Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of ʿAlī
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
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God be praised! His knowledge encompasses all things, his judgment and rule direct every creature, and his forgiveness and forbearance envelop all his servants. He grants wisdom to whomsoever he wishes among his elect, and he chooses for that wisdom the sincere among his select, as a grace from him and a great favor—for «whosoever is granted wisdom is granted much good.»1 God is most high, wise, knowing, «there is none like him, he is the listener, the perceiver.»2
May God bless the one favored with the most eloquent tongue of wisdom, its clearest proof and exposition, its plainest evidence and authority: Muḥammad, the prophet of mercy, divinely aided by right-guidance and infallibility, who removed the veils of blindness and obscurity, so that the laws of belief shone forth, the banners of the Qurʾan became elevated, tongues declared God’s oneness, and the falsehoods of error and calumny disintegrated. May he bless Muḥammad’s progeny, whom he selected as legatees for his book, and to whom he gifted the largest share of his reward; he made them guides for the community, and judges and upholders of the laws of his religion. May he bestow well-being upon him and upon them.
I collected into a book twelve hundred testaments, maxims, counsels, and directions for refined behavior from the Traditions of the messenger of God, calling it Light in the Heavens (Kitāb al-Shihāb). Upon its completion, one of my brothers asked me to collect approximately the same number of sayings from the words of the commander of the faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He asked me to rely on texts that I have myself transmitted and those in books written by people I trust, asking that I present them uninterruptedly, omitting the chains of transmission, just as I did in Light in the Heavens. I accordingly sought God’s guidance, and collected materials from ʿAlī’s words, eloquent sayings, wise maxims, counsels, directions for refined behavior, answers to questions, prayers, supplications, preserved verse, and allegories. I produced nine chapters divided by genre, as follows:
1 The first chapter on valuable sayings transmitted from him.
2 The second chapter on censure of this world and exhortations to reject worldliness transmitted from him.
3 The third chapter on counsels transmitted from him.
4 The fourth chapter on prescriptions and proscriptions transmitted from him.
5 The fifth chapter on questions and answers to questions transmitted from him.
6 The sixth chapter on sayings with unusual words transmitted from him.
7 The seventh chapter on unique sayings and pithy words transmitted from him.
8 The eighth chapter on his prayers and supplications.
9 The ninth chapter on verse composed by him that I have come across.
I have placed next to every text that I transmit a mark indicating its narrator, which I shall explain at the end of the book. I have included the chains of transmission for the long reports, and indicated by the letter J those I have found in texts without continuous aural transmission.3
I ask God Most High for direction so that I may do what pleases him, and for aid to undertake this task, a task whose undertaking will bring me closer to him. He is my sufficiency, and he is the best guardian.