Nahjul Balagha By Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib - English Translation - Sermon 17

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Peak of Eloquence Nahjul Balagha By Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib - English Translation - Sermon 17
About Those Who Sit for Dispensation of Justice among
People but Are Not Fit for It
Among all the people, the most detested before Allah are two
persons. One is he who is devoted to his self. So he is deviated from the
true path and loves speaking about (foul) innovations and inviting toward
the wrong path. He is, therefore, a nuisance for those who are enamored
of him, is himself misled from the guidance of those enamored of him, is
himself misled from the guidance of those preceding him, misleads those
who follow him in his life or after his death, carries the weight of others’
sins and is entangled in his own misdeeds.
The other man is he who has picked up ignorance. He moves
among the ignorant, is senseless in the thick of mischief and is blind to
the advantages of peace. Those resembling like men have named him
scholar but he is not so. He goes out early morning to collect things
whose deficiency is better than plenty, till when he has quenched his thirst
form polluted water and acquired meaningless things.
He sits among the people as a judge responsible for solving
whatever is confusing to the others. If an ambiguous problem is presented
before him he manages a shabby argument about it of his own accord and
passes judgment on its basis. In this way, he is entangled in the confusion
of doubts as in the spider’s web, not knowing whether he was right or
wrong. If he is right, he fears lest he errs, while if he is wrong, he hopes
he is right. He is ignorant, wandering astray in ignorance and riding on
carriages aimlessly moving in darkness. He does not try to find the reality
of knowledge. He scatters the traditions as the wind scatters the dry
leaves.
By Allah! He is not capable of solving the problems that come to
him nor is he fit of the status assigned to him. Whatever he does not know
he doses not regard it worth knowing. He does not realize that what is
beyond his reach is within the reach of others. If anything is not clear to
him, he keeps quiet over it because he knows his own ignorance. Lost
lives are crying against his unjust verdicts and properties (that have been
wrongly disposed of) are grumbling against him.
I complain to Allah about persons who live ignorant and die
misguided. For them nothing is more worthless than Holy Quran if it is recited as it should be recited, nor anything more valuable than the Holy
Quran if is verses are removed from their places, nor anything more
vicious than virtue nor more virtuous than vice.