‘GHADEER – Government of the people, for the people, by GOD’, is a quest. It goes in search of a man, in whose company the sun of your destiny never sets. In every age, people of intellect, righteousness, integrity, and faith have been immensely moved and deeply influenced by such a man. In the shelter of the spirit of such a man, people have organised into forts of unforeseen strength in opposition to tyranny. Whenever, justice is in jeopardy, the wronged, the usurped, and the oppressed, turn to such a man whose distinguished acts of justice, stern commitments to the way of justice, and unflinching stand on behalf of justice, have been surpassed by none. The Christian West met the Islamic world much earlier than the crusades when the breeze carrying the mildest fragrance of Ali gently stirred Europe in its sleep. Long before Europe could even dream up a remote synonym of ‘human rights’, or even had the vaguest idea of it as the most basic of civilised values, did Islam introduce and celebrate it. Even better. It had also preserved the actions and words, of the pioneer of human rights – Ali ibne Abi Talib. There is no chapter in the charter of the U.N., which is not running parallel to the rules laid down by Ali in his letters to his governors, especially the one to Malik al Ashtar – a letter, as you will see in this book, has undoubtedly influenced the United Nations’ charter strongly. The imprints are too striking to be ignored or to go unobserved. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a formidable precedent in the form of Imam Ali’s letter written almost 1400 years ago. Irrespective of the change in the needs and eras of lifestyles, the jargon of the contemporary philosophies, and the new vicissitudes of techno-crazy world opening up at sci-fi speed, the letter of Ali ibne Abi Talib accommodates today and tomorrow.

The story of Ali is the story of human rights.

- Anita Rai