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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Masterpieces of Rhetoric Methood (nahj Al-balagha) The Allawiyah Foreward The Allawiyah Foreward § Shall I be content with being called ‘Amir Al-Mu’minin’ (The Commander of the Believers), although I do not share with them the hardships of the world? § Forbid people to monopolize. § Do not appropriate to yourself a thing in which people are equal.

§ Know that I am fighting two persons: one has claimed what is not his own and the other has ignored what is obligatory upon him. § No poor has starved except because of what a rich has enjoyed. § I have not seen any rich blessing except there is, beside it a wasted right. § The ruin of the land is caused by the poverty of the cultivators, while the cultivators become poor because of the rulers’ inclination to collect money due to their greediness.

§ You should keep an eye on the cultivation of land more than on the collecting of revenue. § No town deserves you more than another one. The best town for you is that which bears you. § Poverty in one’s homeland is a strangeness. § If poverty were represented as a man I would kill him. § A human being is asked, at the Day of judgment, about his money, from where had he earned it. § How can you enjoy food and drink when you know that you are eating an unlawful food and drinking unlawfully.

§ Oppressing weak people is the worst oppression, oppres-sion calls for sword; whoever loaded up himself with oppression will fail. § The day of the oppressed against the oppressor will be more difficult than the day of the oppressor against the oppressed. § The doer of oppression, the helper to it, and the contented with it are three partners. § Do not waste the interests of your brother depending upon your relation with him, for he is not your brother whose right you have wasted.

§ Whatever a defect in your secretaries which you over-look, you will be held responsible for it. § The worst minister to you is he who has been a minister to mischievous persons before you, and who has joined them their sins. § Thereafter, look into the affairs of your executives. Appoint them on trial and do not appoint them according to partiality or favouritism, because they are a collection of the branches of injustice and treason.

§ Avoid every such action which is performed in secret and of which shame is felt. § Allah has made it obligatory on just leaders that they should maintain themselves at the level of weak people.