Acknowledgments

I first encountered Ali’s wisdom and eloquence in classes I took as a child with my learned father, Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin. In early morning “sabaq” sessions in Mumbai, and during community trips to various towns and villages in India and worldwide, my siblings and I would memorize a saying and he would explain its life lessons, ‮العلم وراثة كريمة، أغنى الغنى العقل، المؤمن هَشٌّ بَشٌّ، القناعة مال لا ينفد،‬‎ and many more. These texts and lessons sparked an enduring passion, and I began academic work with Nahj al-Balāghah at Ain Shams University in Cairo, where I wrote my MA thesis with Professor Ahmad El Naggar on its ethical and historical themes. Then in my first year in Harvard’s PhD program, Professor Roy Mottahedeh showed me a facsimile edition of a 5th/11th-century manuscript owned by the Marʿashi library in Qum. I wrote, they generously sent me a copy, and that was the beginning of my Nahj al-Balāghah manuscript collection. I also had enriching conversations about the text with my distinguished Doktorvater, Professor Wolfhart Heinrichs, and I contemplated writing my dissertation on Imam Ali’s life and teachings before realizing that I needed to go slowly in approaching such a complex topic. Over the years, I published studies, critical editions, and translations of Ali’s words, including A Treasury of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of ʿAli, with the One Hundred Proverbs, and I continued to gather manuscripts. Finally in the past decade, I focused on editing and translating Nahj al-Balāghah.

Throughout my journey, the guidance and blessings of my revered father, Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin, and his eminent son and successor, Syedna Taher Fakhruddin, have been my source of strength. The prayers showered by my beloved mother, Sakina busaheba, sustained my courage. My dearest husband, Abduz-Zahir Mohyuddin, gave caring support and excellent advice, and Hyder, my darling son, supplied love and technological help. My wonderful and learned Qutbuddin family—especially Syedi Dr Abdeali bhaisaheb, Syedi Dr Husain bhaisaheb, Dr Aziz bhaisaheb, and Dr Bazat-Saifiyah behensaheba—offered insightful ideas.

In the project’s final stages, numerous scholars provided generous assistance: Professor Devin Stewart gave detailed feedback on the full document, Dr Tynan Kelly spent several hundred hours helping to prepare the Appendix of Sources, my meticulous copy editor Dr Linda S. George waved her magic wand over my prose, and Dr Hasan Ansari shared ideas and manuscripts. Many individuals and institutions facilitated the acquisition of manuscripts from world libraries, including University of Chicago Librarian Dr Marlis Saleh, Dr Ayse Polat, Professor Robert Gleave, Mr Reza Hemyari, Dr Ali Haider, Professor Bilal Orfali, the Library of Arabic Literature at NYU-Abu Dhabi, and the London Alulbayt Foundation. Dr Mahdi Mojtahedi of the Amir al-Muminin Ali a.s. Specialized Library in Mashhad shared a PDF of Dr Qays Bahjat Attar’s edition with his permission, and Mr Muhammed Sabbaghi brought me a physical copy from Iran. Professors Ridwan El Sayyed, James Montgomery, Shawkat Toorawa, and Muhammed Rustom gave constructive advice, Hatim Zakiyuddin saheb shared various Ali-related Tayyibi manuscripts, and my brilliant and enthusiastic Nahj al-Balāghah seminar students at the University of Chicago offered perceptive suggestions. Several colleagues answered queries about the text’s dissemination, and I note their contribution in the Introduction’s relevant footnotes.

At Brill, senior acquisitions editor Mr Abdurraouf Oueslati steered the project through its various stages with perfect kindness and expertise. I am also grateful to Brill’s anonymous reviewer for their positive endorsement, Islamic Translations series editor Professor Ayman Shihadeh and Brill’s Middle East acquisition editors for accepting my book, Dr Aisha Moussa who paginated the indexes, Pieter te Velde and Brill’s excellent production and marketing teams, and the Shi’a Research Institute of Toronto who enabled free download of the e-book PDF by sponsoring Open Access.

To all who helped with this project, which is so dear to my heart, I offer heartfelt thanks.

‮جزاكم الله خيرًا‬‎

28 March, 2024

19 Ramadan, 1445