Divine Order and Human Interdependence, Imam Ali’s governance

🌿 Imam Ali’s Reflection on Divine Order and Human Interdependence

Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) once said about the verse:

 "It is We who have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of this world."

(Qur’an 43:32)

He explained:

“Allah, the Exalted, has made employment and cooperation among people a means of sustenance.

In His wisdom, He diversified their strengths, desires, and capacities so that one may serve another.

If every person were required to build his own home, craft his own tools, and produce all that he needs, life would become unbearable and the world would fall into disorder.

Thus, Allah ensured balance by making people depend upon one another, each performing according to his ability so that harmony and stability may prevail.”

(Wasael al-Shi’ah, v.13 p.244; Mizan al-Hikmah, p.259)

🌙 Reflection for Our Time

If Imam Ali’s words teach us that divine order lies in mutual service and shared responsibility, then we must ask ourselves, what have we built today?

Have our centers become places of collective service or personal status?

Are we building communities of cooperation or stages of applause?

The wisdom of Amir al-Mu'minin calls us to build societies that sustain themselves through sincerity, service, and shared effort, not through dependence on managements that echo their own egos.

A self-sustaining community is one where:

Knowledge is shared, not sold.

Leadership serves, not rules.

Faith inspires work, not performance.

Every individual contributes to the well-being of all, as Imam Ali said, “The best of people is the one who benefits others.”

Let us then rebuild our centers of worship into centers of worth, places that nurture independence, compassion, and unity, so that our faith does not become ritual, but reality.

❤️ 💙 💜 💖 

The Order of Wisdom and the Foundation of a Living Community

(Inspired by Qur’an and Nahjul Balāgha)

The people of the past century's mindset are holding the time and trying to reverse the order of wisdom. You build your walls before you build your hearts. You raise centers of stone, yet neglect the souls that should inhabit them. Know that a structure without spirit is but a lifeless shell; a center without a united community is like a riverbed without flowing water.

Allah, the Exalted, says:

 “Have they not considered how Allah begins creation, then repeats it? Indeed, that is easy for Allah.”

(Qur’an 29:19)

Creation begins with the soul before the form, with the spirit before the structure. But you begin from the outside, hoping the outer will give life to the inner. Nay, the river does not rise from the sea; it flows from the heights toward its destined end. This is the physical law of creation, the Sunnah of Allah which never changes.

“You will never find any change in the way of Allah.”

(Qur’an 33:62)

Yet you have sought to reverse His order. You wish to draw water from the ocean of pride, not from the springs of sincerity. You chase progress through means that oppose both reason and revelation.

The world has turned upon its axis, thrones have fallen, crowns have rusted, and the illusion of kingship has faded. No longer are there masters and slaves; all are tested alike in the struggle for survival. But our leaders remain blind, clinging to worn-out customs, empty ceremonies, and hollow pride.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him) said in Nahjul Balāgha:

“The most incapable of men is he who cannot reform himself, and the most miserly of them is he who cannot guide others through his example.”

(Sermon 176)

 Reform begins with the self, not the stage. The pulpits that once echoed truth now resound with applause. You have made remembrance into ritual and reflection into entertainment.

Beware, for a time shall come when the youth will turn away from your centers, and your buildings will stand as witnesses against your neglect. Allah will ask: “Did you gather to remember Me, or to please yourselves?”

 “That Day, the tongues, hands, and feet will bear witness to what they used to do.”

(Qur’an 24:24)

Look around you, the world moves with discipline, unity, and design. Nations rise not by faith alone, but by the order that faith demands.

 “Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”

(Qur’an 13:11)

See how how rising power in the east those bereft of divine revelation rise through discipline and design,

while you, heirs to the most perfect system of justice revealed by Allah, remain divided and dependent.

By Allah! Justice is the foundation of strength, and discipline is its adornment.

But you have abandoned the balance of intellect and faith,

and turned your gatherings into spectacles of pleasure instead of schools of reform.

Allāmah Iqbal, the thinker of Lahore, once said:

 “Burn every ear of wheat from which the poor cannot get sustenance.”

For what worth is abundance when it breeds injustice, and what beauty in worship when it blinds the soul to the hungry?

Your centers and assemblies,

if they neither awaken the conscience nor heal the hearts,

are like furnaces that make the iron glow red,

but give it no form nor purpose,

casting it upon the street, wasted and cold.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him.) said:

 “The best of actions is that which reforms the people.”

(Nahjul Balāghah, Saying 176)

Beware! Those who reinvent the wheel of religion with ornaments and distractions

only addict the youth to vanity and imbalance,

disrupting the harmony of their minds and the purity of their souls.

They hurt the people’s expectations and deceive none but themselves.

As the Commander of the Faithful said:

 “How strange it is that one who repairs his house ruins his soul.”

(Nahjul Balāghah, Sermon 103)

So return to the root of faith, where justice is lived, knowledge is light, and worship reforms the heart.

For nations rise not by walls and wealth, but by discipline and divine order.

❤️ 💙 💜 💖 💗 

 You fear change, because truth disturbs your comfort. But Imam Ali (‘a) said:

“Do not be a slave to others when Allah has created you free.”

(Saying 390, Nahjul Balāgha)

Freedom is not in slogans or walls; it is in self-sufficiency, unity, and justice.

O believers, awaken before the tide overtakes you.

Build your people before your palaces.

Build your unity before your walls.

For a society without soul is a body without life.

And remember the words of your Imam (peace be upon him):

 “He who places himself as a leader of the people must begin by teaching himself before teaching others, and must discipline himself before disciplining others.”

(Sermon 73, Nahjul Balāgha)

So reform yourselves before your structures crumble.

Revive your community before your centers become museums.

Let faith be your foundation, justice your pillar, and unity your roof, for only then will your house stand firm before the winds of time.

❤️