During the four years and nine months
of his Caliphate, Imam Ali Ibin Abe Taleb(as) was not able to eliminate
the disturbed conditions which were prevailing throughout the Islamic
world, but he was successful in three fundamental ways:
- As a result of his just and upright manner of living he revealed
once again the beauty and attractiveness of the way of life of The
Holy Prophet(pbuh&hf), especially to the younger generation. In
contrast to the imperial grandeur of Muawiyah, he lived in simplicity
and poverty like the poorest of people.
Imam Ali never favored his friends or relatives and family above
all others, nor did he ever prefer wealth to poverty or brute force
to weakness.
- Despite the cumbersome and strenuous difficulties which absorbed
his time, he left behind among the Islamic community a valuable treasury
of the truly divine sciences and Islamic iritellectual disciplines.
- Nearly eleven thousand of his proverbs and short sayings on different
intellectual, religious and social subjects have been recorded. In
his talks and speeches he expounded the most sublime Islamic sciences
in a most elegant and flowing manner.
- He established the Arabic grammar and laid the basis for Arabic
literature.
- He was the first in Islam to delve directly into the questions of
metaphysics Falsafah-Il-Ilahi in a manner combining intellectual
rigor and logical demonstration.
- He discussed problems which had never appeared before in the same
way among the metaphysicians of the world. Moreover, he was so devoted
to metaphysics and gnosis that even in the heat of battle he would
carry out intellectual discourse and discuss metaphysical questions.
- He trained a large number of Religious Scholars and Islamic Savants,
among whom are found a number of ascetics and gnosties who were the
forefathers of the Sufis, such men as,
- Uways Al-Korani
- Kumayl al-Nakhai
- Maytham al-Tammar
- Roshaid Al-Hajarl
These men have all been recognized by the later Sufis as the founders
of gnosis in Islam. Others among his disciples became the first teachers
of jurisprudence, theology, Koranic commentary and recitations.
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