Steadfast and transient belief, the challenge: "Ask me before you miss me"

[2] Some people have explained this saying of Amīr al-mu’minīn to mean that by the passages of the earth he means matters of the world and by passages of the sky matters of religious law and that Amīr al-mu’minīn intends to say that he knows the matters of religious law and commandments more than the worldly matters. Thus, Ibn Maytham al-Baḥrānī writes (in Sharḥ: Nahj al-balāghah, vol. 4, pp. 200-201): It is related from al-‘Allāmah al-Wabarī, that he said that Amīr al-mu’minīn’s intention is to say that the scope of his religious knowledge is larger than his knowledge about matters of the world. But taking the context into account, this explanation cannot be held to be correct because this sentence (which is the subject of explanation) has been used as the cause of the sentence “Ask me before you miss me”, and after it, is the prophesy about revolt. In between these two the occurrence of the sentence that “I know religious matters more than worldly matters”, makes the whole utterance quite uncounted, because Amīr al-mu’minīn’s challenge to ask whatever one likes is not confined to matters of religious law only so this sentence could be held as its cause. Then, after that, the prophesy of the rising up of the revolt has nothing to do with matters of religious law, so that it could be put forth as a proof of more knowledge of religious matters. To ignore the clear import of the words and to interpret them in a way which does not suit the occasion, does not exhibit a correct spirit, when from the context also the same meaning accrues which the words openly convey. Thus, it is to give a warning about the Umayyad’s mischief that Amīr al-mu’minīn uttered the words: “‘Ask me whatever you like’; because I know the paths and courses of divine destiny more than the passages of the earth. So, even if you ask me about matters which are recorded in the ‘preserved tablet’ and concern divine destiny I can tell you, and a serious mischief is to rise against me in those matters in which you should have doubt, because my eyes are more acquainted with those ethereal lines which concern the occurrence of events and mischiefs than with what I know about lives appearing on the earth. The occurrence of this mischief is as certain as an object seen with eyes. You should therefore ask me its details and the way to keep safe from it, so that you may be able to manage your defence when the times comes.” This meaning is supported by the successive sayings of Amīr al-mu’minīn which he uttered in connection with the unknow, and to which the future testified. Thus, Ibn Abi’l Ḥadīd comments on this claim of Amīr al-mu’minīn as follows : Amīr al-mu’minīn’s claim is also supported by his sayings about future events which he uttered not once or a hundred times but continuously and successively, from which there remains no doubt that whatever he spoke was on the basis of knowledge and certainty and not in the way of chance. (Sharḥ Nahj al-balāghah, vol. 13, p. 106) In connection with this saying of Amīr al-mu’minīn it has already been shown and explained (in Sermon 93, Footnote No. 2) that no one else dared advance such a claim, and those who made such a claim had to face only disgrace and humility. About the prophesies made by Amīr al-mu’minīn see Ibn Abi’l-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-balāghah, vol. 7, pp. 47-51; al-Qādī Nūru’l-Lāh al-Mar‘ashī, Iḥqāq al-ḥaqq (New ed.), vol. 8, pp. 87—182.)