After completing the book "Spiritual Hadiths" and the thirty-volume collection "Spiritual Exegesis," and after the ledger of my life had passed forty-four years, in accordance with the principle "Then you came hither as ordained, O Moses" [Qur'an 20:40], the decree of destiny came to turn upon the axis of the favor of the King of Vision: I was honored with the inward grace of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), and doors of walaya were unveiled to the heart of this aged servant of the tavern of ruin, and the command was issued to compose a work comprising the words of the Commander (AS) and his sira. The command took effect throughout the world, and the preliminaries of the task were assembled one by one — by the turning of the compass, by the acquiring of sources, and by the ordering of thoughts.
So I searched through the books of the early authorities, beginning with the oldest of them, those written in the very age of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), and moved forward year by year and century by century. In all, I combed line by line and hadith by hadith through more than two hundred sources of hadith, history, and literature — some of which alone ran to dozens of volumes — seeking material that would portray our master Ali (AS) as he truly is, not as the author of this or that book had depicted him from his own vantage point, and that would display the various dimensions of his complete personality, so that it might serve as a model for his true followers.
What is striking is that I found each traditionist looking upon Ali (AS) from a single vantage point and seeing him from one angle. Thus the comprehensive personality of Ali (AS) has been fragmented and buried among the lines of thick volumes. Nahj al-Balagha, for instance, looked upon the sayings of the King of Eloquence from the standpoint of rhetoric and reported whatever it deemed fitting from that standpoint. Al-Saduq, in Man la Yahduruhu al-Faqih, was after Ali's (AS) juridical opinions. The historians were dazzled by Ali's (AS) battles and statecraft. Likewise the authors of sira works were after matters of conduct, and the philosophers after the wisdom contained in Ali's (AS) words.
The book Kalam al-Amir, which has now matured and taken form, and of which a thousand and some pages have been written, portrays a relatively comprehensive personality of the King of Men and better displays his many facets.
Kalam al-Amir is not an encyclopedia nor a compendium of all his words; rather, in this world that has fallen into haste, whose people have become the very instance of "as if they were startled donkeys fleeing from a lion" [Qur'an 74:50–51], and in which time is scarce, it is a spiritual yet complete selection from the Alawi sira. The criterion for selecting the hadiths in it has been the same criterion upon which the book Spiritual Hadiths was earlier composed:
Hadiths that settle deeply in the heart, that are a balm for pain and life for the heart, that seem to transform the heart and create a light within it; hadiths that elevate the center of gravity of a person's knowledge, so that after hearing such words a person becomes — without exaggeration — another person: one who has heard, has known, has drunk, and has been left in wonder. Such are the hadiths I have chosen.
And truly it is difficult, it is hard, to read many pages and to set aside the repetitions, the self-evident, the obvious, the abrogated, the ambiguous, the doubtful, the juridical, the natural-scientific, the matters of the unseen, the matters of the past, the matters of the future, the parables and the Isra'iliyyat, and then to read and read again until one comes upon what is particular, pure, and radiant as a jewel — that whose goodness and beauty the human intellect, as human, apart from creed and era, immediately perceives.
That which could be inscribed in letters of gold over the doorway of every house anywhere in this world, and acted upon, and lead to felicity; that which, whenever anyone hears it, he asks: who has spoken so beautifully? Words that are themselves light, and proof that their speaker is possessed of light. In this sense this book is one of the miracles of the walaya of Ali (AS). The proof of Ali's (AS) exaltedness is these words, and the proof of his imamate is these blessings.
So take note that here — as with the Qur'an — we proceed from the truth of the words and their correspondence with intellect and innate nature to the truth of their speaker. In jurisprudence it is not so; there, the proof of a hadith's authority is establishing its attribution to the Proof of God (AS), and the intellect has no independent path to its soundness by appeal to its correspondence with rational goodness. Thus in hadiths of this kind, the soundness of the text, the solidity of the utterance, and the loftiness of the expression place in our hands a proof far stronger than the soundness of the chain of transmission — which is at bottom merely probable — for accepting the hadith and acting upon it. Fundamentally, in such cases the hadiths are guidance toward what the intellect already grasps, not the establishment of a ruling to which the intellect has no access.
As I have said, the book begins with the writings of the first century, the time of Ali (AS), and proceeds century by century through the Shi'i compositions. The name of the source appears at the end of each hadith and also in the page heading. I saw no need to include a bibliography or a detailed introduction to the references and sources, since with a simple search the reader has comprehensive information about each book at hand. Generally, the Shi'i compositions are well known to most Shi'a, and further acquaintance in our age is possible through a search available to everyone.
At the end of some hadiths I have added, in parentheses, helpful explanations concerning the meaning of the hadith and the notable persons whom the hadith sometimes concerns or whose names appear in its text.
Kalam al-Amir is by the favor of the Commander and is offered to the Commander:
"O mighty one, affliction has touched us and our family, and we have brought but scant merchandise; so give us full measure and be charitable to us. Indeed, God rewards the charitable" [Qur'an 12:88].
The peace, blessings, and greetings of God and of the Commander be upon the ear that hears the words of the Commander, upon the breath that spreads them abroad, and upon the soul that acts upon them and thereby brings itself and those near to it to life!
"O you who believe, respond to God and to the Messenger when He calls you to that which gives you life, and know that God comes between a man and his heart, and that to Him you shall be gathered" [Qur'an 8:24].
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate
From the servant of God, Ali ibn Abi Talib, to whomever my words may reach ....
The servant of God, Mostafa Nik-Eghbal, from Shaykh Mahmud Amjad Kermanshahi, from Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani and Sayyid Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini, from Shaykh Abbas Qummi, from Mirza Husayn Nuri, from Shaykh Ansari, from Mulla Ahmad Naraqi, from Sayyid Mahdi Bahr al-Ulum, from Muhammad Baqir Behbahani, from his father, from Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, from Muhammad Taqi Majlisi, from Shaykh Baha'i, from Shaykh Husayn ibn Abd al-Samad al-Amili, from Shaykh Zayn al-Din, known as al-Shahid al-Thani, from Shaykh Ali ibn Abd al-Ali al-Maysi al-Karaki, from Shaykh Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Mu'adhdhin al-Juzayni, from Shaykh Diya' al-Din Ali ibn Muhammad al-Makki, from Shaykh Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Makki, from Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Hasan, from Shaykh Jamal al-Din Hasan ibn Yusuf ibn Ali ibn Mutahhar al-Hilli, from Shaykh Abu al-Qasim Najm al-Din Ja'far ibn Hasan al-Hilli, from Sayyid Shams al-Din Abu Ali Fakhkhar ibn Ma'ad al-Musawi al-Hilli, from Abu al-Fadl Shadhan ibn Jibra'il al-Qummi, from Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Tabari, from Abu Ali Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Tusi, from Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Tusi, from Shaykh Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Nu'man, al-Shaykh al-Mufid, from Ibn Babawayh al-Qummi, known as al-Saduq, from Abu al-Qasim Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Qulawayh al-Qummi, from Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi, and they, through various chains of transmission, relate from the pure Imams (AS), and they from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): ....