Selected letter of Imam Ali to Malik Ashtar – part five
(Mohammed Fazli)
The letter of Imam Ali (AS) to Malik Ashtar Nakhai is one of the most thoughtful and beautiful texts that if we are concerned about Iran today, it is necessary to read and act on it – of course for the officials and rulers. The translation of the letter written by the late Seyyed Jaafar Shahidi is about 5700 words, and I have extracted a text of 2400 words from it by selecting, classifying and arranging the text according to my taste, which is arranged in four parts, hoping that it will be useful. The letter begins like this: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent, this is a command from Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, to Malik Ashtar son of Harith, in the covenant he made with him, when he appointed him to the government of Egypt to provide its tribute, and to fight with enemies and organizing the work of the people of Egypt and settling its cities.”
Etiquette for choosing and working with colleagues
Choose that person over others who will speak the bitter truth to you more, and will help you less in what you do or say and God disapproves of his friends.
Join the pious and the truthful, and nurture them in such a way that they don’t praise you too much, and don’t make your heart happy by praising the useless work that you didn’t do, because praising too much makes you proud and makes you rebellious.
The worst of your ministers is the one who was the minister of evildoers before you and the one who participated in their sins. So don’t let such people be your confidants, who are helpers of sinners and helpers of wrongdoers, and you will find a better successor than them, who was like them in their decisions and actions, and who is not responsible for their sins and bad deeds.
Converse with many scholars and talk with many wise men in the middle of the nine, in what supports the work of your cities and maintain the order that the people before you were based on.
The governor is the close ones and the relatives who have a tendency to seek superiority and to show their necks and to use less fairness in dealings. Remove the root of their oppression by cutting its roots and don’t give land to any of your relatives and friends, and don’t let them covet you by making a contract that harms their neighbors in the water they have, or what they should do. Let them do it together and put the suffering on others, then only the good will fall on them, and the fault of it will remain on you in this world and the hereafter.
The displeasure of all makes the happiness of the close ones ineffective, and the anger of the close ones does not harm the happiness of all, and in the time of life, the burden of the close ones is greater on the ruler than all the subjects, and in the day of trouble, their help is the least of all, and justice is the least of all. They are more unhappy, and when they ask, they pay more than others, and when they are given, they are the least grateful, and when they are not given, they are the longest to apologize, and they are the least patient in difficult times.
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This post is written by monese_ghamgosar