Nahjul Balagha analysis: Sermon 1 - Part 1: Show me how to think

Praise is due to Allah whose worth cannot be described by speakers, whose bounties cannot be counted by calculators and whose claim (to obedience) cannot be satisfied by those who attempt to do so, whom the height of intellectual courage cannot appreciate, and the divings of understanding cannot reach; He for whose description no limit has been laid down, no eulogy exists, no time is ordained and no duration is fixed.  He brought forth creation through His Omnipotence, dispersed winds through His compassion, and made firm the shaking earth with rocks.

This paragraph is an invitation for man to think and a guidance for how to think.  The very basics and essential qualities of a good education for any human being.  Imam Ali (as) begins with the boundaries of man's capability to think about Allah and ends with the creation of Allah from the most invisible and subtle to the very physical, basic, and tangible essences in which we can learn to perceive Allah's power and wisdom.

He begins with a caution that Allah's worth cannot be described by speakers, that His bounties (what He has given us) cannot be counted by those with the ability to numerate (or in modern times sophisticated technology capable of storing and manipulating high numbers and sophisticated equations) and those who attempt at obeying Him cannot reach the level of His claim of obedience.  In other words, whatever skills man has in his heart, mind or communications - still we cannot do justice to what is due to Allah.


I'd like to remind us all here that this sermon and in fact Islam, had come at a time and to a people (the Arabs) who had reached a level of skill in communication (literature and poetry in particular) that no other nation or people had reached.  So Imam Ali's words were particularly powerful to those who had the heart to understand them at that time.  Today, of course we have reached the most sophisticated in technological advancement and still we can not begin to count His bounties.

He continues with the "height of intellectual courage", the intellect is said to come from the mind, whilst courage from the heart.  In this paragraph, Imam Ali is telling us something quite profound.  Whilst the intellect requires knowledge and information in order to be able to reason correctly and courage comes from a sound, pure, honest and humble heart, Imam Ali is telling us here that a great height for a human being to be able to reach is that level where the intellect and the heart are combined, and that the intellect requires the heart in order to understand, but even if one has reached the height of this, still we cannot appreciate Allah.

Let's take a look at some of the sayings of Imam Ali in order to gain more perspective on what he is alluding to here.

Imam Ali (as) says:
It is to the extent of [one's zeal] that courage is shown.
In relation to the above we can say that even if one reaches great heights in intellectual zeal or enthusiasm and effort, still he will be unable to appreciate Allah.  In other words, with great struggle and effort to try to comprehend Allah still there is room for greater growth.

Imam Ali also said:
The out come of mental exertion is knowledge.

 If we apply this saying to the paragraph what we get is great hope.  He is saying, even though you cannot reach the appreciation that is deserving of Allah (swt) still you will gain significant knowledge if you endeavor to understand Him in the way that is permitted or guided towards (which we still have not at this point in the paragraph been given) and put in the extent of intellect and struggle that you are capable of at this time (it is variable and changes with time and knowledge - Our Holy prophet has said that the only thing that as it increases, the capacity for it also increases, is knowledge  Therefore, as knowledge increases the ability to think in new dimensions, and about new matters also increases.  This can be scientifically understood further by studying how by adding new pathways and associations in the brain the capacity to think and understand is multiplied.  So here again in this very first sermon, Imam Ali is giving us a guidance not only to think  and what to think about but also to think about knowledge, reasoning, intellectual courage and the brain.

Finally he ends this part of the paragraph with:

"and the divings of understanding cannot reach";

Previously he mentioned the "height" of the intellect and now he is referring to the depth of understanding.
When we refer to the mind and knowledge we often think about going "higher in knowledge" whereas when we talk about understanding (which we previously said is from the heart), we imagine it as a depth of understanding that we are trying to achieve. Here Imam Ali is saying even the depth of contemplation that is worthy of Allah cannot be reached.

Here we have been given hope that although we cannot reach the levels of understandings about Allah that are due to Him, still by thinking, and pondering we can expand our minds and reach understandings beyond what we are presently capable of understanding and thinking and in fact beyond what we imagine.

Anyone who has attempted this kind of intellectual struggle will understand the great rewards that have been gained from trying to understand a subject in a new light or perspective.

This analysis will continue in part 2 of Sermon 1