The Lamiah Sermon By Hazrat Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a.s)

By Zafar Abbas Touheedi

Introductory Note on Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s.)

Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s.) stands as the fountainhead of Islamic wisdom, the gate of prophetic knowledge, and the embodiment of justice, piety, and spiritual perfection.

He was the first male to embrace Islam, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), and the luminous inheritor of prophetic ethics and intellect.

His sermons, letters, and sayings form a timeless treasury of spirituality, governance, morality, and metaphysical insight unmatched in human history.

Introductory Note on the Lamiah Sermon 

The Lamiah Sermon is one of Imam Ali’s most powerful discourses, marked by its vivid moral imagery, profound theological depth, and stirring reminder of life’s ultimate accountability.
It portrays the majesty of God, the mission of the Prophet, and the human journey from birth to death, grave to resurrection.
With its intense spiritual tone and unforgettable descriptions, the Lamiah Sermon stands as a masterpiece of sacred oratory that awakens conscience and humbles the soul.

Sermon

I praise the One whose grace is immense, whose blessings are vast and perfect, whose mercy precedes His wrath, whose proof has been established, and whose decree is just.

I praise Him as one who acknowledges His Lordship, submits humbly to His servitude, disassociates from his sin, confesses His oneness, seeks refuge from His chastisement, and hopes from his Lord for a forgiveness that will save him on the Day when everyone will be distracted from his family and children.

We seek help from Him, we seek guidance from Him, we believe in Him, and we place our trust in Him.

I bear witness for Him as a sincere, certain servant, I declare His oneness as a faithful, convinced believer, and I affirm His unity as a submissive servant.

He has no partner in His dominion, and no associate in His creation.

He is exalted above needing an advisor or minister, and He is sanctified from having any equal, helper, supporter, or peer.

He knows, yet He conceals. He is aware of the innermost secrets, and He prevails in His kingdom. When disobeyed, He forgives. When worshipped, He rewards. He judges with justice, and He is gracious and benevolent. He never passes away, and He is eternal. There is nothing like Him, and He is before all things and after all things.

A Lord unique in His majesty, firmly established in His power, sanctified in His loftiness, exalted in His sublimity. No vision can perceive Him, and no sight can encompass Him. He is the Strong, the Invincible, the All-Seeing, the All-Hearing, the Most High, the All-Wise, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Mighty, the All-Knowing. He who attempts to describe Him falls short, and he who seeks to define Him strays.

He is near yet far, and far yet near. He answers the call of whoever calls upon Him, provides for them, and bestows upon them. He is the Possessor of subtle grace, strong power, vast mercy, and painful punishment.

His mercy is a wide, delightful Paradise, and His punishment is an extended, destructive Hellfire.

I bear witness to the mission of Muhammad, His servant, His Messenger, His Prophet, His chosen one, His beloved, and His intimate friend. He sent him in the best of times, during a period of spiritual decline and disbelief, as a mercy to His servants and a favor for His creation.

He sealed prophethood with him, and made His proof clear through him. So he admonished and advised, conveyed and strove.

He is compassionate to every believer, merciful, generous, a pleased and pure guardian. Upon him be mercy, salutations, blessings, exaltation, and honor from a Lord who is Forgiving, Merciful, Near, Responsive, and Forbearing.

O you who are present, I enjoin upon you the injunction of your Lord, and I remind you of the tradition of your Prophet.

So upon you is a reverential fear that calms your hearts, an awe that draws forth your tears, and a piety that saves you before a Day that overwhelms and tries you; a Day when successful is he whose weight of good deeds is heavy and whose weight of evil deeds is light.

Let your supplication be one of humility and submission, of earnest entreaty and gratitude, of reverence, repentance and abstinence, of remorse and return.

