Philosophers Talking About Imam Ali (Part 1)
The writer Gibran Khalil Gibran:
He says in Ali:
"In my belief that Abi Talibs son was the first Arabic person to adhere to the Holy Spirit, he was close enough to it, and used to hangout with it. He was the first Arabic one whose lips addressed the echo of its holy words that reached, for the first time, the ears of people so they were lost between his rhetoric approaches, and the darkness of their past. So whoever was impressed by him, it was an innately reliable admiration, and who antagonized him were the descendants of the Jahiyyah. "
Then he says:
"Ali bin Abi Talib died a martyr of his greatness."
Moreover the well-known Egyptian Islamic researcher, Professor Abdul Karim Al-Khatib:
He says in his book "Ali bin Abi Talib, the rest of the prophethood," Ali was the undisputed champion of Islam, and Ali the jurist of Islam, the world of Islam, and the wise man of Islam, not defended or disputed about this.
Then he also provides us in the causes of the Quraish’s enmity towards Ali, the red enmity that the children inherited from the fathers, and he says: What we wanted to report, that Ali was the most hardened Muslim against the polytheists of the Quraysh, and the most one who abused them, and caused their families sorrow on them. Moreover what we want from this is to mention those times, and these longings that fell in the hearts, and the souls were immersed in the battles that it occurred between the Muslims and the polytheists of the Quraysh. Also what happened in it from the death, and to mention that those compassion and these turbulence came across from the Quraysh a heart devoid of faith in Allah, so sadness was controlled their lives, and regret continued in it. Whereas what befell the Muslims in themselves and in their families would not find a place for it in souls who believed in Allah, and preferred death to life, and sought martyrdom and hastened it for the sake of Allah. These compassion, and those turbulence, which fell in the souls of the polytheistic Quraysh, have remained alive in them. After I entered Islam, this general entry was under oppression, rather than from consideration and conviction, and we will see the effects of that and its evidences, when Muslims are tested with those temptations that raised their heads after the death of the Prophet (PBUH), and when Quraysh stood in the face of Bani Hashem For the caliphate, and then get them with its swords.
Sheikh Muhammad Abdo says:
Sometimes I found myself in a world in which high souls overwhelmed me with meanings, in clusters of bright phrases wandering around pure souls, approaching pure hearts, suggesting their righteousness to them, and sometimes I testified that a luminous mind was not like a physical creation, separated from the divine complex, and connected to the soul Humanity, so he took him off the tyranny of nature, and took him to the higher kingdom.
Islamic researcher and thinker Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi:
He presents to us his book, “Ali Imam of the Pious,” and asks us to listen to him as he talks to us about the martyr Imam Ali bin Abi Talib under the title “The Body of the Noble Ali.” Behold, he says: “The body of a man who is not known by humanity as a ruler was afflicted with many troubles, despite his keenness to please others, protect justice, establish truth, and ward off falsehood.”
Then he says: “The martyr seized and settled in the consciousness of time, that whenever the word the “ Imam ” was said, he is Imam Ali, despite the large number of imams in Islam. That is because what he possesses in terms of knowledge and jurisprudence in religion, and whatever wisdom he has acquired. His wisdom is never available to a jurist or a scientist, the wonderful martyr gained the heroism, the legendary, the idealism, and settled in the conscience of time.” This means that whenever someone uttered only the name of the Commander of the Faithful, he is without doubt Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, Amir al-Mu’minin, despite the large number of caliphs in all eras of Islam. That is because Ali had the elements of power and honor, the elements of leadership, nobility and honor in him, as long as these traits are never found in a ruler.
In the introduction to the book, Al-Sharqawi says: “Imam Ali embodied the morals of Islam, and became its model. The Messenger undertook him: a child, he was raised to become a boy, and educated him. He said about the Imam: “Im the city of knowledge, and Ali is its gate.”
Mikhael Naima:
He says: "Do not ask me about my opinion concerning the Imam, may Allah honor his face, and my opinion is that - after the Prophet - the master of the Arabs at all rhetoric, wisdom, understanding of religion, enthusiasm for truth, and sublimation over the glory of the world, because I did not know in every Arabic men I read about them a man to whom the language had embraced as it denounced to the son of Abi Talib.” He praised him: “The heroics of the Imam was never limited to the battle fields, for he was a hero in the purity of his insight, the purity of his conscience, the charm of his statement, the depth of his humanity, the warmth of his faith, the sublimation of his invocation, and his support for the deprived and the oppressed people from who deprived and oppressed them, and his worship of the truth wherever the truth expresses him. These heroics, and no matter how old they aged, are still a rich quarry that we return to today and every day whenever we become more intense towards building a righteous and virtuous life.” Thus, Naima summed up his admiration for the personality of Imam (PBUH), as if the sea throws those pearls without effort or trouble. None among the Arabs is the one whose insight characterized the serenity of Imam Ali, nor is he who is able to capture the images that were reflected in his insight and displayed in a frame of magnificence that is permissible magic. So Ali is one of the giants of thought, spirit, and statement in every time and place.
And he says: It is impossible for any historian or writer, no matter how clever and genius he is, to provide you, even in a thousand pages, with a complete picture of a great person as Imam Ali, and for an era full of serious events, such as the one in which he lived.
The Philosopher and thinker Shibli Shamil:
Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, great, a single copy, the East did not see a mirror image, neither old nor modern. The philosopher Shibli accompanies the Egyptian Islamic writer, Professor Ahmed Abbas Saleh, and says: If Ali did not follow his ideal life, the flame - that is, the flame of truth - would have remained burning lurking in the souls, as if Alis sole role was to be an example in history, as if he were a distinctive sign of the road.
Edward Gibbon, British historian, said:
Imam Ali is a unique, brilliant personality, a poet, a believer, a noble and a saint, whose wisdom is like the breeze that every person breathes, for it is moral and humane, from his birth to his death, he was wise, he gathered his disciples and called them to my brothers and loved ones. Indeed, he was the renewed Haron ho was the friend of the Prophet Muss, as described by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ".
Henry Staub, British physician and thinker says:
"The Imam despised the material world and his deceptive glory. He feared Allah and was a philanthropist, striving to good, the first and preceding to every divine act, and his judgment was social, and he had creativity and sharp intelligence, and so he seemed strange to his society, because creativity was not common, he did not possess those sciences that It ends on the tongue, but that hidden science and wisdom that extends and never ends or perishes. "
Washington Irving, an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat wrote about the imam saying:
Imam Ali was one of the noblest families of the Quraysh tribe. He had three qualities that the Arabs were proud of: courage, eloquence, and generosity. His valiant spirit deserved the immortal title of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) "The Lion of God". Every interpretation of the Qur’an, and every saying and saying that prevailed in the Arab nation to this day, every Friday he taught them his wisdom and what was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), to remind them of what his chest was conscious of, and in it the treasures of divine sciences, and this is evidence of his generosity, humility and love, without preconditions ".
Gerald de Gaury, the British military officer, orientalist, historian and diplomat, says of the imam:
Imam Ali was the dean of the Hashemite family, the cousin and son-in-law of the man whom all Arabs respected. It is strange that he did not seek the caliphate upon the death of Prophet “Muhammad” as some of them did, except for the merits of his birth, marriage and his brotherhood with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the first to embrace Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said to him: “You are to the nation as Haron to Musa. He ruled with wisdom and nobility the nation of Islam, and his eloquence was the language of his wisdom.”
Cra de Vaux, French Baron and Orientalist, says:
Imam Ali was a knight predominantly, but he was a Sufi knight, meaning that his knighthood had descended from the source of the divine knowledge until satisfaction, so he did not raise his noble sword, and waved with it except to kill a demon from the tyrants of polytheistic arrogance and the pure ignorant nature, to cherish the word of Allah, and make people live under shadows of the gardens of brotherhood and love, and the safety of the breasts of hatred, hatred and evils from which the devil took as soldiers to shield the human being from his Lord and his humanity. He wants to make it a living reality, so he is a martyr imam, who possesses a soul and light that stores a divine and holy secret, which is the secret of accepting to endure torment until death to save man from darkness to light.”
