On acquiring wisdom
We will explore the wisdom of Imam Ali (as) in this series of Daily Wisdom.
This is how Reza Shah-Kazemi introduces Imam Ali in his fantastic book Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali:
"To speak of Ali – cousin and son in law of the Prophet Muhammad, fourth caliph of Islam and the first in line of Shi'i Imams - is to speak about the quintessential spirituality of the Islamic tradition. For in this seminal figure of nascent Islam, one finds an integral expression of the two fundamental sources of Islamic spirituality, the Quranic revelation and the inspired Sunna of the Prophet. By his Sunna, we do not mean simply the outward imitation of the Prophet's – a reductionism all too prevalent in our times – rather, we mean the spiritual substance of the prophetic perfection to which the Quran itself refers: "Verily, thou art of a tremendous nature (68:4)"
The Prophet Mohammad (saw) had advised his followers:
I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate; so whoever desires knowledge, let him enter the gate.
So after the Prophet left this world, his people flocked to Ali to partake of his wisdom and to learn from him. Known for his justice and wisdom, he won the hearts of the people due to his fairness and humanity.
Ali believed that People are all equal like the teeth of a comb and he advised his sons to interact with everyone on the principles of shared human values: People are either your brothers in faith or your brothers in humanity, he said.
Along the same lines, he believed that human beings can and should learn from the wise, regardless of political or ideological differences:
Receive wisdom from anybody who offers it to you. Look at what one said, not at who said it.
Imam Ali (as) believed that the pursuit of wisdom refreshed minds and enlivened hearts. He said:
Refresh your minds with marvels of wisdom because minds get tired as your bodies do.
Bodies are sustained by food, and intellects are sustained by wisdom, and whenever either of them is deprived of its sustenance, then it perishes and disintegrates
He advised his sons:
Wisdom is the light of every heart so illuminate your heart with wisdom.
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