ভূমিকা

Know that the Owner of death is the Owner of life, that the Creator is the One Who causes death, that the Destroyer is (also) the Restorer (to life), and that the One Who afflicts is (also) the One Who grants soundness. (Know) that this world is only established in accordance with what God has ordained for it of blessings and trials and recompense on the Day of Resurrection, or whatever He wills which you do not know of.

If any of that is confusing for you, then attribute it to your ignorance of it, for at first you were created ignorant, then you acquired knowledge. How often it is that you are ignorant of a matter which perplexes you and your perception of it is erroneous, then after that, you perceive it! Thus, resort to the One Who created you, provided for you and proportioned you. Let your worship be for Him, your request be to Him and your fear be of Him”.

Commentary In this part of the letter, Imam ‘Ali (as) draws our attentions to several constructive points, some of which are the following: Monotheism and the negation of polytheism Since early times, there were groups such as Disanieh, Manawieh, Mazdakieh, and the like who were of the opinion that there should be relatedness and relation between cause and effect. Therefore, they used to believe that there were two Gods.

The reason for this assumption was that there were dichotomies in the world creatures: good-bad, for instance.