In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. Dear Muslims, accept our heartiest felicitations to you on the occasion of one of the most blessed days, which is a public holiday in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and which we celebrate as "Father's Day" in honour of the Immortal Father-Figure, who was born this day. He is the man who continues to transcend history and all historical developments despite the passing of a millennium and four-and-a-half centuries, and love and respect for whom is an article of faith. He is none other than the Leader of the Virtuous, the Commander of the Faithful, the Epitome of Valour, the Symbol of Generosity, the Model of Magnanimity, the Paragon of Patience, the Gateway of Knowledge and Wisdom, and the Manifestation of Justice, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (PBUH).
On the 13th of Rajab, 1453 lunar years ago, the holy Ka’ba in Mecca came alive. Suddenly the wall of Abraham’s edifice, built wholly for God Almighty at the dawn of creation, parted and gave way to a pregnant lady who was praying to the One and Only Creator to ease her blessed burden. The wall closed in behind her as she entered, in order to prove it was not a haphazard incident but a manifest miracle. The spectacle was mind-boggling for the Arab infidels who rushed towards the door of the Ka’ba to try to break in, but the locks held firmly fast. It was even more baffling for the few Christians that lived in the then obscure city of Mecca. Those of them blessed with insight realized that Fatema bint al-Asad, the wife of the noble Ishmaelite patriarch Abu Taleb, was certainly carrying in her womb a soul greater than the Messiah. If not, how could the symbolic house of the Lord allow her to enter its sancta sanctorum, when centuries earlier the Virgin Mary had been commanded by God to leave the sanctuary of Bayt al-Moqaddas Jerusalem, and go elsewhere for giving birth to Prophet Jesus (PBUH)!
It was indeed a divinely unique way for heralding the birth of the person who combined in his peerless personality the virtues of not just Jesus, but all other prominent prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and others. No wonder, he was named Ali, meaning the “Lofty” – an attribute of his Creator the Lord Most High – and was destined to be groomed by no less a personality than that greatest of all human beings, the Almighty’s Last and Greatest of all Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). No wonder, a famous hadith acknowledged by denominations of Islam says:
"Whoever wants to see Adam in his knowledge, Noah in his resolve, Abraham in his prudence, Moses in his awe, and Jesus in his piety, should look at Ali ibn Abi Taleb (PBUH).
Another famous hadith that is indicative of his unrivalled merits, reads:
"Indeed, if all (the world’s) trees were to become pens and all the seas ink and the genies enumerators and the human beings scribes, the merits of Ali ibn Taleb will still be incalculable).”
The multi-dimensional personality of Imam Ali (PBUH) cannot be described in a brief radio programme. As we said earlier, he is the person who transcends history and all historical developments. He embodied all such excellent qualities as piety, patient, bravery, generosity, magnanimity, modesty, wisdom, knowledge, justice, insight, eloquence of speech, etc. to the extent that mankind will forever remain indebted to him. In the words of the famous 6th century AH Mu’tazalite scholar, Ibn Abi’l-Hadeed, the commentator of the famous collection of Imam Ali’s eloquent sermons, letters and maxims, the Nahj al-Balagha: “What can I say about the man whose enemies have praised him since they could not hide his virtues and merits. He is the source of all merits and perfection. He is the pioneer of all virtues and perfection of beauties.”
In our times, the contemporary Christian scholar of Lebanon, George Jordaq, has written a series of excellent books on Imam Ali (PBUH) calling him the Voice of Human Justice. After discussing in detail the thoughts and teachings of the Greek scholars Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, George Jordaq has focused upon the dynamics taught to humanity by Imam Ali (PBUH) and hailing him as the greatest of them all. This Christian writer has written a separate book on the French Revolution in which he says: what Imam Ali (PBUH) taught to mankind over a millennium ago are more elaborate and humanitarian than the liberties and civil rights that emerged in Europe and the West.
Certainly no mortal can say anything about Imam Ali ibn Abi-Taleb (PBUH) in view of the fact that God Himself has extolled his virtues in the Holy Qur’an by declaring in verse 3 of Surah al-Mae'dah that his ordainment as the Vicegerent of the Last and Greatest Prophet on the Day of Ghadeer as “perfected faith and completed divine favours."
For 33 years ever since his birth, Imam Ali (PBUH) was at the side of his cousin the Prophet, almost single-handedly winning the crucial battles that made Islam paramount by defeating the intricate plots of the Arab infidels and the evil Israelites, who often worked in tandem against Muslims. But in the next quarter century we see the person, who was witness to the glorious revelation of the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet over a 23-year period, magnanimously stay away from the political scene following usurpation of his political rights by persons who created the greatest discord and schism in world history. Yet he bore no grudge towards them and graciously gave them the best of advices whenever they came begging at his door to find solution to the muddle their policies had created for the Islamic state. He never succumbed to any temptation to make a bid for his usurped political authority as is evident by his wise rebuttals of the plots of the Arab hypocrites and the atrocious Israelites.
Once when a group of Israelites approached him and said in a mocking tone to the state of chaotic affairs created by those who had seized authority: “You had not buried your Prophet when you picked up differences about him.” Imam Ali (PBUH) replied: We did not differ about him (that is, the Prophet) but we may have differed after him (about his succession); whereas you had not dried up your feet after coming out of the (Red) Sea when you began asking your prophet (Moses): Make for us a god as they (the other pagan nations) have gods of their own. Said he; Indeed you are a people behaving ignorantly.”
The Israelites had no answer to the wisdom and knowledge of the man who had single-handedly stormed their impregnable fortress of Khaybar after shattering the myth of bravery of the Jewish warlord Marhab. Those of the Israelites who realized the manifest truth embraced Islam and became Muslims, while the intransigent stuck to their false and mischievous ways.
The man who reluctantly took up the reins of the caliphate in the last five years of his 63-year old fruitful life in order to establish the model administration of justice, decisively dealt with the intricate plots of the hypocrites, the apostates and the renegades. Until his martyrdom in Kufa, Iraq, where he had moved the capital of the expanding Islamic realm because of its centralized position, he gave to the world the model government of social justice that none has ever succeeded in equaling. Despite being the ruler of a realm spreading from North Africa to Central Asia that is split up in some twenty countries today, Imam Ali (PBUH) lived a very simple life eating only the bare minimum food and as usual showing magnanimity to his opponents. Today, despite the passing of over a millennium and four and a half centuries, he stands as steadfast as his birthplace the Holy Ka’ba, guiding the faithful all over the globe from his place of eternal repose, the golden-domed shrine in Holy Najaf in Iraq,
There is no better way of knowing Imam Ali (PBUH) than through the great anthology of his sermons, speeches, aphorisms and letters, called the Nahj al-Balagha, which is not the word of a saint confined to the solitude of a hut or an ivory tower. It is the work of a man who from the age of ten had participated actively in Islam’s struggles against tyranny, inequality, ignorance and superstition. Thus the basic aim of both the Holy Qur’àn and the Nahj al-Balagha lies in granting the individual a progressive and balanced view of life in the context of unity and security which are the social aspects for refining and activating human tracts in implementing justice. The wordings of Imam Ali (PBUH) in the Nahj al-Balagha i.e. the message of love, sympathy, friendship and unity; have acquired eternal meanings, perennial greatness and universal truthfulness in harmony with the changing lifestyle of every age and era. It is a book in which both the unities i.e. religious unity and the unity of mankind have been emphasized for shaping solidarity and harmony between the people of the world, because God is not “Rabb ul-Muslimin” but He is “Rabb ul- Aallamin” that is, the Sustainer of the entire universe.
