The importance of staying away from people who distort reality in the eyes of man.

According to Ashura News, quoted by Mehr reporter, the greatness and greatness of Nahj al-Balagha has not only been noted by Muslim scholars and thinkers, but also by non-Muslims beyond religion, and great personalities in different eras have expressed their opinions specifically about Nahj al-Balagha. A book that does not only belong to Shiites and Muslims, but also contains human commands and laws that are expressed regardless of religion for a better life for humanity.

The book Nahj al-Balagha, which is a collection of some of the speeches and correspondence of the Commander of the Faithful Ali (AS), is a source of wisdom for the political principles of Islam due to its political concepts and topics that have attracted everyone's attention.

Mirza Shirazi and Muhammad Abduh are among the pioneers of paying attention to Nahj al-Balagha. In the Constitutional Revolution, Nahj al-Balagha played a serious role, and this prominent role of Nahj al-Balagha can be clearly seen in the important book Tanbiyyah al-Ummah and Tanziyyah al-Mullah by Ayatollah Nayini. In his book Islamic Movements in the Last Hundred Years, Ayatollah Morteza Motahari says regarding the influence of Nahj al-Balagha on Mirza Na’ini’s book: It is fair to say that no one has presented a precise interpretation of the practical, social, and political monotheism of Islam as well as the great scholar and great mujtahid, Mirza Mohammad Hossein Na’ini, along with solid arguments and references from the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, in his valuable book, “Tanbiyyah al-Ummah wa Tanziyyah al-Mullah.”

The renewed attention to Nahj al-Balagha coincided with the beginning of the Islamic Movement in the early 1940s, and with the emphasis of Imam Khomeini and the efforts of thinkers, researchers, and activists of the Islamic Movement such as Ayatollah Taleghani, Ayatollah Khamenei, Shahid Motahari, Mohammad Reza Hakimi, Mohammad Taqi Shariati, and Ali Shariati, etc., who had a serious presence in the Islamic Movement of contemporary Iran, Nahj al-Balagha was utilized in deriving the principles of Islamic political wisdom.

وَ قَالَ (علیه السلام) لِابْنِهِ الْحَسَنِ (علیه السلام):

یَا بُنَیَّ احْفَظْ عَنِّی أَرْبَعاً وَ أَرْبَعاً، لَا یَضُرُّکَ مَا عَمِلْتَ مَعَهُنَّ: إِنَّ أَغْنَی الْغِنَی الْعَقْلُ، وَ أَکْبَرَ الْفَقْرِ الْحُمْقُ، وَ أَوْحَشَ الْوَحْشَةِ الْعُجْبُ، وَ أَکْرَمَ الْحَسَبِ حُسْنُ الْخُلُقِ.یَا بُنَیَّ إِیَّاکَ وَ مُصَادَقَةَ الْأَحْمَقِ، فَإِنَّهُ یُرِیدُ أَنْ یَنْفَعَکَ فَیَضُرُّکَ؛ وَ إِیَّاکَ وَ مُصَادَقَةَ الْبَخِیلِ، فَإِنَّهُ یَقْعُدُ عَنْکَ أَحْوَجَ مَا تَکُونُ إِلَیْهِ؛ وَ إِیَّاکَ وَ مُصَادَقَةَ الْفَاجِرِ، فَإِنَّهُ یَبِیعُکَ بِالتَّافِهِ؛ وَ إِیَّاکَ وَ مُصَادَقَةَ الْکَذَّابِ، فَإِنَّهُ کَالسَّرَابِ یُقَرِّبُ عَلَیْکَ الْبَعِیدَ وَ یُبَعِّدُ عَلَیْکَ الْقَرِیبَ.

Imam (a.s.) said to his son Imam Hassan (a.s.): My son! Four things: And four things, keep from me, by keeping them, you will not be harmed in any work you do: The highest wealth is wisdom, the greatest poverty is stupidity and ignorance, the worst fear is self-centeredness, and the highest lineage and lineage is good morals. My son, beware of being friends with a fool, because he wants to benefit you but harms you (because due to his stupidity he does not distinguish between profit and loss), and avoid being friends with a miser, because he will abandon you when you are in the greatest need of him, and avoid being friends with a wicked person, because he will sell you for a small amount, and beware of being friends with a liar, because he is like a mirage; he makes the far seem close in your eyes and the near seem far in your eyes (and shows you the truths upside down).

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi says about this wisdom: "A liar and a liar, whether this moral vice of his is due to his lack of restraint and weakness of faith or due to his interest in his fleeting interests, friendship with him is dangerous. Sometimes the factors of victory are provided to achieve a goal; but with his lies he considers it impossible and impossible to achieve it, and opportunities are lost in this way. Sometimes, on the contrary, there are tasks before a person for which the conditions are not provided and entering into them is a source of failure; but this incontinent liar speaks as if the person will reach the goal tomorrow.

We know that a mirage is a sight that appears in the desert during the heat of the weather and from a distance something resembling water is seen (while due to the difference in the density of the layers in that hot weather, the reflection of a corner of the blue sky falls on the ground, which a person thinks is water), but when he gets closer, he does not see any trace of water there. Those who make reality appear upside down in the eyes of a person are very similar to a mirage, and the Commander of the Faithful Ali (peace be upon him) especially emphasized this point that liars make the distant seem close and the close seem far, and this is a kind of change in reality.

Islamic hadiths also forbid consulting with a liar: In Gharr al-Hikam, Ali (peace be upon him) is quoted as saying: “Do not consult with a liar, for he makes the distant seem close to you and the close seem far to you;

Hojjat al-Islam Hamid Reza Mahdavi Arfa, a researcher at the Nahjul-Balagha School, says about this wisdom: The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) explains the ugly effects and consequences of lying:

One of them happened during his time; when he arrived in Basra for the Battle of Jamal with Talha and Zubair, the Imam said to Anas bin Malik, "Go ahead and remind them of what the Prophet had said to Zubair and Talha about such a day, perhaps they will take heed and stop causing trouble." Anas bin Malik lied and said, "I do not remember such a statement from the Prophet." The Imam said as stated in Wisdom 311: "If you are a liar, Allah will strike you with such whiteness that even a turban cannot cover it." It is narrated that after the Imam cursed him, freckles appeared on his face and head, causing such trouble that he even wore a veil to avoid being seen.

But another effect of these ugliness is that the Imam describes his future time in such a way that one of its worst features is that in sermon 187 he says: A time will come when people will lie without any need for embarrassment.

Also, Imam Ali (peace be upon him) has these two sentences about the prevalence of lying in the future of the Islamic nation in sermon 108: People will love each other because of lying and will become enemies because of someone's honesty.

Or in the same sermon 108, paragraph 7, he says: "Truthfulness will be hated and rare, but lying will be widespread and contagious."

The last point about lying is that Imam Ali (peace be upon him) gave a strange example of lying in sermon 192, saying: When you say anything that touches the flesh, that is enough for you to be a liar; do not say anything that touches the flesh with people, because this behavior in itself is enough for you to be a liar.