Whereas the poet and writer Joseph Al-Hashem wrote:
I consider that whoever recognizes the personality of Imam Ali (PBUH) would be appealed for him, whoever is appealed for him would be influenced by him, whoever is influenced by him would be taken after him, and whoever is taken after him would reform himself, and whoever reformed himself reconciled with others. Perhaps those who are ignorant of the Imam or ignore him accuse us - and we glorify him - of exaggeration or emotional excess.
The Scottish orientalist Sir William Muir wrote:
With his brilliant intelligence, compassion, and enchanting influence on the lives of those who mix and sit with him, and being trusted by his companions and his community, since he was a young boy who was giving and generous with his spirit and love to defend the Prophet Muhammad and his tolerant message, humble and simple, one day half of the Islamic world ruled with goodness and not with a whip.
British physicist and writer Henry Staub wrote about the imam:
He despised the material world and its deceptive glory. He feared Allah and was a philanthropist, striving towards goodness, the first and preceding all divine action and wisdom. He was social and possessed sharp creativity and intelligence and therefore seemed strange to his society because creativity was not common. He did not possess those sciences that end on the tongue, but those Hidden science and wisdom that stretch and never end or die.
English orientalist Simon Oakley wrote:
Something that deserves to stand on and wonder about his wisdom, his mother gave birth to him in the same Holy House in Mecca, and who Allah commanded to purify and worship him sincerely, this did not happen to any person, not even any heavenly religion.
Lebanese historian Philip Khoury even wrote:
Valiant in war, eloquent in speech, gallantry towards opponents, the ideal for Muslims of magnanimity, chivalry and nobility.
The philosopher Al-Fakhr Al-Razi said in the Imam:
As for Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him, he used to loudly name the name, it was proven frequently, and whoever took after Ali bin Abi Talib has been guided, and the evidence for him is his saying, peace be upon him: Oh Allah, administer the truth with Ali wherever he is.
The wise man and philosopher Sahib bin Abbad wrote:
As for his virtues, peace be upon him, they have reached an amount of greatness, majesty, spread and fame, which allows exposure to mentioning them and confronting their details. It became as Abu Al-Ayna said to Ubayd Allah bin Yahya bin Khaqan, the Minister of Al-Mutawakkil and Al-Mutawadim: “You saw me as I used to describe your virtue, such as the informant of the bright daylight and the bright moon, which is not hidden by the beholder. So I turned away from praising you to praying for you, and I entrusted telling about you to the people knowing about you.
The writer Suleiman Ketani said in the Imam:
He said in this monologue, I liked to knock on the door when I entered Ali bin Abi Talib, and I feel that entering to him is not less prohibited than entering the niche, and the truth is that his heroism is the one that was of a unique kind and it is able to pull out not only the gate of the fortress of Khaybar, but rather the fortresses of ignorance altogether, as its nights intertwine on the human mind.
As for the thinker Nasri Salhab, he wrote:
Ali (PBUH) is among those people who were decreed to die in order to live through their death nations and peoples, and among the enemies of Ali (PBUH) are those people who favored life over death, so they ended their lives with every pride, his memory is not the memory of the hero who was martyred so he immortalized in the conscience of Allah as much as it is a memory of the treacherous, those who treacherously abide in the Hell, then he says: It is worthy of Ali, while he is in this world, his eternity, to weep, because we fled from the arena and cleared the field for our enemies roaming and traversing it, but even they wander and have fun. How much we need Ali today!
Moreover decades before his departure, the poet Saeed Aql wrote:
I love Imam Ali for everything he did, and the link between me and Imam Ali is arrogance. He wrote a word without saying anything about it. Likewise, standing by the principle.
