ভূমিকা

Nahj al-Balaghah and Its Spiritual Teachings (3) - Al-Shia The Scientific and Cultural Website of Shia belief Nahj al-Balaghah and Its Spiritual Teachings (3) 2023-03-28 415 Views Islamic teachings , Imam Ali , The Commander of faithful , Nahj al-Balagha , The Peak of Eloquence In this part of the article titled “Nahj al-Balaghah and Its Spiritual Teachings”, we shall focus on “Taqwa” (Piety) as one of the important themes of Nahj al-Balaghah here.

Taqwa (Piety) Taqwa is one of the most frequent motifs of the Nahj al-balaghah. In fact, it would be hard to find another book that emphasizes this spiritual term to the extent of this book. Even in the Nahj al-balaghah, no other term or concept receives so much attention and stress as taqwa. What is taqwa? Often it is thought that taqwa means piety and abstinence and so implies a negative attitude.

In other words, it is maintained that the greater the amount of abstinence, withdrawal, and self-denial, the more perfect one’s taqwa. According to this interpretation, taqwa is a concept divorced from active life; secondly, it is a negative attitude; thirdly, it means that the more severely this negative attitude is exercised, the greater one’s taqwa would be.

Accordingly, the sanctimonious professors of taqwa, in order to avoid it is being tainted and to protect it from any blemish, withdraw from the bustle of life, keeping themselves away from involvement in any matter or affair of the world. Undeniably, abstinence and caution exercised with discretion is an essential principles of wholesome living. For, in order to lead a healthy life, man is forced to negate and affirm, deny and posit, renounce and accept, and avoid and welcome different things.

It is through denial and negation that the positive in life can be realized. It is through renunciation and avoidance that concentration is given to action. The principle of tawhid contained in the dictum (la ilaha illa Allah) is at the same time a negation as well as an affirmation. Without negation of everything other than God, it is not possible to arrive at tawhid.

That is why rebellion and surrender, kufr (unbelief) and iman (belief), go together; that is, every surrender requires a rebellion and every faith (iman) calls for denial and rejection (kufr), and every affirmation implies a negation. The Quran says: So whoever disbelieves in taghut and believes in God, has laid hold of the firmest bond ….