Hawzah News Agency- Speaking at the 15th virtual session of the Winter School titled “Nahj al-Balagha in the Contemporary World: Interdisciplinary Approaches and International Dialogue,” held in Mashhad, Hojatoleslam Seyyed Mohammad Moallemi, Deputy for Research at al-Mustafa International University’s Khorasan branch, underlined the central role of divine social laws in analyzing societal transformations.
Moallemi said Nahj al-Balagha, a collection of sermons, letters, and sayings of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), presents a precise, historically grounded, and indicator-based explanation of divine social laws, offering an effective roadmap for interpreting, assessing, and even anticipating social and historical phenomena in the modern world.
He noted that while the concept of divine social laws has been discussed in contemporary Islamic thought—most notably by Allameh Tabatabaei in al-Mizan and later by Martyr Morteza Motahhari—the systematic study of these laws within narrations, particularly in Nahj al-Balagha, has received comparatively limited scholarly attention.
According to Moallemi, the Quran outlines the fundamental principles governing human social life, but often without extensive detail. In contrast, Imam Ali (peace be upon him), he said, elaborates on these same laws in Nahj al-Balagha with greater precision, identifying concrete characteristics and practical indicators that make them applicable to real-world social, political, cultural, and economic analysis.
“Social analysis without attention to indicators and details inevitably remains superficial,” he said, adding that Imam Ali’s approach is both holistic and historically conscious, viewing social phenomena within the broader flow of history rather than through static or narrowly positivist perspectives.
Moallemi outlined three core functions of the social laws presented in Nahj al-Balagha: explanatory (identifying the causes of social phenomena), interpretive (understanding their meaning and nature), and evaluative (distinguishing truth from falsehood and assessing social developments). He added that these laws also enable informed forecasting of future social trends.
He stressed that these principles are directly linked to Islamic governance, noting that Imam Ali (peace be upon him) applied them at both the level of state administration and popular participation in addressing societal challenges.
The cleric divided these laws into two categories: absolute social laws, which apply universally across all societies and eras—such as divine guidance and trial—and conditional social laws, which become active under specific historical and social circumstances.
Referring to the law of divine guidance, Moallemi explained that Imam Ali (PBUH) distinguishes between existential (takwini) guidance and legislative (tashri‘i) guidance, the latter realized through reason and the mission of prophets, a theme emphasized in several sermons of Nahj al-Balagha.
He also highlighted the law of divine trial, noting that societies are tested through hardship, prosperity, deprivation, and even material abundance. According to Imam Ali (PBUH), the purpose of such trials is to remove arrogance, cultivate humility before God, and prepare societies to receive divine grace—points elaborated in detail in Nahj al-Balagha.
Among conditional laws, Moallemi cited divine support, the increase of blessings through gratitude, the beautification of faith for believers, and the adornment of false deeds for disbelievers. He said Imam Ali (PBUH) explains these laws through indicators such as patience, perseverance, the time-consuming nature of social change, and steadfastness.
“These principles clarify why some societies ultimately prevail on the path of truth despite enduring hardships, while others persist in falsehood, mistakenly perceiving their actions as righteous,” he said.
Moallemi concluded that the social laws articulated in Nahj al-Balagha represent a strategic resource not only for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, but also for policymaking, Islamic governance, historical analysis, and future studies in the Muslim world.
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