Explaining the Honors of Imam Ali (A.S.) in Nahj al-Balaghah and Analyzing Their Reasons

There is a title called honors in Arab history. It can be seen in poetry, especially in Arab Diwan. Through this title one can understand the type of boasting, cause, goals, and purpose of the narrator. The revelation of the Qur'an somewhat reduced the negative burden of this tradition and forbade reprehensible pride. Although this ancient custom faded after Islam, it can still be seen in the poems and sayings. One of the prose writings in which the proud expressions are seen is Nahj al-Balaghah, perhaps because of the rhetorical sayings. The main purpose of this research is to explain why these phrases exist in Nahj al-Balaghah. This article extracted the boastings from the words of the Amir al-Momineen (PBUH) and examined them. Then determined and explained their temporal and spatial conditions, the reason for the Imam's boasting in all of them. The first reason is to present the correct criterion for the boasting that the Imam used during his speech. In the same cultural context of the age of revelation, Amir al-Momineen (PBUH) was able to change the criteria of boasting in terms of meaning to change its cultural concept, besides expand and present criteria that were not common before. On the other hand, Amir al-Momineen (PBUH), under certain circumstances, considered the inclusion of his virtues and boasting about them to motivate people towards his goals (previously, he used to incite people to jihad and influence them by sermon).