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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Lessons from the Nahjul Balaghah Introduction In the Name of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate It is necessary, at the beginning, to provide our brothers and sisters with a brief introduction to the Nahjul Balaghah. As you know, the Nahjul Balaghah is a collection of Sermons, Letters and miscellaneous Sayings left as a memorial from the Master of the Pious, the Commander of the Faithful, All, peace be upon him.

This book is divided into three sections of Sermons, Letters and short Sayings or' wise Sayings' (hikam), as they are usually called, some of which have been selected from among the Sermons and Letters. The Nahjul Balaghah dates back to about one thousand years ago when the late Sayyid Radi compiled these Letters and Sermons at the end of the third and the outset of the fifth century (400A.H.) the Hejra after. It is, thus, a one thousand year old book.

It is to be noted, however, that before Sayyid Radi made efforts in compiling All's Sermons and Sayings, they were scattered in the books of the Traditions' and history. Other scholars had also begun to perform this task in one way or another, but no one succeeded in accomplishing what Sayyid Radi did. Therefore, we are indebted to the endeavors and initiatives of this great scholar who left the Nahjul Balaghah for us.

Another point to be noted here is that, in addition to the contents of the Nahjul Balaghah, a number of Sermons, Letters and short Sayings of ‘Ali, peace be upon him, can be found in different books which recent scholars have tried to compile and introduce as appendices to the Nahjul Balaghah.

Therefore, in addition to the Nahjul Balaghah, which is, in itself, a rich and invaluable treasure, here are some other books of All's Sayings which shall later be introduced to the readers in detail so that they may obtain a general acquaintance with the bibliography of the Nahjul Balaghah and its related books. Another point to note about the Nahjul Balaghah concerns the invalidity of this book, a claim made by some people over the years.

The motive behind such a claim can easily be surmised, that is, the subject matter of the Nahjul Balaghah threatened the interests of some groups or classes of people who therefore found the best device, to be discrediting the book itself.