Ḥaz̤rat ʿAlī
Excerpt:
Ḥaz̤rat ʿAlī used to refer to himself as Amīru’n-Naḥl [lit. Prince of the Bees], a practice which echoed a Prophetic Tradition, in which Prophet Muḥammad had likened mu’mins to bees. Therefore, the Commander of the mu’mins or believers is compared to the Queen of Bees (in Arabic, however, the word ‘Prince’ is used instead of ‘Queen’). Further, Pīr Nāṣir Khusraw giving the ta’wīl of the four streams of the Qur’ānic description of paradise, says that the stream of honey symbolises the ta’wīl of the asās. Just as honey is sweet and has medicinal qualities, in a similar way, the ta’wīl of the asās has spiritual healing. Moreover, just as the bees work collectively under the guidance of a sole leader, similarly, mu’mins should be united under the guidance of the Imām of the time.
This excerpt has been taken from page sixty-nine of this publication.