The great, expansive personality of Amir al-mu'minin (Commander of the Believers), 'Ali - may peace be upon him - is broader and more multi- faceted than anything that one person can enter into in all its aspects and parts, or bring his restless mind to reflect. For a single individual, the most that is possible is that he choose one or several specific, limited areas for study and research, and content himself with that. One of the aspects and areas of the being of this great individual is the effect he had on people, either positive or negative, or, in other words, his powerful "attraction and repulsion", which still now exerts its active influence; and it is with this that we shall be concerned in this book.