Ali Ibn Talib Quotes & Sayings

Two kinds of greedy people never get satisfied; the seeker of knowledge and the seeker of this world — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Be like the flower that gives its fragrance to even the hand that crushes it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If what you achieve today is equal to what you achieved yesterday, then you are at a loss. And if what you have achieved today is less than what you achieved yesterday, then you are deprived from the Almighty's blessings. Anyone who is not progressing, is in fact regressing, and if you are regressing, then you might as well be dead. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Always consider your intellect to be lacking; otherwise too much faith in it surely leads to error. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Associate with people in such a manner that they weep for you when you die and long for you if you are alive — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Recitation of the Qur'an without contemplation and thought is futile. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Don't engage your heart in grief over the past or you wont be ready for what is coming. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Courtesy costs nothing, but buys everything. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Silence is the garden of thought. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Allah's Generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The outcome of fear is disappointment and shyness is frustration. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Know you that Allah has made Islam the most sublime path for attainment of His supreme pleasure and the highest standards of his worship and obedience. He has favoured it with noble precepts, exalted principles, undoubtable arguments, unchallengeable supremacy and undeniable wisdom. It is up to you to maintain the eminence and dignity granted to it by the Lord, to follow it sincerely, to do justice to its articles of faith and belief, to obey implicitly its tenets and orders and to give it the proper place in your lives. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Either you are just or unjust. If you are just, then you will not keep aloof from the people, but will listen to them and meet their requirements. But if you are unjust, the people themselves will keep away from you. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Thy lot or portion of life is seeking after thee; therefore be at rest from seeking after it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If you are greeted then return the greetings more warmly. If you are favored, then repay the obligation manifold; but he who takes the initiative will always excel in merit. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Our enemies are not the Jews or the Christians, our enemy is our own ignorance. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

The nourishment of body is food, while the nourishment of the soul is feeding others. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Often your utterances and expressions of your face leak out the secrets of your hidden thoughts. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

One who rushes madly after inordinate desire, runs the risk of encountering destruction and death. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Nothing hurts a good soul and a kind heart more than to live amongst people who cannot understand it. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

A moment of patience in a moment of anger prevents a thousand moments of regret. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Never explain yourself to anyone, because the one who likes you would not need it, and the one dislikes you wouldn't believe it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The highest person is he who is of most use to humankind. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Asceticism is not that you should not own anything, but that nothing should own you. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Understanding the knowledge and wisdom of the Qur'an is by far, higher than memorizing. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Beautiful people are not always good, but good people are always beautiful. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Fear only the will of God and you will have no cause to fear anyone else. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

There are so many highly esteemed ones who became miserable and humiliated just because of their bad temper and morals; and humble people who have attained eminence and the highest honors because of good temper and morals. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

How many lessons there are and how little they are taken — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Greed takes a person to the watering place but gets him back without letting him drink. It undertakes responsibility but does not fulfill it. Often the drinker gets choked before quenching his thirst. The greater the worth of a thing yearned for, the greater is the grief for its loss. Desires blind the eyes of understanding. The destined share would reach him who does not approach it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I will be patient till even patience tires of my patience. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The relation of patience to iman is like the relation of the head to the body. If the head is chopped off, the body becomes useless. Then he raised his voice and said: Certainly, the one who has no patience has no iman, and patience is like a riding-beast that nevers gets tired — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Your cure is within you, yet you do not sense it! Your sickness is from you, yet you do not see it! You consider yourself a small body; Yet encapsulated within you is the entire universe! — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Generosity is to help a deserving person without his request, and if you help him after his
request, then it is either out of self-respect or to avoid rebuke. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Hide the good you do, and make known the good done to you. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Be a good man to Allah and a bad man to yourself (desires); and be one of the commoners among the people — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A poor man is like a foreigner in his own country. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The most complete gift of God is a life based on knowledge. — Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib

Do not be misled by appearances for these are apt to be deceptive. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If you don't like chickens I don't like you — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Do not use the sharpness of your speech on your mother who taught you how to speak. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A calamity does not descend except due to a sin and it is not lifted except with repentance. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Not every man with a heart is understanding, nor every man with an ear a listener, and nor every man with eyes able to see. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

People's hearts are like wild animals. They attach their selves to those that love and train them. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The best deed of a great man is to forgive and forget. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

How strange and foolish is man. He looses his health in gaining wealth. Then to regain health he wastes his wealth. He ruins is present while worrying about his future - but weeps in the future by recalling his past. He lives as though death shall never come to him - but dies in a way as if he were never born. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

An alert and learned man will take advice from any event. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

You must be humble, as it is one of the greatest [forms of] worship. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

The worst of our faults is our interest in other people's faults. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

