The Character of Imam Ali (A.S.)
In the personality and character of Ali Bin Abi Tâlib (A.S.), we find a combination of all the good aspects of human personalities.
This is because we are reminded of his personality whenever and wherever we find ourselves face to face with any hero or genius. In his character, we find a mixture of all such noble emotions and sentiments as may create in us feelings of compassion and admiration. This is because he himself was a martyr and the father of a line of martyrs. His biography as well as the biographies of his sons and descendants present to us a series of struggle and strife as well as of defeats and frustrations. They show to a distant observer, sometimes old men, revered by time and old age and then by the swords which never have compassion for any one; and on other occasions, young men in the prime of their youth, being deprived of their lives, not only lives but sometimes before even of food and drink too, walking towards their death, bathed in their blood, hungry and thirsty.
In the character of Ali Bin Abi Tâlib (A.S.), we find a mixture of such ideas and images as may lead the poetical imagination of man either to soar high in the skies or dive below into the deepest cavern of thought. He was a brave man who helped human sensibility reach the core of reality and heights of imagination, and, in whose praise and glorification, both the eyewitnesses as well as the lovers of the romance have participated.
His character meets the world of thought on one hand and borders at the world of imagination and pathos on the other. This is because of his being a man of opinions in the fields of Islamic philosophy, mysticism and ethics, which surpass all other ideas in these fields.
As we find his personality as confluence of thought, imagination, and pathos, so do we find a mixture of literary or artistic taste, because he was a stylist himself and had a special manner both in the field of literature as well as rhetoric, which is followed by many. A part of this taste which has reached is praised, not too exaggeratedly, by the people who have a taste for literature, although there is a distance of hundreds of years between him and them. He was a man of letter full of wisdom, an orator of great skill and a writer of such a maturity which is found only in the masterpieces of Arabic poetry and prose.
But Human conscience has many aspects other than those of pathos, imagination, thought, good taste and beautiful expression. One of these aspects, which has never disappeared in any era, is that of differences in various natures and intellects, or in other words, it is aspect of opposition, which results always from any opinion, or question of right and country.
It is possible that intelligence, reason and taste may degenerate or Imagination and pathos may cease to function, but what never gets disrupted and degenerated is the opposition between different minds, controversies and differences of opinions and prejudices and biases.
And here lies the most strange and unique trait of the Imam's character and personality, which he himself has very precisely expressed when he said, "People will love me to such an extent that they will land into the Hell, while others will hate and despise me to such an extent that they too will go to the Hell," or when he said,"Two types of men will meet their destruction in their relations with me one who loves me exaggeratedly for that which is not in me, and the one who hates me so much that he concocts accusations against me."
The Imam(A.S.) has told the truth about the exaggeration in which his friends and enemies involve themselves. Some of his devotees, out of sheer love and devotion for him, have deified him while some of those who hated him reached to such an extent as led them to declare that he was an heretic. There are, on one hand, the Ghulât who worship him, and despite his orders not to do so. He asks them to repent, but they do not obey him and persist in their heresy. And on the other hand, there are the Khârjites who declare him to be an apostate and an heretic, and demand from him that he expresses his repentance for violating God's orders. They curse him right upon the pulpits, as did the Umayyids, who opposed them in their beliefs and doctrines but supported them in respect of cursing Ali(A.S.).
Such a vast field of controversy is the personality of Ali (A.S.) as may not be found in the lives of other heroes who have been subjected to love as well as hatred ; some say that he is God, while others pronounce him to be an apostate and an heretic thrown out of the limits of God's mercy.
Another aspect of human conscience found in the personality of Ali(A.S.) in different ways is that of complaint and revolt or that of a zeal for reconstruction and reform.
Ali's name has become a standard round which every one whose rights have usurped, gathers; it has become a slogan raised by every one demanding for justice. All those who bear anger against a revolting society and unjust government, take refuge in the Alawides call as if it were synonymous with reform, or as if Imam Ali(A.S.) was the only way out for every persecuted person. Persons suffering from internal conflicts find their remedy in the name of Ali (A.S.), and those who rebel against oppression find in the name of Ali(A.S.) a drive for their rebellion and a satisfaction for their anger. The one who goes through the history of Islam with reason, or with taste, or with imagination, or with sentiment, finds in the personality of Ali(A.S.) a point of intersection with his own temperament, in many ways and in many circumstances. This is the idiosyncratic trait of Ali's personality which distinguishes him from others in the panels of history. Thus, there exist links between Ali(A.S.) and people's hearts which are created by human nature, though the history or the historians might have failed to find them.
His Character-traits
Ali(A.S.) was the first Hashimite whose father and mother both were from the Hashimite. Thus in him were combined all those character- traits on account of which this noble family had become famous. These traits had already appeared in old well-known members of this tribe. These traits, briefly enumerated, are nobility, strength, bravery, affection, devotion, chivalry, intelligence etc., in addition to physical and bodily qualities found in many of these members.
Perhaps, it is true of Ali's characteristics that he was a fast-growing child which was a preliminary step to his fame for intelligence and capability. Thus, he had the quality of rapid growth as he had the results of this rapid growth in the form of difficulties and problems which such persons have to bear in view of the old age of their parents.
He grew up as a man of strong body both in his young age as well as the old. He maintained this stoutness, strength and physical fitness right up to his end, reaching around sixty.
