Prepared by Asst. Lecturer Saja Zuhair Hamed Ali begins with you in clear certainty after doubt, and steadfastness after hesitation. He tells us: “I never doubted the truth once it was shown to me” and “Whoever trusts in water will never thirst.” In times when desires are fragmented and a person is lost among countless paths and directions, Ali brings you back to certainty in the truth—seeing it as clearly as we see water. Whoever trusts real water will never thirst, unlike the one who trusts a mirage, which the thirsty person thinks is water, until he reaches it and finds nothing, but finds God there, who will repay him in full. It is impossible to fully comprehend the rank of certainty that Ali possessed. He once said: “I have merged with a hidden knowledge—if I were to reveal it, you would tremble like ropes shaking in a deep well.” Meaning: if I told you what I know, you would shudder intensely. His certainty reached the highest level, as he said: “If the veil were lifted, my certainty would not increase.” In knowledge, he begins with self-awareness before anything else. He says: “I am astonished at the one who seeks what he has lost while he himself is lost and does not seek himself.” A person may spend a lifetime knowing everything around him—people, sciences, and aspects of life—yet neglect the essential beginning: knowing oneself. He moves through life without asking: Who am I? Yet the answer to this question is the foundation of all other knowledge. As Ali said: “Whoever knows himself knows others better.” He then takes you from knowledge to self-evaluation based on inner insight—seeing from within outward, not the opposite. For “He is not عقل (truly rational) who is disturbed by false accusations against him, nor wise is the one who is pleased by the praise of the ignorant.” You are the one who truly knows who you are—not others and not their deceptive judgments of praise or blame, which can lead you into illusions shaped by desires, turning your intellect from a ruler into a prisoner: “How many intellects are captive under the rule of desire.” When a person returns to inner insight and takes control of themselves—letting reason lead—Ali draws a complete ethical map in just a few words. He speaks of a brother in faith: “I had a brother in God whose greatness in my eyes came from the smallness of the world in his eyes. He was not ruled by his stomach—he did not desire what he did not have, nor overindulge when he did. He was mostly silent, but when he spoke, he quenched the thirst of questioners. He appeared weak, yet when seriousness arose, he was like a lion. He would not present an argument until he brought decisive proof. He did not blame anyone when an excuse could be found, until he heard their justification. He did not complain of pain except when it had passed. He said what he did and did not say what he did not do. If he was overcome in speech, he was not overcome in silence. He was more eager to listen than to speak.” From the relationship with oneself, Ali moves to relationships with others—true love and genuine brotherhood. He teaches: “The one who truly loves you is not the one who flatters you; and the one who praises you is not the one who does so in your presence.” Rather, the true lover is the one who speaks well of you in your absence more than in your presence. If you find such trustworthy brothers, hold onto them, for they are rare—“rarer than red الكبريت (red sulfur).” These brothers are like your hand, your wing, your family, and your wealth. If you trust your brother, give him your wealth and yourself, support those who support him, oppose those who oppose him, conceal his faults, and show his good qualities. Because such brothers are rare, you must preserve them by forgiving their mistakes and overlooking their faults—with kindness alone, not harm: “Admonish your brother through kindness.” In life, justice is essential. Returning rights to their rightful owners—even if those rights have been used in marriage or wealth—is necessary. “In justice there is breadth, and whoever finds justice too narrow will find injustice even narrower. He warns that holding others’ rights unjustly will eventually consume you: “A usurped stone in a house is a pledge for its ruin.” Build your life on injustice, and wait for it to collapse upon you. From individual mistakes, he moves to societal ones. When wrongdoing becomes widespread and people unite in supporting it, it inevitably destroys the society itself: “Sins are like untamed horses without reins—those who ride them are thrown into the fire.” What a precise and powerful description. In the path of guidance… Mystics and people of spiritual المعرفة (gnosis) describe Ali as the “Ocean of Paths.” To him their الطرق (paths) return, from him their streams flow, and through him they connect to the Perfect Human—Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). He is the gate to the city of divine knowledge: “I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate.” In this context, Ibn Arabi writes in Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya that the Imam and the minister are essential to existence, and upon them the orbit of being turns. With Ali lies the aim of divine philosophy and the path of spiritual realization. He describes the journey in unmatched words: “The beginning of religion is knowing Him, the perfection of knowing Him is believing in Him, the perfection of belief is His oneness, and the perfection of His oneness is sincerity to Him…” After mastering his worldly life—and before it, his hereafter through the guidance of the Prophet—he stood at the edge of the world and renounced it completely: “O world, be gone from me… I have divorced you ثلاثًا (three times), with no return.” He showed the greatest example of asceticism while carrying responsibility, saying: “Were it not for the presence of supporters, and the covenant upon scholars not to remain silent before oppression, I would have cast its rope upon its neck… and you would have found your world more insignificant to me than the sneeze of a goat.” Thus, asceticism does not mean not possessing the world—but that the world does not possess you. Ali is the guide of the path that begins and never ends… He is known in moments of deep truth, not through reading alone—a light in the darkness of ظلم (injustice). The truth left him with few companions, yet he remains the companion of our journey… Our compass whenever storms of time strike, and when life’s hardships and dark days surround us.