You should desire for others what you desire for yourself, and hate for others what you hate for yourself. Do not oppress, just as you do not like to be oppressed. Do good to others just as you would like good to be done to you. Dislike in yourself what you dislike in others. Accept that treatment from others which you would like others to accept from you. Do not say to others what you do not like to be said to you. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Lead such a life, that, when you die, the people may mourn you, and while you are alive they long for your company. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If you want to test someone's character, give him respect. If he has good character, he will respect you more, if he has bad character, he will think is the best of all. — Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Every breath you take is a step towards death. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If all the women over the world have been permitted to be married to only one man, except one woman. He'd love to marry that woman. That is the imprint of man — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Justice is better than courage as if everyone is fair to others, then there will be no need for courage. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Love is an illness which doesn't have good nor recompense. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

O World, try to deceive someone else. Are you trying to tempt me or attract me? No way! I divorce you irrevocably. Your time is short and you are insignificant. Alas! The provision is little, the journey is long and the way is lonely. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Justice is putting everything in its proper place — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

How foolish is man! He ruins the present while worrying about the future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past! — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Many a spoken word is more piercing than an attack. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A fool's mind is at the mercy of his tongue and a wise man's tongue is under the control of
his mind. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Work for a Better Life as if you live forever,
And work for Better End as if you die tomorrow — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The emaan of a person cannot be true until he has more trust in that which is in Allah's Hands than that which is in his own hands. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Bear sorrows and calamities patiently, otherwise you will never be happy. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A girl is a good deed and a boy is a bounty. Good deeds are rewarded while people are held accountable for bounties. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Work for this world as if you will live forever and work for the here-after as if you will die tomorrow. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

To make one good action succeed another, is the perfection of goodness. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Not to have a thing is less humiliating than to beg it. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Put aside your pride,
Set down your arrogance,
And remember your grave. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Everyone who is taken by death asks for more time, while everyone who still has time makes excuses for procrastination. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The wiser a man is, the less talkative will he be. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A friend cannot be considered a friend until he is tested in three occasions: in timeof need, behind your back, and after your death. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

People are of two types, they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The one who has no control over his desires has no control over his mind. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Had there not been five bad qualities, all the people would have been righteous. Contentment with ignorance; love for worldly life; miserliness inspite of much wealth; ostentation in (good) deeds; and pride in their own intelligence. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Wealth converts a strange land into homeland and poverty turns a native place into a
strange land. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

You are as much able as you know — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The most helpless person is the one who is helpless in reforming himself. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Take Care Of Your Tongue Like The Way You Take Care Of Gold & Silver. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

He who guards his secrets retains control in his own hands — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Do not share the knowledge with which you have been blessed with everyone in general, as you do with some people in particular; and know that there are some men in whom Allah, may He he glorified, has placed hidden secrets, which they are forbidden to reveal. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The most precious wealth is wisdom, and the most miserable poverty is stupidity. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Awaken your heart to kindness and mercy for the people and love and tenderness for them. Never, never act with them like a predatory beast which seeks to be satiated by devouring them, for the people fall into two categories: they are either your brethren in faith or your kindred in creation ... Do not ever say, 'I have been given authority' or 'My command should be obeyed.' Because it corrupts the heart, consumes one's faith, and invites calamities. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Know thyself, and thou shalt know God. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The real Muslim is the one who prefers speaking the truth even when it is ruinous to him over lying even when it benefits him, and who finds inner peace in doing so. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Dislike in yourself what you dislike in others. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

whoever prolongs his desire ruins his actions — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Woman is a delicate creature with strong emotions who has been created by the Almighty God to shoulder responsibility for educating society and moving toward perfection. God created woman as symbol of His own beauty and to give solace to her partner and her family. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

If one night you see someone committing a sin, tomorrow do not look at him as a sinner. He may have repented during the night and you did not know. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

You should have hope in God alone and should fear nothing but your sins. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

True friends are a single soul divided between different bodies. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Contentment is a wealth that is never exhausted — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

When you get ill do not get nervous about it and try as much as possible to be hopeful. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Do not force your children to behave like you, for surely they have been created for a time which is different to your time — Ali Ibn-e-Abu Talib

Hate no one, no matter how much they've wronged you. Live humbly, no matter how wealthy you become. Think positively, no matter how hard life is. Give much, even if you've been given little. Keep in touch with the ones who have forgotten you, and forgive who has wronged you, and do not stop praying for the best for those you love. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Every breath you take is a step forward toward death.
(Hazrat Ali-As) — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Beware of the flight of Blessings,
For nothing that runs away is returned. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Half of wisdom is love and friendship with people.(the other half is to guard yourself against the evils of people) — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If you find that somebody is not grateful for all that you have done for him, then do not get disappointed because often you will find that someone else feels under your obligation though you have done nothing for him and thus your good deeds will be compensated, and Allah will reward you for your goodness. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib