Coinciding with the anniversary of the birth of Imam ʿAli (a), and on the occasion of the passing of 35 years since the founding of the International Nahj al-Balagha Institute, in whose founding ʿAllama al-Amini (rh) played a principal role. The director of this institute announced a project to issue and publish the Encyclopedia of the Hadiths of the Commander of the Faithful (a), which comprises about 10 thousand hadiths.
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The International Qurʾanic News Agency reported, quoting the head of the institute, Ayatollah Jamal al-Din Barvar, that over the past 20 years the institute has researched “about 800 Shiʿi sources, whereby it was able to collect about 70 thousand hadiths of the Commander of the Faithful (a)”, and he added: “We revised these hadiths and removed the repetitions among them, and the number of remaining hadiths came to about 10 thousand, which are scheduled to be printed under the title Encyclopedia of the Hadiths of the Commander of the Faithful (a), in 30 volumes, after the hadiths of the Sunnis have been added to them”.
He also announced the institute's attempt to register, officially at the United Nations, the covenant of the Commander of the Faithful (a) to Malik al-Ashtar when he appointed him governor of Egypt. In this context the director of the institute announced “the organization of an international conference on Nahj al-Balagha in the near future”, in the Iranian capital Tehran, and stressed that “this conference aims to acquaint the world with the covenant of the Commander of the Faithful (a) to Malik al-Ashtar, which is considered one of the most important sections of the book Nahj al-Balagha, and the enemies of Islam do not want this section to spread and people to become acquainted with it”.
He pointed out that the institute aims to spread Nahj al-Balagha and to make it an official subject taught in the seminaries (hawzas), universities and academic centers. The institute also recently concluded an agreement with the Association of Islamic Culture and Relations providing for the translation of the book Nahj al-Balagha into 12 languages. Ayatollah Jamal al-Din said that the short sayings found in Nahj al-Balagha have been translated into 13 languages, and from them into 40 languages, but they have not yet been printed in books.
He referred to the educational activities of the institute, saying: “For more than 6 years the Nahj al-Balagha specialization has been taught at the master's level in universities, and for about more than 5 years this specialization has been taught in the seminaries”, announcing the launch of Nahj al-Balagha teaching by correspondence
