After completing the book "Spiritual Hadiths" and the thirty-volume collection "Spiritual Exegesis," once the tally of my years had passed forty-four, in accordance with the principle "Then you came at the appointed time, O Moses," the decree of destiny came to turn upon the axis of the favor of the King of Vision, and I was honored with the inward grace of the Commander of the Faithful (AS). Gates of walaya (guardianship) were disclosed to the heart of this aged servant of the tavern of ruin, and the command was issued to compose a work that would set forth the words of the Commander (AS) and his life-conduct. The command was one the whole world obeys, and the preliminaries of the work came together one by one through the turning of the compass, the acquisition of sources, and the ordering of thoughts.
So I searched through the books of the early authorities, beginning with the oldest among them, written in the very lifetime of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), and moved forward year by year and century by century. Altogether I combed through more than two hundred sources of hadith, history, and literature, some of which alone ran to dozens of volumes, line by line and hadith by hadith, seeking material that would portray our master Ali (AS) as he truly is, and not as the author of that book had depicted him from his own perspective, so as to display the various dimensions of his complete personality. That it might serve as a model for his true Shi'a.
What is striking is that I found each traditionist looking at Ali (AS) from one particular vantage point, seeing him from a single 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 at the sayings of the King of Eloquence from the vantage point of rhetoric, and transmitted what appeared warranted from that perspective. Or al-Saduq in Man la Yahduruhu al-Faqih was after Ali's (AS) juristic opinions. Or the historians were dazzled by Ali's (AS) battles and statecraft. Likewise the writers of sira were after matters of conduct and etiquette, and the philosophers after the wisdom contained in Ali's words.
The book Kalam al-Amir, which has now matured and taken shape, and of which a thousand-odd pages have been written, portrays a relatively comprehensive personality of the King of Men and better displays his many-sidedness.
Kalam al-Amir is not an encyclopedia or an exhaustive compendium of sayings. Rather, in this world fallen into haste, whose people have become an instance of "as if they were frightened donkeys fleeing from a lion," and where time is scarce, it is a spiritual yet complete selection from the Alawi life-conduct. The criterion for selecting the hadiths in it has been the same criterion on which the book Spiritual Hadiths was previously written:
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 very center of gravity of a person's knowledge. It is as if, after hearing such words, a person becomes — without exaggeration — another person. A person who has heard, has known, has drunk, and has been left in wonder! Such hadiths are the ones I have selected.
And in truth 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 juristic, the natural-scientific, the matters of the unseen, of the past, of the future, the parables and the Isra'iliyyat, and then to read on and on until you come upon what is particular, pure, and shining like a jewel — that whose goodness and beauty the human intellect, as human, apart from creed and time, immediately perceives.
That which could be written in gold above the door of any dwelling, anywhere in this world, and acted upon so as to attain felicity. That which, whoever hears it, asks: who has spoken so beautifully? Words that are themselves light, and proof that their speaker is a possessor 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 note carefully that here — as with the Qur'an — we move from the truth of the words and their correspondence with intellect and innate nature to the truth of their speaker. Whereas in jurisprudence it is not so: there, the ground for a hadith's authority is the establishment of its attribution to the Proof of God (AS), and the intellect has no independent path to its soundness by appealing to its correspondence with rational goodness. Hence in hadiths of this kind, the soundness of the text, the solidity of the wording, and the loftiness of the expression place at our disposal a proof far stronger than the soundness of the chain of transmission — which is essentially only probabilistic — enabling us to accept the hadith and act 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 said, the book begins with the writings of the first century, the time of Ali (AS), and proceeds century by century through the compositions of the Shi'a. The name of the source is given at the end of each hadith and also in the page heading. I saw no need to write a bibliography or to introduce the sources and references in detail, since with a simple search the reader has comprehensive information about the book in question at hand. Fundamentally, the Shi'i compositions are well known to most Shi'a, and further acquaintance in our age is attainable 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 occur 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 meager goods; so give us full measure and be charitable to us. Indeed, God rewards the charitable." [Qur'an 12:88]
Peace and blessings and greetings from God and from the Commander be upon the eye that reads the words of the Commander, and upon the ear that hears them, and upon the breath that spreads them, and upon the soul that acts upon them and thereby gives life to itself and to those near it! All these persons share in the reward of composing this book.
"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 Ever-Merciful
From the servant of God, Ali ibn Abi Talib, to whomever these words of mine reach ....
The servant of God Mostafa Nik-Eqbal, from Shaykh Mahmud Amjad Kermanshahi, from Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani and Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, from Shaykh Abbas Qummi, from Mirza Husayn Nuri, from Shaykh al-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'add 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 he, by various chains, from the pure Imams (AS), and they from the Commander of the Faithful (AS), narrate: ....