Who is Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, and why do philosophers consider him a great person?
Usually, religious people admire their religious symbols, glorify them and exalt their status, and even exaggerate their personalities. Except for Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, the Islamic symbol whom the Islamic empires fought and distorted his image, name, reputation, words and speeches by Muslim emperors and kings for hundreds of years. However, they could not hide the lights of his truth, despite the formation of most of the rulers of the Islamic empires special groups of writers, authors and historians, to distort the sayings of the Imam and to diminish his personality, leading to the invention of sayings he did not say and sermons he did not utter, even they claimed that the imam insulted people, which is something He does not believe in it at all. Rather, they invented and fabricated words, and claimed that he said them in describing himself, and he is the most humble and self-denying of people. But they are the actions of the kings who were troubled by Ali, in terms of being a pure white human model and full of justice, in exchange for their oppression of people and their judgment of human beings by force, and coercion. Therefore, the reader will find in Nahj al-Balagha and other books words impossible for Imam Ali bin Abi Talib to utter. Such as claiming that he disparaged women and describing them as deficient in reason, or like their claim that the imam described himself with the qualities of reverence, creation. He is the one who said hundreds of times that he is nothing but a slave of God’s servants, and he repeatedly asked his Lord for forgiveness for what was transmitted from him. Nevertheless, the Traitors put poison in the honey of the Imam’s eloquence, and he made a mistake in compiling his words in a comprehensive book.
In addition, for those of our beloved readers who do not know the Imam in Russia, Europe and in various countries of the world, we say: He is the man considered by UNESCO as "the most just ruler in human history."
European philosophers and the greats of Christianity, one of the greatest of creation, also consider him and that his words - that is, the words of Imam Ali - are under the words of God, but above the words of humankind as described by the Lebanese poet and thinker George Shakour. (Please see Professor Shakours interview with the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Foundation for documentation in the video section, and you can follow many of the sayings of the philosophers in the section: They said in the Imam).
His birth
The Imam, peace be upon him, was born in the second decade of the seventh century AD in the Arabian Peninsula in Makkah, which was a small city in the middle of an ocean of deserts, and its people were rich merchants. Their city is considered a pilgrimage to the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait today), to worship in a place called the Holy Kaaba, which the Arabs at the time believed and still believe was a mosque built by the Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail in that region three thousand yearsB.C.
The Imams parents were followers of the Hanafi monotheistic religion that follows the Prophet Abraham, but all the Arabs in that region and its surroundings were idol worshipers, although they knew God Almighty, but they considered idols as deities with authority and partnership with God Almighty. In Mecca and on the Arabian Peninsula, there were also small numbers of Christians and Jews living side by side with the polytheists, pagans, and the minority believing in the religion of the Prophet Abraham. In addition, because lineage is important to the Arabs, the Imam was born from two parents from Banu Hashim, who are nobles from the Quraysh tribe that used to rule the city of Mecca, to which all the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula pilgrimage to, as we said, for worship and for trade. The Imam, peace be upon him, was born inside the Kaaba, which is the destination of Islam, to which the Arabs went before Islam in their prayers, and Muslims now turn to it in their prayers. Moreover, because he was born inside the Kaaba, which is the most important place for Islam, the Prophet of Islam Muhammad and his extended family, Bani Hashem, considered that there are special references in this from God Almighty.
Imam Alis name:
He was called Ali, and this name is very rare in the Arabs, but there are historians who say that he was the first to be called, and we only found the name of Ali bin Saab bin Bakr bin Wael from the Rabia tribe who had the same name as the Imam. However, some historians mention that the Arab kings who seized the Islamic state after the death of the Prophet, such as Banu Umayya and Banu al-Abbas, composed lies through writers who hired them and through historians who recruited them to claim that before the Imam there were those who were called by this name (please review the book of the Andalusian historian in the biography of Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him.). The imam’s biography narrates from his father, Abu Talib, as saying: "I have called upon him to carry the glory of the Most High and the best of glory as long as it lasts, Imam Ali was sublime in everything except in worldly matters that had no value in his eyes". He is the first ever to believe in the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was brought up in a home who believed in the One, Most High, Almighty God, but the entire environment surrounding him was idolatrous paganism. However, the Imam, peace be upon him, did not bow down to an idol at all, and that is why Muslims say after mentioning his name the phrase "God honored his face" because he kept it from worshiping an idol in a pagan environment.
The first Commando in Islam:
Before the Arabs voluntarily converted to Islam and not through conquest and aggression, the Prophet and those with him in Makkah were no more than a hundred people, and most of them were enslaved slaves, weak and poor, and some of his noble family, Banu Hashem, who were very few. So the wealthy tribe Quraish asked the Prophet Muhammad to choose either between making him king over them and giving him money on the condition that he relinquish the issue of calling to God, or that he be killed, expelled, or besieged. Seven years after the Prophet began his call to Islam in Mecca, Quraysh decided to expel the Prophet to a nearby mountain, in which his uncle Abu Talib owns a plot of land.The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his early Muslims were trapped in that land, which has neither water, nor crops, nor food, nor even birds. They were about a hundred people with their families. Quraish decided to boycott them in the first economic punishment in history, The Quraish do not sell them anything nor buy anything from them. Imam Ali was a boy who did not exceed the second decade, going down from the mountain to Medina, risking himself with others, to transport water and food to those besieged in the land of Abu Talib. The first Muslims remained in this situation for three years during which the Prophet was subjected to murder and assassination on a daily basis, as he was being monitored by hired killers of the leaders of the Quraysh, fearful of the Prophet, because they would lose their trade if the Arabs believed in him, as the Prophet ordered to prevent idolatry. All Arabs visit Makkah to worship idols. If Islam triumphs, the Arabs will stop visiting Mecca and the Quraysh trade will stop, or so thought the masters of the Quraysh and its wealthy. History has recorded that Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him, was during the three years of the siege, exchanging with his brothers Jaafar and Aqeel, sleeping in the Prophet’s bed, in order to deceive those who spied on the Prophet with the aim of killing him at night. When the siege ended and the time came to leave Mecca for another city, the Quraysh had meanwhile prepared a squad to assassinate the Prophet composed of knights from several tribes, so that his blood was lost among those tribes, so that his family would not know who would take revenge on him for the Arabs habit of revenge in That time. On the night of the Messenger (may God’s prayers and peace be upon him) emigration from Mecca to Yathrib across the desert, Imam Ali slept in the Prophet’s house, to redeem the Messenger in the famous migration incident, and slept in his bed until it was said, quoting from the Messenger of God, “The angels marveled at Ali’s courage".
His marriage
Imam Ali lived his first years of life as expected with his parents, but when he reached the age of eight, his father suffered a financial setback, and his conditions became very difficult, and he could not support his many children, so the brothers of Abu Talib and the Prophet Muhammad took each of them a son who lived with him Imam Ali lived in the house of the Prophet Muhammad, slept in his room and grew up in his house. When the divine revelation was revealed to the Messenger of God, he was in the cave of Hira in a mountain near Mecca, and Imam Ali was with him. And because he was the first Muslim after the Messenger of God, and the writer of the revelation of God, and no one knows except him the interpretation of the complete verses of the Qur’an as he knows them, and as he learned them from the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, his marriage was also distinguished. As he was very poor and a day laborer who worked hard, and he was not a merchant or wealth owner He asked to marry the daughter of the Messenger of God, the great lady Fatima, peace be upon her, the elite of the Muslims in Yathrib among the leaders and the wealthy, but she rejected them all. Mrs. Fatima refused all the wealthy and leaders, to marry Ali the poor, who sold his shield with which he protects himself in wars, in order to present its price as a dowry to his wife.The daughter of the ruler was in Yathrib at that point. Nevertheless, Fatima married Ali, peace be upon him, because he is the purest and most pious, and not because he is the richest. This marriage was an arrangement by God Almighty, so that the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad would be confined to the children of the Imam and Mrs. Fatima. None of the Prophet’s sons, males or females lived. All that is said about the daughters of the Messenger of God is not his daughters. Rather, the daughters of his wives and his only daughter is the daughter of Mrs. Khadija bint Khuwailid Mrs. Fatima Al Zahraa, wife of Imam Ali, peace be upon him.
His intellectual heroism and military bravery:
Quraish fought aggressive wars against the Muslims after their departure from Makkah to another city, which received them, and its people believed in the Prophet of God and became Muslims voluntarily. The first war was when the Quraysh tribe stole the property of the Muslims in Makkah, and they tried to sell them and sell the remaining Muslims in the slave market in the Levant. The Quraish convoys containing the stolen goods passed on their way to sale in the Levant, and then the Muslims confronted them, trying to catch up with them, so the first battle was the Battle of Badr, in which Imam Ali alone killed half of the polytheists knights. Imam Ali did not start fighting, and offered to his opponents to leave the war, and to choose peace, and he used to talk to them and teach them that he was fighting for the sake of God Almighty, neither for his person nor for his glory, and that his religion instructed him not to commit aggression, and also instructed him to accept peace from them if they wanted peace And they left the war, but if they decided to be stubborn and continued their aggression, then only he would fight them. it was he who pulled out a door in a huge fortress called Khaybar. It said that it needed 20 men to open it. There was in that fort a frightening man whose followers believe that he will not die and will live forever. His name is Marhab, and he is a knight of knights from an ancient sect of Jews who fought Muslims and conspired against them with the polytheists, despite the goodwill treaty between them and the Muslims, in the end, Imam Ali killed Marhab al-Khaybari. The Imam was besieged with the Muslims in Yathrib, whose name turned into “Madina El Monawara ” The Quraysh came after two wars, the Battle of Badr and Uhud, gathered a huge army led by the Knight of the Arabs Knights called Omar binWad. Amr bin Wad al-Ameri challenged the Muslims, but the knights fled from his duel, although he challenged them several times because of his strength, might and reputation among the Arabs. Each time, Imam Ali stands and says to the Messenger of God, “I will highlight him, O Messenger of God” (please see History of al-Tabari and al-Maghazi). In the end, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, allowed him to compete with Umar bin Wad al-Ameri, so he defeated al-Ameri and mourned his sister, and he boasted that whoever killed her brother was a knight greater than him, he is the Arab knight Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him.
His morals in wars:
The Imam did not initiate a war, did not invade a country, or attack nations, or force a people to convert to religion, as did his predecessors and those who came after him as the governing successors of the first Islamic state. It was said, "He has never been defeated in a battle, nor has he ever repeated a blow. If he struck from above, his blow is decisive. If he struck from the side, then his blow is decisive, and in the conversation, his strikes were chord". As for courage, he was braver than everyone before him, and braver after him, and his positions in the war are well known, and he became an example until the Day of Resurrection, and he is the man who did not flee and was not afraid of a battalion, Imam Ali did not fight any knight but was victorious over him. In a war that took place between him and the usurper of the rule of the Levant, called Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan, in a war called the Battle of Sven, before the start of the fighting, the Imam pushed his horse forward and then summoned Muawiya to fight him so that no casualties occurred between the two armies, and this duel will end the war. One of Muawiya’s advisors, Amr ibn al-Aas, said: "The man has done you justice". So Muawiya said: You have not deceived me since you have supported me until today. Would you order me to fight Abi Al-Hassan when you know that he is brave. I see you aspiring to rule the Levant after me." In other words, Muawiya knows that there is no hope for any swordsman to win against Ali, peace be upon him. Courage cannot be described as anything more than he escaped from a swordsman, and he used to say, peace be upon him: I did not fight anyone, except that he and I were against him.
He was told: O Commander of the Faithful, have a horse prepared to attack or flee. He, peace be upon him, said: As for me, I do not flee, and whoever flees from me do not seek him.
In the books of historians mentioned at the bottom of this article, it has been said that God’s peace be upon him was "held in the hand of a person so that he could not breathe"
Where did the aura that surrounded Ali, peace be upon him, came from, or what is said in our day "charisma":
He is the most ascetic of people, according to the confession of Umar bin Abdul Aziz Al-Umayyad. He was told, "You are the most ascetic of the people," so he said, "No, but the most ascetic, Imam Ali bin Abi Talib."
What historians conceal from the Imam, peace be upon him, is that he was the one who overturned the great idol and lowered the great Hubl from the back of the Kaaba. That idol wassculpted from a great rock, lifted by three hundred men, to be erected in the Kaaba centuries ago.
In a war with his enemies, his army protested with thirst, because the springs opening was blocked by a rock, and a battalion was unable to open that spring, so the Imam, peace be upon him, relied on God Almighty, and carried the rock and threw it away from the water.
The physical strength of the Imam, peace be upon him, was not from his muscles. Rather, the strength came from the strength of faith and the strength of the spirit.
He said about himself: I swear by God that I did not take off the door of Khaybar with physical strength but with spiritual strength.
It was said (the previous source) that he wanted one day to break a piece of bread, so he could not break it except after using his hands and knees. It is the strength of the soul, not the strength of the body.
His piety of immorality:
Even the imam’s enemies do not deny, which are many throughout history, that he is one of the greatest in the universe in his worship and ritualism. He was the one who taught the people how to remember God, the Most High, and the Almighty, in their retreats. He is the one who explained the meaning of prayer to the Prophet and how it is. He is the one who taught people the equestrian etiquette that does not seek personal ostentation, but rather professional ethics, for the sake of truth, before physical strength and war skill. His morals, peace be upon him, were revealed in front of his enemy Omar bin Al-Aas in the battle called "Safin". Amr bin Al-Aas fell to the ground while he was fighting him. When the Imam wanted to finish him off, Ibn Al-Aas turned over, showing his rear, and to this refers the poet Abu Firas Al-Hamdani:
There is no good in avoiding death through humiliation
Just as Amr avoids him badly
We are people, we have no middle ground
We have the highest standing, differently from all people, or the grave.
Imam Ali left him, knowing that his killing of Amr bin Al-Aas would have ended the war with his victory, and Amr was one of the four Arabshrewd.
His rhetoric:
To this day, thinkers, generation after generation, are still amazed with the rhetoric, humanity, and morals of Imam Ali. They attributed to him 480 sermons between short and long, he was saying it improvisation. A person named Al-Sharif Al-Radi compiled his sermons and produced them in three parts. Parts one and two contain only his sermons. The third part collects his judgment and answers to the questions people asked him and his messages. It is clear that collecting sermons and hadiths is a matter, and documenting them and making sure that they are all of the Imam, may God bless him and grant him peace, is something else.
Then came a person named Ibn Abi Al-Hadid, who died in the year in which Baghdad was defeated by the Tatars in the year 656 AH (1258 AD), and the Caliph Al-Mustasim was on the run. The Caliph Al-Mustasim had a minister called Muayad al-Din Al-Alqami. He asked Ibn Abi al-Hadid and encouraged him to explain Nahj al-Balaghah. He spent four full years writing the explanation of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib.
