HEIGHT OF RHETORIC ( Translation of NAHJ AL-FASAHAH)

TRANSLATOR�S NOTE

In the Name of God; The Merciful , the Compassionate

The Height of Rhetoric or the noble book entitled �Nahj Al-Fasahah� is an unparalleled treasure of the eloquent wise sayings of the Holy Prophet of Islam (P . B . U . H . ) . It was first collected by the late Abulghasim Payande and published in 1957 A . D . as an Arabic-Persian edition , containing traditions . It has been widely in use by both the public and the elite since then for deriving guidance from the Holy Prophet�s ocean of lore to pave the rocky paths of man�s life .

The motive to reconstruct the book into an English edition rose from the fact that most of the previously-published English renderings of the Holy Prophet�s sayings were either extracted from certain specific sources not endorsed by all Islamic sects , or were incomplete in terms of the boundless number of traditions coming down to us from the Holy Prophet of Islam (P . B . U . H) . Thus , the translator embarked on the achievement of the great goal of translating �Nahj Al-Fasaaha� as documented on many a Shiite and Sunnite source . In so doing , a number of translation strategies were employed as mentioned below :

- Efforts were made to observe the highest degree of �fidelity� to the Arabic version of the book in terms of the semantic delicacies of each saying .

- Wherever possible , the shinning aesthetic elements of the source text concerning the brevity ,