Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib is one of the most important spiritual and intellectual authorities in Islam after the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He was the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet, the fourth of the four ‘rightly guided caliphs’ who led the nascent Muslim community, and the first Shi’i spiritual leader, or Imam.
Considering his importance in the elaboration of intellectual, ethical, spiritual, legal and political traditions in Islam, there is a dearth of literature in Western languages on his life and thought. In this episode, author and researcher Dr Reza Shah Kazemi tells us about Imam Ali's life, his spirituality, and his guidance for behaving justly.
Reza Shah-Kazemi is a research associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, where he specialises in Sufism, Shi'ism, and comparative mysticism. His books include Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali (2007), Doctrines of Shi'i Islam (2001) and Avicenna (1997). He has also published numerous articles in academic journals.
In a convocation address to the American University of Cairo in 2006, Mawlana Hazar Imam said: “As university graduates, you will be fashioning your own visions for the future and your own ways of fulfilling them. But as you do, I hope you will honour the values of this University. For the one ingredient which holds particular promise in the search for fulfillment, is the search for knowledge.
“From the very beginnings of Islam, the search for knowledge has been central to our cultures. I think of the words of Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first hereditary Imam of the Shia Muslims, and the last of the four rightly-guided Caliphs after the passing away of the Prophet (may peace be upon him). In his teachings, Hazrat Ali emphasized that “No honour is like knowledge.” And then he added that “No belief is like modesty and patience, no attainment is like humility, no power is like forbearance, and no support is more reliable than consultation.”
“Notice that the virtues endorsed by Hazrat Ali are qualities which subordinate the self and emphasize others — modesty, patience, humility, forbearance and consultation. What he thus is telling us, is that we find knowledge best by admitting first what it is we do not know, and by opening our minds to what others can teach us.”
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