One who praises 'Ali extols his own merit...

One who praises 'Ali extols his own merit, for: He who admires the Sun's brilliance extols himself: My two eyes are bright and my vision is not clouded I conclude my discourse with 'Ali's own statement about himself. One day, one of his companions attempted to deliver a speech. He couldn't as he found himself tongue-tied. 'Ali told him: You should know that the tongue is a part of man and under the command of his mind.

If the mind lacks stimulation and refuses to budge, his tongue will not assist him. However, if the mind is ready his speech will not give him respite. Indeed we (the ) are the lords of (the domain of) speech. In us are sunk its roots and over us are hung its branches.

[^29] Al Jahiz, in the al-Bayan wa al-tabyin, relates from 'Abd Allah ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Ali that 'Ali ('a) once said: We (the ) are superior to others in five qualities: eloquence, good looks, forgiveness, courage, and popularity with women. [^30] Now we shall take up another characteristic of 'Ali's discourses, which is in fact the main theme of this book; that is, their multi-dimensionality.

The Nahj al-balaghah Among Literary Classics: Most nations possess certain literary works which are regarded as 'masterpieces' or 'classics'.

Here we shall limit our discussion to the classics of Arabic and Persian literature whose merits are more or less perceptible for us, leaving the other classics of the ancient world, Greece and Rome and so on, and the masterpieces of the modern age from Italy, England, France and other countries, to be discussed and evaluated by those who are familiar with them and qualified to discuss them.

Of course, an accurate judgement about the classics of Arabic and Persian is possible only for scholars who have specialized in the classical literature; but it is an accepted fact that every one of these masterpieces is great only in a particular aspect, not in every aspect.

To be more precise, every one of the authors of these classics displayed his mastery only in a single, special field to which their ingenuity was confined, and occasionally if they have left their special field to tread other grounds they failed miserably.

In Persian there are numerous masterpieces in mystical ghazal, general ghazal, qasidah, epic, spiritual and mystical allegorical verse, etc; but as we know, none of the Persian poets of world renown has succeeded in creating masterpieces in all these literary forms.