On one of the days, as per my routine, I got the opportunity of visiting my teacher, the grand Ayatullah Boroujardi (r.a.), while I was benefitting from that great source of knowledge, his excellency handed over a letter to me which reached him on that day itself. I took the letter and studied it. I will write down what I remember from that letter briefly:[1]
A Christian man, Lebanese author and professor, George Jordac, in his letter addressing Ayatullah Boroujardi, wrote: I have studied the life history of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) deeply and have understood this truth that all the principles which are accepted and agreed upon by the nations and countries in our civilized world today, and are recognized as the basis of human progress and life, are derived from the life, commands, methods and behavior of Imam (peace be upon Him), and the Islamic clerics have not explained and illustrated these principles they way it should have been.
The western clerics have also concealed this point; because they did not wish to accept that a personality from the east, becomes the manifestation and depicter of all these principles. And I did not find it appropriate that such a personality exists in the east and his status, position and worth remains unknown. Therefore, I have written this book, and because I am a Christian, no one can accuse me of being intolerant.
He had also written that I find you the most appropriate person to whom I should gift this book. Hence, I am sending you this gift and after studying it, you will agree that:
“I have respected the boundaries of justice in my judgment regarding Imam (peace be upon Him)”.[2]
My departed teacher was waiting for the book as it hadn’t reached him yet. I said to him that if Allah wills, the book will reach him soon; but this letter itself is an important certificate due to the points and confirmations which are written it.
After sometime, the book arrived. The name of the book was “Al Imam Ali – Sautul Adalatil Insaniyah” (Imam Ali – the voice of human justice). It was published in a single volume and lately, it has been reprinted in several volumes. His excellence, Ayatullah Boroujardi, studied the book after some time and commanded me to study it from the beginning till the end, and asked me to note down any mistake I find in the book. Abiding by the command of my teacher, I studied the entire book and noted down those instances and brought it back for my teacher.
Among the valuable points that I read in that book, was the analysis of the letter written to Malik e Ashtar and its comparison with the declaration of human rights.[3] This Christian scholar wrote down all the clauses of the declaration of human rights and against each clause, he placed a sentence from this letter, and said: this is the declaration of human rights, and this is the letter addressed by Imam to Malik al – Ashtar. If we observe both of them, we will find that in all the clauses, the sentences from the letter are more complete and clear; with the following differences:
Whatever we wish to write regarding the personality of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him), it will never reach its end. Although thousands of books have been written on the life of his holiness, but the passage of time makes his greatness and value more and more evident day by day; and whoever began to study the life history and virtues of his holiness, will witness himself in front of such fresh attributes that he will assume that it has remained unrevealed for others.
On one of the days, as per my routine, I got the opportunity of visiting my teacher, the grand Ayatullah Boroujardi (r.a.), while I was benefitting from that great source of knowledge, his excellency handed over a letter to me which reached him on that day itself. I took the letter and studied it. I will write down what I remember from that letter briefly.
[1] Because at present, that letter is not available with me and several years have passed since I studied it, what I am writing is the summary of the points mentioned in the letter.
[2] This statement is the exact word of Goerge Jordac.
[3] From that time till today, I did not get an opportunity to study that book again, and even now that I am writing down this section, this book is not available with me. Therefore, that which I have written is presented in the form of an excerpt from that book. Respected readers can refer to the original text or the translation of the book for further study.