His life-story as well as his characteristics indicate that he had an immense bodily strength and ability to resist illness and disease. He could easily raise a rider from his horse and throw him down on the ground without any effort. He would hold the arms of a person as if he had held his soul that would not let him breathe. He would move a huge stone from its place which needed many persons to move it. He would carry a large gate which many strong men found difficult to be turned.
Side by side with this immense strength, he was so brave that none would dare face him in the battlefield. He was so courageous in the face of death that for centuries none could reach his fame and glory in this respect. He was just a raw youth when he dared face Amr Bin Abd Wudd, known as the Knight of the
One sign of his refraining from aggression is that he never took the initiative in fighting unless he had no other alternative. He used to say to his son, Imam Hasan(A.S.), "Never call for fighting, and if you are called to it, then reply. The one who calls for fighting is an aggressor and an aggressor finally get killed."
It was discovered that the Kharjites' were leaving his camp with the intention of fighting against him. He was told that the Kaharjites were rebelling against him and therefore he should take the initiative and fight them first. But he replied, "I shall not fight them unless they come to fight me. And this they shall do."
He took the same step before the
Once he was preaching before some people and his sermon affected some of the Kharjites who had declared him as an heretic. So one of the admirers exclaimed in a fierce manner like a person who neither controls his hatred nor admiration, and said, "May God kill this heretic, how understanding and reasonable he is!" When his friends heard these words, they wanted to rebuke the Kharjite, but he said to them, "Either you should curse as he did or excuse him."
We quite well know that he said to Amr Bin Abd Wudd, "I do not hate to shed your blood."But these words he uttered only after becoming disappointed that Amr would not embrace Islam or give up fighting against the Muslims. First he offered to him that he should leave the battle-field, but Amr refused and said, "So that the Arabs should talk about my escape." Then he called out to him, "O Amr! You gave a promise to your people that no one from the Quraish would ask you two things but you would accept one." Amr replied in affirmative. Ali (A.S.) then said to him, "I then invite you either to become a Muslim or to fight." Amr asked him, "But why, O my nephew? I do not like to kill you ..." He then had no alternative but to kill or get killed.
Despite such a bitter enmity between him and Mu'âwiyah and his armies, he never fought against them nor did he take revenge upon them and avenge his friends except what they deserved on the occasion. It happened during the Battle of Siffin that one of Mu'âwiyah's friends, named Kuraiz bin As-Sabâh Al-Himyari, came out of his rank and challenged Ali's side for a duel. In reply to this challenge, one of the companions of Ali(A.S.) went out but was killed by Kuraiz. He again challenged, and another went out from Ali's side but was again killed. He repeated it four times and killed four men from Ali's side. Then he attacked the army as a whole, with the result that the men who were in the first rank, tried to withdraw to the second and so on. Ali(A.S.) apprehended that the awe of this person might create panic in his army. He therefore himself went out to meet this man who had just established his skill and bravery, and finally killed him. Now Ali(A.S.) challenged in the same manner and killed three more persons one after the other, and then returned to his position.
As to his kindliness and culture, it was rare among the brave men. He refused to allow his army to take revenge, to kill an escaping person, to murder a wounded man, to strip the dead bodies in the battlefield or take money from his person. He came out to be victorious after the
When he paid a visit to Aa'ishah after the Battle of Camel, Talhah's mother Saffiyah shouted at him, saying, "May God make your children orphans as you have done to my children!" He did not make any reply to her. When he returned from the visit, Safiyyah repeated what she had said earlier. Again he kept quiet and did not reply. A man, who got offended by the curses of Talhah's mother, said to him, Amir-ul Mu'minin ! You keep quiet at what this woman says?" Ali(A.S.) ignored him and said, "We have been ordered to refrain from harming or punishing women even though they are pagans; should we not refrain from doing so to Muslim women ?" He was on his way when some of his followers told him that two men were cursing Aa'ishah. He ordered them to be flogged one hundred strokes each. Then he saw a woman off with utmost honour, walked along with her camel for a long distance, and then sent persons to accompany her in her journey, to serve her and protect her. It is said that he sent twenty women from Abdul Qais family, who were asked to put on turbans and carry swords. When one woman was on the way, she used bad words against him, then sighed and said, "My privacy has been disclosed by his men under whose care he has sent me!" When she reached Madinah, these women threw down their turbans and said to her, "We are nothing else but only women.
This is his kindliness with his enemies, those who deserved honour or those who did not; those who had sanctity like Aa'ishah or those who did not enjoy such a position. This is a kind of treatment which is hardly found in a fighter and warrior during the heat of the battle.
His purity of heart and his being free from any kind of hatred comes at par with his nobility and uniqueness. He would not show any kind of hatred even against his sworn enemy or a person well known for having the bitterest feelings against him. He forbade his family and friends not to mutilate the body of his assassin, or kill any other person (after his death). Similarly, he mourned the death of Talhah, who had withdrawn his allegiance to him and had gathered armies to fight against him. In this elegy, he expressed the sentiments of extreme pain and grief. He also recommended to his followers not to fight with the Kharjites, who had disrupted his ranks and were more dangerous and vicious than Muâwiyah and his forces. This is because he found them sincere though mistaken and insistent on their mistakes.
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