Therefore Imam Ali’s wisdom and foresight becomes clear in...

Therefore Imam Ali’s wisdom and foresight becomes clear in his concentration on the feature of “servitude” and his challenge to withstand all the claims of exaggeration which attributed him to deity. It is narrated in “Hadeeth” that “some people came to Ameeral mu’amineen (A.S.) and said: Salutations be to you, our God!

He called them to repent but they didn’t, he dug for them a hole, he kindled fire in it then he dug another hole beside it and connected them when they didn’t repent he threw them down in the hole and kindled fire in the other hole till they died.

[^14] In this concern he said: “In me two kinds of men perished an exaggerating lover and an extravagant hater” [^15] Secondly: The Islamic ideology has released Moslem from his lusts after it has connected his heart with Allah and the next abode and it didn’t connect him with his wishes and caprices. The Islamic ideology has supplied the Moslem’s mind and will with the protective immunity from deviation or preferring the transient world to the remaining everlasting life.

The spirit –according to Ahlilbait’s instructions- is the place of danger, so it took most of their attentions. Thus, we find that the speech about the “spirit”, the necessity of controlling it, occupies a vast area of Ameeral Mu’amineen’s sayings, maxims and preachments, he didn’t miss any chance without speaking about the “soul” because it is the pivot of the mill in building the human being.

The Holy Qur’an has told us: “Allah has never changed a favor which He has conferred upon a people until they changed their own conditions”[^16], so what is noteworthy is that Imam Ali (A.S.)-during the days of his just government- was ordering his governors and leaders to take control over their wishes, although he has chosen them precisely from virtue and that most of them had a recommended merits, from alter he (A.S.) wrote to Alashtar when he appointed him as a governor of Egypt: “this is what Abdullah Ameeralmu’amineen ordered Maalik bin AlHaarith Alashtar…he ordered him to fear Allah and to prefer His obedience… he ordered him to break his devotion to lusts…as the spirit longs for evils, except what Allah’s mercy helps…so take control over your wishes, keep your wishes back of what is not permitted to you as taking control of the spirit is the equity of what she loves and hates and feel sympathy to your subject.