Let each of you seize his health before sickness, his youth before old age, his wealth before poverty, his leisure before preoccupation, his home before travel, and his life before death. Before he becomes weak and aged, falls ill and suffers, his physician becomes weary of him and his beloved turns away, his lifespan ends and his mind alters. Then it will be said, “He is delirious and his body is emaciated!” Then he will struggle intensely in the throes of death, with every near and far one present. His gaze will become fixed and his eyes will turn upward, his forehead will sweat and his groaning will cease, his soul will be seized, his wife will weep and his grave will be prepared, his children will be orphaned and his companions will disperse, his body will be broken, his sight and hearing will be gone. He will be stripped, washed, laid bare, dried, and shrouded. A mat will be spread for him and prepared, his shroud will be unfolded, his chin tied, he will be clothed and turbaned, wrapped, bid farewell, and surrendered.

He will be carried upon a bier, prayed over with the takbir, without prostration or bowing, moved from decorated homes, lofty palaces, cushioned furnishings, and orderly rooms, then placed in a dug grave, narrow and sealed, with stacked bricks, roofed with a stone!

His grave will be heaped upon him, clods of earth will be thrown over him, his dread will become real, his news will be forgotten. His guardian, companion, relative, and close friend will turn away from him, and his associate and beloved will be replaced. So he is the filling of a grave, a prisoner of desolation! The worms of his grave will crawl in his body, pus will flow from his nostrils, the earth will grind his flesh, his blood will dry, and his bones will decay until the Day of his Resurrection. Then he will be raised from his grave, the Trumpet will be blown, and he will be called to the Gathering and the Resurrection. Then the graves will be overturned, and the secrets within the breasts will be gathered.

Every prophet, truthful one, martyr, and speaker will be brought. A Mighty Lord, All-Aware and All-Seeing of His servants, will preside for the judgment of His decree. How many a sigh will distress him, and a regret will consume him, in an immense, tremendous standing place, a mighty, grand spectacle, before a Generous King, All-Knowing of every small and great thing!

Then his sweat will choke him, and his anxiety will drive him. His weeping will not be pitied, his cry will not be heard, his argument will not be accepted. His record will be made manifest, his misdeeds will become clear. Every part of him will speak of his evil deeds: his eye will testify for his gaze, his hand for its striking, his foot for its steps, his skin for its touch, and his private parts for their contact.

And Munkar and Nakir will threaten him. His destination will be unveiled. His neck will be chained and his hands shackled. He will be driven, dragged alone, and he will enter Hellfire with great distress. He will remain tormented in the Blaze, given a drink of scalding water that will scorch his face and strip his skin. His keeper will strike him with a hammer of iron; his skin will be renewed after being cooked. He will cry for help, but the keepers of Hell will turn away. He will scream, and he will remain for an age in regret.

We seek refuge with a Mighty Lord from the evil of every destiny, and we ask Him for the pardon He granted to those He was pleased with, and the forgiveness He bestowed upon those He accepted. He is the Guardian of my request and the Granter of my need.

Whoever is kept away from the punishment of his Lord will be placed in His Paradise, near Him, immortalized in palaces and His blessings. He will be given power over wide-eyed maidens and attendants, served with cups. He will dwell in a lofty enclosure and the highest Paradise, moving amidst bliss, given to drink from Tasneem. He will drink from the spring of Salsabil, mixed with ginger, sealed with musk and perfume. He will be perpetual in delight, clothed in joy, drinking wine in a lush, radiant garden. Its drink does not cause headache. He will drink from a sealed wine, whose essence is not diminished.

This is the station of he who feared his Lord and was cautious of his soul. And that is the punishment of he who disobeyed his Creator and whose soul enticed him to disobey his Originator. That is indeed the decisive word and the just decree, the best of stories told, by which admonition is given and counsel is made clear—a revelation from the All-Wise, the Praiseworthy, brought down by the clear, holy Spirit, upon a rightly-guided, firmly-established Prophet. Upon him be the prayers of the messenger-angels, the honored, the righteous.

I seek refuge with a Merciful Lord from the evil of every accursed one. So let the humble among you be humble, and let the supplicants among you supplicate. So let us seek forgiveness from the Lord of all creation, for me and for you.

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