Imam Ali (A), (15 September 601 – 29 January 661) , the first Imam (AS), was the cousin and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet Muhammad of Islam. He was born on Friday, the 13th of Rajab in the Holy Ka’aba. He was brought up and mentored under the direct guardianship of the Holy Prophet (SA).
Born to Abu Talib and Fatimah bint Asad, Imam Ali is the only person to be born in the sacred sanctuary of the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Imam Ali was the first male who accepted Islam, and the first Muslim.
As Imam Ali (A) says: “The Holy Prophet brought me up in his own arms and fed me with his own morsel. I followed him wherever he went like a baby camel following its mother. Each day a new aspect of his character would beam out of his noble person and I would accept it and follow it as a command.”
This is why Imam Ali (A) was the treasure of prophetic knowledge. The following is an excerpt from his first sermon in Nahjul-Balagha:
The Oneness of The Creator
Praise is due to Allah Whose worth cannot be described by speakers, whose bounties cannot be counted by calculators and whose claim (to obedience) cannot be satisfied by those who attempt to do so, whom the height of intellectual courage cannot appreciate and the depths of understanding cannot reach; He, for whose description no limit has been laid down, no praise exists, no time is ordained and no duration is fixed. He brought forth creation through His Omnipotence, dispersed winds through His Compassion and made firm the shaking earth with rocks.
The foremost in religion is the acknowledgment of Him. The perfection of acknowledging Him is to testify Him. The perfection of testifying Him is to believe in His Oneness. The perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him Pure. The perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes because every attribute is a proof that it is different from that to which it is attributed and everything to which something is attributed is different from the attribute.
Thus, whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognizes His like. Who recognizes His like regards Him as two. Who regards Him as two recognizes parts for Him, and who recognizes parts for Him mistakes Him, and who mistakes Him points at Him, and who points at Him admits limitations for Him, and who admits limitations for Him numbers Him.
Whoever said in what is He, held that He is contained, and whoever said on what is He held He is not on something else. He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming into being. He Exists but not of non-Existence. He is with everything but not in physical nearness. He is different from everything but not in physical separation. He acts but without connotation of movements and instruments. He sees even when there is none to be looked at from among His creation. He is only One, such that there is none with whom He may keep company or whom He may miss in his absence.
The Creation of the Universe
He initiated creation and commenced it originally, without undergoing reflection, without making use of any experiment, without innovating any movement and without experiencing any mental aspiration. He fixed the timings of everything. He established balance among their variations and harmonized them with each other. He gave everything its purpose, shape, properties and features. He knew them before creating them, having full control over their limits and confines. He knew their essence and components.
The Almighty created the wide space and expanse of the universe. He flowed into it waters, whose waves were stormy and whose surges leapt one over the other. He loaded this water on dashing winds and breaking cyclones, ordered them to shed it back and forth, gave the wind control over it. The wind blew under it while water flooded furiously over it.
Then, the Almighty created forth another type of wind and made it rotate around its own center, then increased its strength and intensified its motion and spread it far and wide. Then He ordered this wind to raise deep and dense waters to form wind waves. So, the wind churned the water like the churning of curd and pushed it fiercely into high ocean waves, moving still waters onto the flowing waters, churning it until it created layers full of foam.
Then the Almighty raised the foam to the open and vast space and made therefrom the seven skies. He made the lower one as a steady wave and the upper one as protective ceiling and high edifice without any pole to support it and without joints to hold it together. Then, He decorated these skies with sparkling stars and glowing planets. He hung the shining sun and the bright moon within the revolving sky, moving roof and rotating galaxy.