'the path of eloquence') is the best-known collection of sermons, letters, and sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), the fourth Rashidun caliph (r. 656–661), the first Shia imam, and the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

[1][2] Known for its moral aphorisms and eloquent content, Nahj al-balagha is widely studied in the Islamic world and has considerably influenced the Arabic literature and rhetoric.

[1][4] Nahj al-balagha is an eleventh-century collection of more than two-hundred sermons, nearly eighty letters, and almost five-hundred sayings, all attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the fourth Rashidun caliph (r. 656–661) and the first Shia imam.

[2][5] The sermons and letters in Nahj al-balagha offer a commentary on the political career of Ali,[2] and have served as an ideological basis for Islamic governance.

[8] In particular, the comprehensive commentary of the Mu'tazilite scholar Ibn Abil-Hadid (d. 1258) may have amplified the influence of Nahj al-balagha on theological speculation, philosophical thought, and literary scope.

[10] In view of its sometimes sensitive content, the attribution of this book to Ali or al-Radi has long been a subject of polemic debates, as with the majority of the works about Shia theology.

[10] Indeed, it was the Sunni historian Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282) who first suggested that the book was authored, rather than compiled, by al-Radi or by his brother Sharif al-Murtada (d. 1044), another prominent Shia theologian.

Among Western scholars, this view was shared by Carl Brockelmann (d. 1956) and Baron de Slane (d. 1878), who apparently mistook the word 'Murtada' on the manuscript as the name of its author and thus attributed the book to Sharif al-Murtada, probably unaware that Murtada is a well-known epithet of Ali.

The Mu'tazilite Ibn Abil-Hadid was nevertheless confident that Nahj al-balagha is the work of Ali,[4] but suspected that its controversial Shaqshaqiya sermon was authored by al-Radi.

[14][4] These authors considerably predate al-Radi, which led the Islamicist Husain M. Jafri (d. 2019) to confirm the attribution of Nahj al-balagha to Ali.

[4] There is also strong circumstantial evidence that al-Radi was the compiler of the book:[11][4] It appears that he included fragments of passages as he found them instead of combining them, thus presenting variants of the same sermon.

[4] Another evidence that supports the compilation of the book by ar-Radi is that he refers to his other works in the margins of Nahj al-balagha and vice versa,[4] and discloses some of his sources, namely, al-Bayan, Tarikh al-Tabari, and Jamal by the Sunni historian al-Waqidi (d. 823).

[11][4] As for the Shiqshiqiya sermon, in which the predecessors of Ali are sharply criticized, Sunni authorities reject it as the work of al-Radi,[20] in line with their tendency to neutralize the conflicts among the companions after Muhammad.

[26] Sarwar and Mohamed recently used computational methods, mainly stylometric analysis and machine learning, to examine the authenticity of Nahj al-balagha by analyzing the 'morphological segmentation' of its text.

[2] Some sermons outlines the obligations of a leader, perhaps in response to the criticism from the Kharijites, a faction of Ali's army that abandoned him after the inconclusive Battle of Siffin in 657 against his archenemy Mu'awiya.

[31]Certainly, there is no obligation on the imam except what has been devolved on him from God, namely, to convey warnings, to exert in good advice, to revive the Sunnah, to enforce penalties on those liable to them, and to issue shares to the deserving.

[32]While Veccia Vaglieri wrote that Ali shows no inclination to legitimism in Sunni reports,[33] multiple sermons in Nahj al-balagha suggest instead that he viewed himself as the rightful successor of Muhammad by virtue of his merits and his kinship with the prophet.

[35][36] The legitimist view attributed to Ali in Nahj al-balagha, that he unequivocally considered the caliphate to be his right after Muhammad, is corroborated by some experts, including Mahmoud M. Ayoub (d. 2021),[37] Wilferd Madelung (d. 2023),[38] Hamid Mavani,[39] Moojan Momen,[40] and Shah-Kazemi.

[44] Soon after his death, however, it became clear that Ali did not enjoy popular support, which is perhaps why he resigned himself to the caliphate of Abu Bakr, likely for the sake of the unity of a nascent Islam.

[45][46][47] Mavani and Maria M. Dakake, another Islamicist, nevertheless suggest that Ali viewed the succession of Abu Bakr as a digression which turned into a full-blown deviation with the rebellion of Mu'awiya during his own caliphate.

I refrained from flinging them into death and therefore closed my eyes despite the dust; [I] kept swallowing saliva despite [the suffocation of] grief, and endured pangs of anger although it was more bitter than colocynth and more grievous than the bite of knives.

I do this, seeking the reward and the bounty of such a course of action, being detached from that to which you people aspire: the adornments and trappings [of political power].Yet there is also evidence in Nahj al-balagha that Ali regarded public endorsement as necessary for a legitimate rule.

[62]Apportion a part of your time to those who have special needs, making yourself free to attend to them personally, sitting with them in a public assembly with all due humility before God, your Creator.

[65]Blessed be the person who discharges his obligations toward God; struggles courageously against all misfortune; abandons sleep at night, until, when slumber overpowers him, lies down on the earth as his bed, using his hand as his pillow, doing so in the company of those whose eyes are rendered sleepless by the awesome anticipation of their return [to God]; whose bodies stay away from their beds [see verse 32:16 of the Quran]; whose lips are ever-humming with the invocation of the name of their Lord; whose sins have been dissolved through prolonged cries for forgiveness.

Enliven your heart with exhortation (maw'iza), mortify it by renunciation (zahada), empower it with certainty (yaqin), enlighten it with wisdom, humble it by the remembrance of death (dhikr al-mawt), establish it in [constant awareness of] the evanescence (fana') [of all things other than God],...[68]My dear son, take your soul as the criterion when you want to judge deeds which take place between you and others–then desire for others what you desire for yourself, and help others to avoid what you avoid yourself.