Forthcoming Publication – 2025

Nahj al-Balāghah
The Word of ʿAlī

An English literary translation and Arabic critical edition by Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi

Revered for his wisdom, eloquence, piety and courage for fourteen centuries, the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib’s (d. 40/661) word is considered second only to the Word of God and His Prophet as the apotheosis of Arabic language and literature. Nahj al-Balāghah, the famous Twelver Shia collection by the renowned scholar al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016), is the paramount compilation of Imām ʿAlī’s orations, sermons, supplications, epistles, and aphorisms. In Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī, the Dean of The Shīʿah Institute, Dr Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi draws upon more than two decades of meticulous full-time study and scholarship to present an Arabic critical edition and the first direct English literary translation, based upon manuscripts composed from the from fifth/tenth century to the present day. The fruit of a lifetime of immersion in the Nahj al-Balāghah, classical Arabic philology, and the Twelver Shia tradition, Dr Shah Naqavi’s translation presents the poetic beauty, profound power, and ineffable mystery of Imām ʿAlī’s magisterial word with exceptional lucidity and lyricism. Nahj al-Balāghah: The Word of ʿAlī, an authoritative English translation, will be cherished by any reader with an interest in one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature.