Nahjul Balagha Analysis: Sermon 1, Paragraph 2

Salams to all our readers.

In this post we are looking at the second paragraph of Imam Ali's (as) talk on the creation of the Earth, sky and the birth of Adam.

In his first paragraph we looked at the existence of Allah with relation to our mind and it's capabilities to understand certain aspects of Allah from His creation.  We understand from the first paragraph that We are to limit our contemplation of Allah to what we know and what we know is limited to what we sense in the earth extending out into the Universe in general and then honing into the intricacies of creation.  

We will gain sufficient knowledge to advance our thinking to the most sophisticated of intellectual levels.  Putting this knowledge into action; we can progress in live both individually and globally, advancing in science and discoveries to bring humanity through new dimensions of understanding if it is taken as an individual responsibility of every human being to undersand these concepts.

So that was the mind and expression and their duties and potentials since expression and writing was also mentioned in this very same paragraph.  Next, we look at the development of man with regard to his relationship with Allah - which if we break it down to what that means, we get the heart and man's religious progress.

Imam (as) begins:

The foremost in religion is the acknowledgement of Him, the perfection of Acknowleging Him is to testify Him, the perfection of testifying Him is to believe in His One-ness, the perfection of believing in His One-ness is to regard Him Pure, and the perfection of His purity is to deny him attributes, because every attribute is a proof that it is different from that to which it is different from  that to which it is attributed and a proof that it is different from that to which it is attributed and everything to which something is attributed to is different from the attribute.  Thus whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognizes His like, and who recognizes His like regards Him two; and who regards Him two recognizes parts for Him; and who recognizes parts for Him mistook Him; and who mistook Him pointed at Him; and who pointed at Him; admitted limitations for Him; and who admitted limitations for Him numbered Him.

The first third of this paragraph Imam Ali builds up faith, the turning point of faith is in the way we perceive His attributes which is the turning point of this paragraph.  Depending on whether we perceive these attributes correctly according to how Imam Ali (as) guides us towards perceiving them and the incorrect way which he warns us about in this very same paragraph we will either reach belief or disbelief.  The down turn occurs in stages according to the warnings at every step of the explanation that Imam Ali gives in this paragraph.

The initial stage of belief begins with acknowledgement.  Which takes us back to the first paragraph and the act of thinking.  So how do we think about Him?  Again, the first paragraph gives us that guidance and terminates with looking around at His creation.  So simply put, we acknowledge Him by recognizing the One-ness of the One who initiated creation and put everything into order and continues to maintain the entire system.  Without thought and acknowledgement there can not be any belief or faith.

The cruciality of this guidance is that it is given by the leader of the faithful.  Contemplate here on who is guiding and His role and mission in our faith in order that we do not take this advice lightly but instead realize that our entire existence and fate both in this world AND the hereafter rests on completely understanding these ideas because actions are in accordance with our thoughts.  

Further, we can understand here that to understand these ideas first and to act on them after having understood them is the duty a muslim has towards his first Imam - it is the way we follow him (often in life we may ask (if we are aware) how do we follow our Imams since to follow the Imams beginning with the first is to be guided successfully towards our destination - the deliverance into the realm of true faith and progression in life resulting in eternal life.

The beauty of Imam's guidance is that it is gentle, hopeful and unoppressive.  He uses truth, logic, warnings and hope to motivate us towards thinking and acting correctly.

In our next post we will look at the second sentence of this very same paragraph.