The ''Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim'' ( ar, غرر الحکم و درر الکلم, literally "exalted aphorisms and pearls of speech") is a comprehensive collection of pietistic and ethical statements and aphorisms attributed to

Ali ibn Abi Talib ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

, cousin and son-in-law of the

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

prophet,

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

. This work was compiled by Abdul Wahid al-Tamimi and consists of nearly 11,000 short sayings. It has been translated to English recently.

Compiler

''Ghurar al-Hikam'' was compiled by Qadhi Nasih Al-Deen Abu al-Fath Abd al-Wahid Ibn Muhammad al-Tamimi al-Amudi, who lived in the fifth or sixth century AH. He is described as either a

Shafii The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...

jurist or a

Twelver Shia Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...

. In particular,

Muhammad Baqir Majlisi Mohammad Baqer Majlesi (b. 1037/1628-29 – d. 1110/1699) ( fa, علامه مجلسی ''Allameh Majlesi''; also Romanized as: Majlessi, Majlisi, Madjlessi), known as Allamah Majlesi or Majlesi Al-Thani (Majlesi the Second), was a renowned and ver ...

Mirza Abdollah Mirza Abdollah, also known as Agha Mirza Abdollah Farahani ( fa, میرزا عبدالله فراهانی) (1843–1918), was a tar and setar player. He is among the most significant musicians in Iran's history. Born in Shiraz, he and his young ...

Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi ( fa, میرزا حسین نوری طبرسی, ar, الميرزا حسين النوري الطبرسي) (1838 - 1902) popularly known as Muhaddis Noori / Al-Mohaddith Al-Noori, was a Shi'a Islamic Scholar and Shi'a Renai ...

, and Ibn Shar Ashoob name him as a Shia scholar in their works. He was a student to

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...

and a teacher to Ibn Shahr Ashoob.

''Ghurar al-Hikam'' includes 10760 sayings attributed to Ali, which have been sorted alphabetically and divided into ninety one sections. These sayings were collected from various sources such as ''

Nahj al-Balagha ''Nahj al-Balagha'' ( ar, نَهْج ٱلْبَلَاغَة ', 'The Path of Eloquence') is the best-known collection of sermons, letters, and sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, fourth Rashidun Caliph, first Shia Imam and the cousin and so ...

'', ''Mi'a Kalema'' ("hundred sayings" of Ali) by

al-Jahiz Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري), commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ ( ar, links=no, الجاحظ, ''The Bug Eyed'', born 776 – died December 868/Jan ...

, ''

Tuhaf al-Uqul Tuhaf al-Uqul ( ar, تُحَفُ العُقول في ما جاءَ مِنَ الحِکَمِ وَ المَواعِظَ مِن آلِ الرَّسول, Tuḥaf al-ʿuqūl fī mā jāʾa min al-ḥikam wa l-mawāʿiẓ min āl al-rasūl, lit. ''The M ...

'' and ''Dastur Ma'alim al-Hikam'' of Ghazi Ghaza'i. Since al-Tamimi has omitted his sources, the use of ''Ghurar al-Hikam'' as a reference book has been viewed as problematic.

Translations and commentaries

Several

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

translations of this book are available but its only existing commentary is by Agha Jamal Kwansari. Tahir Ridha Jaffer has translated this work to

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

References

External links

Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim
{{Shia hadith literature, state=uncollapsed Works about Ali Shia hadith collections Books of quotations Shia bibliography

Compiler

Contents

Translations and commentaries

See also

References

External links