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Sermon of al‑Gharra'

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This article is an introduction to the Sermon of al‑Gharra'; to read its text see Text:Sermon of al-Gharra.
Sermon of al‑Gharra'
SubjectDepiction of events after death • Human being and his destiny • Censure of attachment to the world • Exhortation to piety and the description of the qualities of the God‑wary
Issued byImam 'Ali (a)
Validity of the chain of transmissionAuthentic
Shi'a sourcesTuhaf al-'uqul, Nahj al-balagha
Sunni sourcesHilyat al-awliya''


The Gharrāʾ Sermon (Arabic: الخطبة الغراء) is one of the most famous sermons of Nahj al-balagha.[1] It is called "al-Gharra" (meaning the radiant or luminous sermon) because of its extraordinary eloquence and rhetorical power.[2] Ibn Abi l-Hadid counts this sermon among the miracles of Imam Ali (a).[3]

Although its words are simple, it employs most rhetorical and literary devices, such as analogy, rhyme, metaphor, and allusion.[4] According to al-Sharif al-Radi, the compiler of Nahj al-balagha, the people who heard this sermon trembled with fear and wept.[5]

The main content of this sermon revolves around four themes: (1) the human being and his destiny; (2) the censure of attachment to the world; (3) the exhortation to piety and the description of the qualities of the God‑wary; and (4) the depiction of events after death.

In the section concerning the human being and his destiny, which is regarded as the most important theme of the sermon, topics such as human death, the blessings bestowed upon him, human heedlessness, worldly life, man's capacity to learn a lesson, and the transience of the world are discussed.[6]

According to Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani in Hilyat al-awliya'', Imam Ali (a) delivered this sermon while a person's body was being lowered into the grave, and the family of the deceased was wailing and weeping.[7]

Sayyid 'Abd al-Zahra Husayni Khatib, the orator and author of Masadir Nahj al-balagha wa asaniduh, holds the view that there is no need to examine the chain of transmission of this sermon for authentication, because its text possesses such eloquence and rhetorical excellence that no one other than the infallibles could have expressed it.[8] In addition to Nahj al-balagha, portions of this sermon have also been transmitted in works such as Tuhaf al-'uqul[9] and Hilyat al-awliya' wa tabaqat al-asfiya'.[10][11]

Sayyid 'Abd al-Zahra Husayni Khatib believes that in al-Iqd al-farid,[12] another sermon of Imam Ali (a) was mistakenly called Khutba al-Ghara'.[13] Similarly, in Taysir al-matalib fi Amali Abi Talib, sermon 185 of Nahj al-balagha is referred to as Khutba al-Ghara'.[14] Sayyid Sadiq Musawi, in his book Tamam Nahj al-balagha, considers sermon 237 of Nahj al-balagha to be part of Khutba al-Ghara'.[15]

The numbering of this sermon varies across different editions of Nahj al-balagha:[16] in al-Mu'jam al-mufahras and Subhi Salih it is 83, in Fayd al-Islam, al-Khu'i's commentary, Mulla Salih, and Ibn Abi l-Hadid it is 82, in Ibn Maytham it is 80, in 'Abduh it is 79, in Mulla Fath Allah it is 84, and in Fi Zilal it is 81.

Notes

  1. ↑ Ḥusaynī Khaṭīb, Maṣādir Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 2, p. 103.
  2. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Payām-i Imām Amīr al-Muʾminīn (a), vol. 3, p. 459.
  3. ↑ Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 6, p. 243.
  4. ↑ Ḥusaynī Khaṭīb, Maṣādir Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 2, p. 104.
  5. ↑ Sayyid Raḍī, Nahj al-balāgha, p. 114.
  6. ↑ Amīn Nājī & Amīnī Armakī, Barrasī-yi mabānī-yi indhār wa tabshīr dar khuṭba-yi Ghurrāʾ, p. 81.
  7. ↑ Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, vol. 1, p. 77-78.
  8. ↑ Ḥusaynī Khaṭīb, Maṣādir Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 2, p. 107.
  9. ↑ Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Tuḥaf al-ʿuqūl, p. 210.
  10. ↑ Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, vol. 1, p. 77-78.
  11. ↑ See: Dashtī, Asnād wa madārik-i Nahj al-balāgha, 137-138.
  12. ↑ See:Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, al-ʿIqd al-farīd, vol. 4, p. 163.
  13. ↑ Ḥusaynī Khaṭīb, Maṣādir Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 2, p. 107.
  14. ↑ Hārūnī, Taysīr al-maṭālib, p. 273.
  15. ↑ Mūsawī, Tamām Nahj al-balāgha, vol. 2, p. 367.
  16. ↑ Dashtī & Muḥammadī, al-Muʿjam al-mufahras, p. 509.

References

  • Amīn Nājī, Muḥammad Hādī & Amīnī Armakī, Zahrā. Barrasī-yi mabānī-yi indhār wa tabshīr dar khuṭba-yi Ghurrāʾ. Journal of Pazhūhish-hā-yi Akhlāqī. No 52. (1402 Sh).
  • Dashtī, Muḥammad. Asnād wa madārik-i Nahj al-balāgha. Qom: Muʾassisa-yi Farhangī Taḥqīqātī-yi Amīr al-Muʾminīn (a), 1378 Sh.
  • Dashtī, Muḥammad & Muḥammadī, Kāẓim. Al-Muʿjam al-mufahras li-alfāẓ Nahj al-balāgha. Qom: Muʾassisa-yi Farhangī Taḥqīqātī-yi Amīr al-Muʾminīn (a), 1375 Sh.
  • Ḥusaynī Khaṭīb, Sayyid ʿAbd al-Zahrāʾ. Maṣādir Nahj al-balāgha wa ʾasānīduh. Beirut: Dār al-Zahrāʾ, 1409 AH.
  • Hārūnī, Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd. Taysīr al-maṭālib fī amālī Abī Ṭālib. Sana'a: Muʾassisat al-Imām Zayd b. ʿAlī al-Thaqāfīyya, 1422 AH.
  • Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. Tuḥaf al-ʿuqūl ʿan Āl-i al-Rasūl. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1404 AH.
  • Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, Aḥmad Muḥammad. Al-ʿIqd al-farīd. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1407 AH.
  • Iṣfahānī, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh. Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ. Cairo: Dār Umm al-Qurā, [n.d].
  • Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Hibat Allāh. Sharḥ Nahj al-balāgha. Edited by Muḥammad Abu l-faḍl Ibrāhīm. Qom: Maktabat Ayatullāh Marʿashī Najafī, 1404 AH.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Payām-i Imām Amīr al-Muʾminīn (a). Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1386 Sh.
  • Mūsawī, Sayyid Ṣādiq. Tamām Nahj al-balāgha. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1426 AH.
  • Sayyid Raḍī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Nahj al-balāgha. Edited by Ṣubḥī Ṣaliḥ. Qom: Hijrat, 1414 AH.
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