Sayings of the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali (A.S.)

1. One who has cognizance of his soul has cognizance of God.
Note: a) Regarding ‘Soul’ God says:“They ask you about the 'Soul' Say the soul is a command of God & you are not given of its knowledge but a little(S 17:A87)
When a person cannot understand his soul, He can never understand God’s Self, as worthy of Him.
God is Light of the heavens and the earth and is present everywhere. He has no body & no abode. He is the Hidden & the Manifest, the Distant & the Near. Eyes cannot see Him but He is visible to our heart & mind. He is Infinite & cannot be grasped by our finite knowledge: Nothing is like Him & no light is like God's Light.
2. Ali (A.S) says "O 'He' of whom no one knows WHAT 'He'(God) is, nor How 'He' is, nor WHERE 'He' is, nor in WHICH direction,' He' is except ‘He’ Himself " .
The above statement is in the beginning of Dua e Mashlool by Imam Ali (A.S)
Note: a) We could not understand You (God) to the extent worthy of Your cognizance. (the holy messenger)
b) No one has comprehension of God's Self (ذات خدا) but all mankind by human nature loves and worships God and seeks His help when in danger and despair.
Men can understand some attributes of God, such as, God is Beneficent & Merciful. He is Just & Loving& Praiseworthy. He is the Best Protector.
He is the Creator of everything merely with His Will & Intention. He is the First & Primal Existence & is Everlasting. He is Ever Alive without death & transformation.
He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing & All-Knowing. He can make trees & stones & anything speak (e.g. God’s voice came from a tree for Moses A.S), He is All-Powerful, He has no partner. He is the Unerring, the Holy &the Wise. He is absolute Truth.
He guides us through His appointed messengers & Imams regarding the purpose of our life with His commandments & prohibitions in Heavenly Books. (e.g. Torah, Bible, Quran)
He is Extremely Patient, and gives respite to criminals, sinners & tyrants before punishing them. He is Forgiving for those who repent and seek pardon. He forgives the sinners, who love and follow God’s best pleaders & intercessors ie. the fourteen sinless personalities when they intercede, with His permission (من ذالذي يشفع عنده الا باذنه)
He is the Reviver of the dead for reckoning equitably on the Day of Judgment for eternal reward in Paradise or punishment in Hell.
3. Imam Ali (A.S) has said: If all the curtains between me& God are removed, my belief in God will not increase a bit.
4. Someone asked Ali (A.S), “Do you worship a God whom you have not seen”?
Ali (A.S) replied: “I don’t worship a God whom I have not seen”. i.e. Ali (A.S) has seen God through his heart & insight which is more reliable than eyes. Eyes cannot see air, nor microbes & virus, nor Laser & x-rays, nor invisible ultra violet and infra red-rays which are. beyond the visible spectrum violet to red .Eyes are deceived by mirage .the holy Quran says : “Eyes can not see Him (God).”
No one has seen God neither His messengers nor Imams nor angels & jinns nor anybody else. But all' momins' have firm belief in God .They seek his help by saying ((بک يا الله on the ‘Night of Destiny’ although atheists & polytheists have been deceived by Satan, and satanic evil spirit (نفس اماره).
5. One never enjoys the relish of Belief (in God, His appointed divine guides i.e. His messengers and Imams and Resurrection) until he gives up falsehood both in humorous as well as serious situations.
6. It is astonishing if son of Adam is proud, when his beginning is a sperm and his end is a decaying corpse. (dead body).
7. Every person’s worth is as much as his good deeds.
Note: We live in deeds not years. A person whose life is full of good deeds, good thoughts & good feelings is much more precious than one whose life is long but empty and without precious good deeds.
8. Your Honor is solid, but it becomes liquid when you beg or ask for something from people. Therefore you should see before whom your honor liquefies.
Note: Men with high spirituality do not beg except from God or generous momins. Men with no sense of honor sell themselves to devilish tyrants at a cheap price & commit any sin or crime and earn eternal punishment in the hereafter.
9. Some good qualities of women are bad qualities for men:
a. Pride b. Timidity (modesty) c. Miserliness. These are good for women but bad for men. Humility, Courage and Generosity are good for men, and these are exactly the opposite of good qualities in women.
