It is also true of the personality of individuals...

It is also true of the personality of individuals, and for this same reason those who considered the personality of Imam ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, to be against their personal or group interests, naturally tried to distort it. In the same manner, they claimed that the Nahjul Balaghah was invalid on the grounds that they said it was without any authority (sanad).

It is clear that the Nahjul Balaghah is in the category of Traditions upon which we depend for the understanding of Islamic teachings, as well as the Traditions of the Prophet and the Book (the Holy Qur’an). There is no doubt as to the authority of the Holy Qur’an, but as to the Traditions, valid authorities are needed to remove any doubts, i.e., the narrators of a certain Tradition, including the Imams and the Prophet, should be known and trustworthy.

This has always been the main concern of our great narrators and jurisprudents in eliciting and understanding the divine ordinances. Thus, we have the ‘science of rijal’, which deals with the recognition of narrators of Traditions and the ‘science of diraya' which concerns the recognition and analysis of Traditions and which determines the correct and the unreliable Traditions. Thus, this attention to detail that a Tradition must have an authority and that authority must be valid, is necessary.

It is because of this that today great emphasis is put on expertise in understanding Islamic sciences. An individual, who is not an expert, accepts the Traditions, which accord with his own intellect, understanding and mental background and rejects all others. This leads to the weakening of the religion. When an expert wants to rely on a Tradition, he first tries to acknowledge its authority and validity through his special expertise.

This necessity has been taken care of by our jurisprudents in their recognition and understanding of Islamic laws and regulations. Now, some people asserted that the Nahjul Balaghah, as a collection of Traditions, which should be based on valid authorities, was without any authority and, therefore, was invalid and unreliable.

As a matter of fact, in one way these people were telling the truth for no chain of narrators are mentioned in the Nahjul Balaghah in any of the Sermons so that they can be attributed to the Commander of the Faithful and the truthfulness of such narrators could be sought. However, in the books of Traditions such as Vasa-al-Shi'a, al-Kafi and the like, as well as in the old history books.