Below are 10 sayings from Nahj al-Balaghah, composed by Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), the first Shia Imam, as compiled by the Shia scholar Sayyid al-Sharif ar-Radi.
To render relief to the grief-stricken and to provide comfort in hardship means the atonement of great sins.
The richest of all riches is intelligence; the biggest destitution is foolishness; the most wild of the wild is vanity, and the best achievement is goodness of the moral character.
Whoever places himself as a leader of the people should commence with educating his own self before educating others, and his teaching should be by his own conduct before teaching by the tongue. The person who teaches and instructs his own self is more entitled to esteem than whoever teaches and instructs others.
Greed takes a person to the watering place but brings him back without letting him drink. It undertakes responsibility but does not fulfil it. Often, the drinker gets choked before he quenches his thirst. The greater the worth of a thing yearned for, the greater is the grief for its loss.
Contentment is a wealth that is not exhausted.
Be afraid of the thoughts of believers because Allah, the most Exalted One, has placed the truth on their tongues.
The day of justice will be more severe on the oppressor than the day of oppression on the oppressed.
The oppressor who starts the oppression will tomorrow bite his hand (in regret).
Words are in your control till you have not uttered them. But when you have spoken them, you are under their control. Therefore, guard your tongue as you guard your gold and silver, for often one expression snatches away a blessing and invites a penalty.
Put off boasting, give up self-conceit and remember your grave.
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