George Gerdak and Imam Ali (PBUH): The Secret of Greatness, Part 4

2020.10.19 - 01:13
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 As revealed by George Jerdak and the Imam: Why is Imam Ali (peace be upon him) ?

Georges Jardak is a Lebanese thinker, poet and writer, known for his deep, meaningful poetry. He is known also for his enlightening reformist thinking, one of the greatest writers, and he became famous as a journalist and critic of literature. Where his description of a poet and a journalist dominated the quality of a thinker and writer because of the appeal of the press to the general public.

George Jerdak, a Christian who believes in his religion, recognized the second most important symbol in the Islamic religion after the Prophet Muhammad. That was throughout his reading of a book containing sayings attributed to Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, which is Nahj al-Balagha. He was fascinated by the rhetoric of the Imam and attracted by his thought. However he was surprised at how the whole of humanity doesn’t know this Imam and doesnt follow him, considering him to be the best creation of Allah among mankind.
George Jardak composed an encyclopedia about Imam Ali and his thought. He astonished the Christians before the Muslims because he considered that the whiff of humanity is found in the personality of Imam Ali is above all religions, and this is some of George Jardak’s opinion of the Imam.

So why Imam Ali?

First: Justice according to Imam Ali
Justice is the issue that astonished Jeradak and made him strongly attracted to the Imam as a person and heritage. This matter was evident when he considered him the voice of human justice, highlighting his book and his acquaintance with this great title.
This is indicated by the saying of Jeradak: “As for justice is described as a law of personal ethics, and an approach that people must adhere to if they want to be happy. So it’s almost the main topic of our book about the son of Abi Talib.”
Moreover the Book of Jeradak is full of many texts indicating this issue, among these texts we find what indicates power and eloquence. As an example Jeradak’s saying: “Have you ever noticed the areas of justice, great, and was right even if the creation cooperated to be against him in all regions of the earth, and his enemy was always wrong even if he ruled the plains and the mountains. Thats because justice for him isnt an acquired doctrine, even though it later became a doctrine in its approach. It isn’t a plan that the state’s policy has clarified, even if this aspect of its concepts for him. Also it isn’t a path that he deliberately takes, then it brings him closer from the people of society reaching the forefront and if he passes through it then it leads him to the hearts of the righteous. But rather because it’s in its moral and ethical structure an origin that unites everything together, and a trait that cant allow a person to go beyond himself, even as this justice is a substance from which his physical structure has been built, so it is blood in his blood and a soul in his soul. ”
In another eloquent text, Jeradak said: “It is not strange for Ali to be the fairest of people ever, but it’s strange not to be like that, although the news about Ali concerning his justice is a legacy that honors the human status and the human spirit, and it’s done in his spirit even in front of the simplest matters. If people were equal and had the right to choose one of the belongings of this world, Imam Ali preferred this choice to go to others, so that others dont feel that the greater share of rights is associated with the greatest rather than the youngest ... Imam’s commandments and messages to the governors almost revolve around one axis, which is justice. Whatever how much people colluded on him, foreigners or relatives, this would be because of the balance of justice that doesnt tend to close people or go along with any influential personality. The only thing that is permissible in it is truth.”
In a third text, Jerdak said: “The idea of social justice grew up within the Imam’s powerful mind on the basis of the group’s rights that must end with the removal of the enormous differences between the social classes. His voice in the battle of social justice was very loud, and his defense of human values was great, neither relentless nor soft. Furthermore he was in his government the ideal of the ruler who is conscious of human rights in that era, working to implement its operative with all his means.”

 

Second: Equality according to the Imam
Jeradak believes that the Imam was the first to perceive equality as a social necessity without which a society can’t stand, and he was able to expand the boundaries of this equality to reach the horizons of general humanity, according to him: “As for this equality, we saw that the son of Abi Talib was proactive in realizing it as a social necessity without which a society couldnt be straightened out, and its buildings is wont be raised. Also we have seen the way the Imam did perceive the exact concept of equality as if he was from the thinkers of these ages and not from the seventh century AD. He recognized by it all rights and all duties, ranged people equally in which there is no difference between them even if they were far or near, enemy and relative, a Muslim and non-Muslim, or Arab or non-Arab. Ali had become familiar with the love for equality thats found in the Arab ethics, then expanded the boundaries of this equality until it reached the horizons of general humanity, and its meaning allowed it to gain the things that the nature of man and society wants.”


Third: Freedom according to the Imam
Jaradak didnt find out the general significance of the concept of freedom in that era except in the approach of the Imam, and according to him: “If a person reviewed the term freedom in that era, he wouldnt find its general significance except in the approach of Imam Ali, because the word freedom and all of its derivatives had no meaning in the era of the Imam, only what is established in opposition to slavery. Freedom was considered to be against slaveryreedom , and the free person versus the slave, but according to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the matter is not that, and the concept of freedom is wider and more general. This is what we see very clearly in Ali’s constitution for people, as it recognizes for the individuals right to vote and retire, to speak and work, and to live with dignity, then he used to them equally pursuant to their rights and duties, and he illimited freedom unless the interest of the group requires such limits.”
Jeradak also found that the Imam lived freedom, worked in its path, and built his road across it, he was the living embodied example for it and its defender. During that Jerdak says: “Ali had straightened this freedom and guided it to reach a correct humanitarian direction, and he made it responsible, lived it, worked in its path, and built across it his personal road and general constitution. However I dont prejudice again the reader that he may cause us to increase our research regarding the concept of freedom for Ali after he read about this topic and about what more than thousand pages of this book include. We summarize all of this by saying that the son of Abi Talib is like a living model for the concepts of freedom, so that his behavior is an embodiment recognition for the freedom of people concerning what they see and do. But they mustnt offend the public body, and its constitution regulates this recognition and generalization, his sense of freedom as a basic human value that he received behind his behavior and his constitution, and in all of these matters, he is an example of the free Arabic personality as it should be .” [14]

