depriving. Seek goodness (from Allah) as much as you can.
Understand my advice and do not turn away from it because the
best saying is that which benefits. Be informed that there is no
good in that knowledge which is futile, and if knowledge is not
implemented, then its acquisition is not justified.
“O my child! When I noticed that I was of goodly age and that I
was becoming increasingly weak, I hastened with regard to my
will to you and wrote down salient points lest death should
overtake me before I divulge to you what I have in my heart, or
lest my wit should be affected just as my body has been, or the
forces of passions or the mischiefs of the world should overtake
you making you like a stubborn camel. Certainly, the heart of a
young man is like an uncultivated land. It accepts whatever is
strewn on it. So, I hastened to mold you properly before your
heart hardened and your mind became occupied, so that you might
be ready to accept through your intelligence the results of the
experience of others and be saved from going through these
experiences yourself. In this way, you will avoid the hardship
of seeking them and the difficulties of experimenting them.
Thus, you are getting to know what we had experienced and even
those things become clear to you which we might have missed.
“O my child! Even though I have not reached the age which those
before me have, yet I looked into their behavior and thought
over events of their lives. I walked among their ruins till I
was like one of them. In fact, by virtue of their affairs that
have become known to me, it is as though I have lived with them
from the very first to the very last. I have, therefore, been
able to discern the impure from the clean and to benefit from
harm.
“I have selected for you the choicest of those matters, gathered
for you their good points and kept away from you their useless
points. Since I feel for your affairs as a living father should,
I aim at providing you with guidance. I thought it should be at
a time when you are advancing in age and new to the state of the
world, possessing upright intention and a clean heart and, being
with the teaching of the Book of Allah, to Whom belong Might and
Majesty, and its interpretation, the laws and commandments of
Islam, its lawful matters and unlawful ones…, I should not go
beyond these for you. Then I feared lest you should get confused
as other people had been confused on account of their passions
and (different) views. Therefore, in spite of disliking the
thought of warning you, I thought it better for me to make this
issue strong rather than leave you in a status where I do not
regard you as being safe from falling into destruction. I hoped
that Allah will help you in your straightforwardness and guide
you in your resoluteness. Consequently, I wrote this piece of my
will for you.
“Be informed, O my child, that what I love the most for you is
that you adopt my will to fear Allah, to confine yourself to
what Allah has made obligatory on you, to follow the deeds of
your forefathers and the virtuous people of your household.
These (men of virtue) did not fall short of seeing for
themselves what you will see for yourself. They did about their
affairs as you will like to think (about your own affairs).
Thereafter, their thinking led them to discharge the obligations
which they came to know and to desist from what they were not
required to do. If your heart does not accept this without
acquiring knowledge as they acquired it, then your search should
first be by way of understanding and learning, not by falling
into doubts or getting entangled in quarrels.
“Before you probe into this, you should begin by seeking your
Lord’s help. Turn to Him for competence and keep aloof from
everything that throws you into doubt or flings you towards
misguidance. When you have made sure that your heart is clean
and humble and your thoughts have come together, and once you
have only a reflection about this matter..., it is then that you
will see what I have explained to you. If you have not been able
to achieve that peace of observation and thinking which you will
like to have, then be informed that you are only stamping the
ground like a blind she-camel and falling into darkness, while a
seeker of religion should not grope in the dark, nor should he
create confusion. It is better to avoid this.
“Appreciate my advice, O my child, and be admonished that the
Master of death is also the Master of life: The Creator causes
death and grants life. The One Who destroys is also the One Who
restores life. The One Who inflicts disease is also the one Who
cures. This world continues in the way which Allah has made it
with regard to its pleasures, trials, rewards on the Day of
Judgment and all that He wishes and which you do not know. If
anything of this advice is not understood by you, then attribute
it to your ignorance of it because when you were first born, you
were born ignorant; thereafter, you acquired knowledge. There
are many masters of whom you are ignorant. There are many issues
regarding which your sight first wonders and your eye wonders,
too. After this, you shall see them as they are. Therefore,
cling to the One Who created you, Who fed you and put you in
order. You should worship only Him. Your eagerness should be
towards Him, and your fear should be of Him.
