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Uncovering Excuses to Remove Suspicions
344. Imām Ali (a.s.) – in his instructions to Mālik al-Ashtar: “If your subjects should suspect you of an injustice, then explain to them your justification. By your explanation, turn their suspicions away from yourself. This way, you are training your self, acting kindly to your subjects and you will achieve your goal of setting them on the path of the truth.”1
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Helping the Oppressed
345. Imām Ali (a.s.): “He who does not take the rights of the oppressed from the oppressor, God will take his strength from him.”2
346. Imām Ali (a.s.): “Behold, by Him who split the grain (to grow) and created living beings. If people had not come to me and supporters had not exhausted the argument and if there had been no pledge of God with the learned to the effect that they should not acquiesce in the gluttony of the oppressor and the hunger of the oppressed, I would have cast the rope of Caliphate on its own shoulders. I would have given the last one the same treatment as to the first one (i.e. leave it as before). Then you would have seen that this world of yours in my eyes is no better than the sneezing of a goat.”3
347. Imām Ali (a.s.): “O people! Support me in your own affairs. By God, I will take revenge on the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed and will put a string in the nose of the oppressor and drag him to the spring of truthfulness even though he may grudge it.”4
1.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Letter ۵۳, Tuhaf al-`Uqul, p. ۱۴۵.
2.. Ghurar al-Hikam, h. ۸۹۶۶, `Uyun al-Hikam wa al-Mawā`iz, p. ۴۲۸, h. ۷۲۶۱.
3.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon ۳, Ma`āni al-Akhbār, p. ۳۶۲, h. ۱ al-Irshād, vol. ۱, p.۲۸۹, `Ilal al-Sharā'i`, p. ۱۵۱, h. ۱۲.
4.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon ۱۳۶, Bihār al-Anwār, vol. ۳۲, p. ۴۹, h. ۳۳.