10. A person with sense of honor (غيرت) never commits adultery.
Note: a) The holy Quran has prescribed punishment for adultery in the first few Aayaat of surahe Noor:
As for the adulteress & the adulterer, strike each of them a hundred lashes and let not pity for them overcome you in Allah's law if you believe in Allah and the last Day (the Day of Judgment), and let the punishment be witnessed by a group of the faithful.(Noor :A2)
b) O you who have faith! do not follow in foot steps of Satan …. He indeed prompts indecent acts& wrong. Were it not for Allah's grace and His mercy upon you not one of you would ever be pure and chaste (S24:A21)
c) Vicious women are for vicious men. Good women are for good men (S24:A26)
d) God has permitted temporary marriage (under special conditions) (S4:A24) to prevent adultery.
One who prevented temporary marriage shall bear the burden of sins of all adulterers and fornicators.
e) A person is not allowed to marry two sisters (S4:A23) but he can marry up to four wives if he can be equitable and just to them otherwise he should marry only one wife. One who is vicious and lacks justice should not marry even one good wife.
f) When a man and a woman have different religions and are not married religiously , it is considered as adultery .A muslim women is not permitted to marry a non-muslim even on temporary basis. A muslim man can marry a good christian or jew woman by a temporary marriage contract, which can be made permanent if the bride accepts Islam.
g) Homosexuality was an indecency committed by the people of the time of Hazrate Lut (A.S) It was prohibited by God, but the people didn't care for God's punishment, whereupon all the people of that town were destroyed as a punishment from the sky for this transgression.
It is extremely shameful for men to commit this sin which is not committed even by animals. Such men have benighted understanding and are worse than animals. God is extremely patient and the transgressors shall definitely be punished by God. One way to combat homosexuality is to arrange early marriages between men & women; & also to make temporary marriages easy for registration for the sake of determining children’s father.
11. Ali (A.S) has said:" You have three categories of your friends & enemies:
Your friends are: 1. your own friends. 2 .your friends' friends 3. your enemy's enemy.
And your enemies are 1. your own enemy 2. your friend’s enemy 3. your enemy's friend."
Note: The above guidance should be taken into consideration by governments in diplomatic and human relations.
12. One who is very talkative will make many mistakes, his mistakes will lessen his sense of shame, and when sense of shame is reduced he will have less piety and therefore a dead heart which will lead to hell.
13. If good behavior failed to reform a person good recompense will amend him.
14. Do not enslave yourself to others when the Glorious God has created you free.
Note: a) All persons should be true servants of God and obey Him and not the tyrants. Those who enslave themselves to tyrants not only lose their freedom but also become a fuel for hell in the everlasting life hereafter. No one lives forever in this temporal world, so people should know their purpose of life and strive to please God, the Creator, who puts everyone to test before recompensing him. Those who even agree with tyrants shall meet the same fate as the tyrants no matter in which country or era they live.
God says: “Do not obey the faithless and the hypocrites”
(Ahzaab 33:1) and God says: “Obey not from among them a sinner or a skeptic. (Dahr76: 24) So one should obey the messengers and Imams chosen by God; if they are killed by tyrants, God recompenses them with paradise.Imam Ali (A.S) was martyred in a mosque while saying prayers. The misleading slogan of his enemies was: “Sovereignty or judgment is for God alone” (Yosef 12:40) Well, that is quite true but God likes to test you. He does not pass every verdict or judgment. God entrusts judgment to His divine guides. The holy Quran says : “Judge between them by what God has revealed ( the divine laws)and do not follow their (low)desires against the truth that has come to you. (Maeda5:48) Moreover, God says : “If they obey most of those on the earth, they will lead you astray from God’s way ; they follow assumptions or conjectures and they fabricate lies”
(Ana’am 6:116) Furthermore: “Indeed God commands you that when you judge between people JUDGE WITH JUSTICE.(Nisa 4: 58) Justice of Imam Ali (A.S) is unquestionable. The holy messenger (S.A) has said: “Ali is with the truth and the truth is with Ali.”
15. If you obey God's commandments & His prohibitions they will neither allow death to approach soon nor reduce your sustenance, rather they double your reward and make your recompense bountiful and what is superior to these two is to manifest JUSTICE for its administration by a cruel ruler.