 

Fourth: The rhetoric of the Imam
There is no one who is more eloquent than Jerdak when he writes about the rhetoric of the Imam, we see him eager when approaching this side, and it is sufficient to know that from this side of rhetoric his first realization of the Imam began. Moreover, the Imam’s attractive influence strengthened and deepened Jerdak realization, resulting through time to produce texts that manifest his worthy statements that fits him perfectly when he talks about the rhetoric of the Imam, which represented for him the ideal of eloquence after the Holy Qur’an.
From these indicative texts, Jaradak wrote, saying: “Among the conditions of rhetoric, which is that speech must adequate the situation, this didnt meet with an Arabic writer as it was for Ali ibn Abi Talib, because his compositions are considered the highest example of this rhetoric after the Qur’an. His compositions are summary of clarity, strongly emotional, its words and meanings are within a complete harmony that has a sweet musical impact on the ear. He appears to be nice and soft in situations that dont call for distress, and intensifies and show violence in other situations, especially when the saying is about the hypocrites, the evasive and those who are covetous of the life at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable and the owners of wasted rights. Alis style is as frank as his heart and mind, sincere like his personality, so it’s no wonder that he is an approach to eloquence! Alis style has reached a level of honesty that raises even rhythm from sophistication, and if it is in the abundance of its weighted crossed sentences rhyming, it is far from the spirit of the sophistication, and closest to the abundant nature .”[15]
Concerning the rhetoric and the eloquence of the Imam, Jerdak wrote: “The preachers among Arabs are many, and rhetoric is one of their literary arts that they knew in Jahiliyyah and Islam, especially in the era of the Prophet and the Rightly Guided Caliphs because they had a need for it. As for during the Rashidi era and in the subsequent Arab eras as a whole, no one had reached what Ali ibn Abi Talib reached in this way, for Alis easy utterance was one of the elements of his personality, as well as a strong statement, including all the elements of character and workmanship ... It is difficult to find within the personalities of history who had met all these conditions that make their self an excellent preacher, other than Ali ibn Abi Talib and a few people, and you only have to review these conditions and the famous preachers in the eastern and western worlds, in order to realize that we said this true, not exaggerating.”

Fifth: The greatness of the Imam
No one of the contemporaries surpassed Jerdak in talking about the greatness of the Imam, he repeatedly described him as a great person, and his whole book validated and demonstrated the greatness of the Imam, he says: “In our history there are wonderful pages of the great humanitarian radiance, that honored us as Arabs and add honor to human history.”
Moreover before Jerdak talked about the sides that show Imam’s greatness, he drew attention to a note in which he saw injustice against the Imam, which occurred in most of the books that were written about him, and according to his saying: “Isn’t it unfair for the speeches that are found in most of the books written about the son of Abi Talib to revolve around topics that are almost confined to one in which every research and argument revolves around, and that if it goes beyond him, then the speech is about striking with swords until they are arched and stabbing with spears until they are broken, then about his fighters the descended birds descend upon them and the lions will rip them apart? There is no doubt that these matters have a subject in Ali’s history, because their news has been limited to a thousand issues and issues in the distant history, but the aspects of real greatness of the son of Abi Talib are more than that. Even if it was studied it would be in order to clarify some of the historical secrets in the life of the man and the life of his contemporaries, and not for every research and discussion revolve around it.”
Meanwhile through Jeradaks hints regarding Imam’s greatness, he asked: “Did you know among the creation a great person that meets with thinkers who hold sublime thought, with benevolent people who hold deep love for the goodness, with scholars who hold knowledge, with researchers and their excavations, with those have affection, with those who are ascetics, with the reformists, and with those who are suffering from pain, with the oppressed by their feelings and rebellion, with the literature of the writers, with the heroes and their heroism, with the witnesses and their testimonies, with a kind of humanity in which it honors and elevates it, and in all that he has the merit of saying that results from work, and the sacrifice related to sacrifice, and preceded in time!”

On this pattern of hinting at the greatness of the Imam, Jeradak also asked, saying: “Did you know a mind like this one, science like this knowledge, eloquence like this rhetoric, and courage like his own, that is completed with tenderness which knows no boundaries so that this amount of tenderness dazzles you as it does these merits that are united together in one man from among the sons of Adam and Eve. So he is the scholer, intellectual, author, manager, ruler, and the leader who leaves people, rulers, greedy people, and armies to conspire against him. So that he comes to you and shake in yourself the feelings of the person who has emotions and thoughts, whispering in your heart this wonderful secret counsel, including the warmth of the generous emotions, saying: “Losing loved ones is estranging,” or “Dont rejoice over calamities,” or “Let people be close to you with grace and mercy”, or “Forgive those who oppressed you, give who deprived you, join those who left you alone, and do not hate those who hate you.”

After tracing aspects of the Imam’s greatness, Jeradak concluded, saying: “If you know this great person or not, history and truth testify that he is the giant conscience, the martyr, the father of the martyrs, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the voice of human justice and the eternal personality of the East. ”

These were some of the prominent indications that answer the question: Why did Jeradaq choose Ali himself and not others? Why did he consider him as the voice of human justice? In the book there are many signs indicating that, and in the following chapter some of these signs are revealed.

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