“Be informed, O my child, that no one received messages from
Allah, the Glorified One, as the Prophet (ص)
did. Therefore, regard him as your guide and leader towards
salvation. Certainly, I shall spare no effort to provide you
with advice, and surely even if you try, you cannot acquire such
insight for your welfare as I have for you.
“Be informed, O my child, that had there been a partner with
your Lord, his [alleged partner’s] messengers, too, should have
come to you and you would have seen signs of his authority and
power. You should have known his deeds and qualities. But He is
only One god, Allah, as He has described Himself. No one can
dispute with Him regarding His authority. He is from eternity
and will remain for eternity. He is before all things without
any beginning. He will remain after all things without an end.
He is far too great to have His divinity proved by any
encompassing heart or by any vision. Once you have understood
this, you should do what is done by him who is like you by way
of his low status (compared to that of the Almighty), his lack
of authority, his increasing incapability and great need for his
Lord so as to seek His obedience. Fear His chastisement and be
forewarned of His wrath because He does not command you save to
be virtuous; He does not refrain you save from evil.
“O my child! I have informed you about life in this world, its
conditions, its decay and passing away, and I have informed you
of the Hereafter and of what has been provided in it for its
people. I have recounted to you parables about it so that you
may draw instruction from them and depend on them. The example
of those who have understood the world is like those travelers
who, being fed-up with drought-stricken places, set off for
greenery and a fruitful place. Then they endure difficulties on
the way, separation from friends, hardships of the journey and
unwholesome food in order to reach their fields of plenty and
places of stay. Consequently, they do not feel any pain in all
this and do not regard any effort to be wasteful. Nothing is
more lovable to them than what takes them near their goal and
carries them closer to their place of stay. (Contrariwise), the
example of those who are deceived by this world is like the
people who were in a green place but became disgruntled with it
and went to a drought-stricken place. Therefore, for them
nothing is more detestable or abominable than to leave the place
where they were and to go to a place which they will reach
unexpectedly and for which they were heading.
“O my child! Make yourself the measure (for dealings) between
you and others. Thus, you should wish for others what you wish
for yourself and hate for others what you hate for yourself. Do
not oppress as you do not like to be oppressed. Do good deeds
for others as you like goodness to be done to you. Regard as bad
for yourself whatever you regard as bad for others. Accept from
others what you like others to accept from you. Do not talk
about what you do not know even though what you know may be very
little. Do not say to others what you do not like to be said to
you.
“Be informed that self-admiration is contrary to propriety
(deed) and is a calamity for the mind. Therefore, increase your
striving and do not become a treasurer for (wealth to be
inherited by) others. When you have been guided on the right
path, humble yourself before Allah as much as you can.
“Be informed that in front of you lies a road of long distance
and severe hardship and that you cannot avoid treading it. Take
your requirements of provision in order to keep the burden
light. Do not load your back beyond your ability lest its weight
should cause you mischief. Whenever you come across a needy
person who can carry for you your provision in order to hand it
back to you on the Day of Judgment when you will need it, accept
it as a good opportunity and get him to carry it. Put in that
provision as much as you are able, for it is likely that if you
need him (afterwards), you may not get hold of him. If a person
is willing to borrow from you in the days of your affluence to
pay it back to you at the time of your need, then make use of
this opportunity.
[You will Insha-Allah receive Part Two of this precious will
tomorrow…]
With best regards of Yasin T. al-Jibouri, writer, published
author, editor, certified translator and member of the Worldwide
Who is Who. Visit his Who is Who site by clicking on:
http://www.yasinaljibouri.com/index7.aspx I invite you to
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I also invite you to visit my Amazon web page to see a list of
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