The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked: What makes faith firm? He said: Scrupulousness (wara'). It was asked: And what makes it pass away? He said: Greed (tama'). And he said: Our wilaya is not attained save through scrupulousness. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 31)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked: By what does faith stand firm? He said: By scrupulousness. They asked: By what does it pass away? He said: By greed. And he said: You will not attain our wilaya save through scrupulousness.
From al-Asbagh ibn Nubata, who said: The Commander of the Faithful, blessings of God be upon him, said: Verily our friend (wali) is the friend of God, and when the friend of God dies, he is with God in the Highest Company. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 65)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Our wali is the wali of God, and when the wali of God dies, he goes to God, who is his Highest Companion.
Misma' ibn Abd Allah al-Basri, from a man, said: When Ali ibn Abi Talib, blessings of God be upon him, sent Sa'sa'a ibn Suhan to the Kharijites, they said to him: Tell us — if Ali were with us, in our position, would you be with him? He said: Yes. They said: Then you merely take Ali as the authority of your religion. Go back — you have no religion! Sa'sa'a said to them: Woe to you! Shall I not follow one who followed God and followed well, who shouldered the cause of God, an ever-truthful one (siddiq) who has never ceased to be so? Did not the Messenger of God (PBUH), whenever the war grew fierce, send him forward into its very jaws, so that he trod upon its ear with the hollow of his foot and quenched its blaze with his blade, toiling hard in the Essence of God — of him the Messenger of God (PBUH) and the Muslims so speak. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 121)
The narrator says: Ali (AS) sent Sa'sa'a ibn Suhan to the Kharijites. They said: Sa'sa'a! If Ali were here and were on our side, would you be with us too? Sa'sa'a said: Without a doubt! They said: Then you follow Ali instead of the truth and have no religion of your own! Sa'sa'a said to them: My following of Ali is because Ali follows God, has ever bowed to God's command, and has ever been to us as a friend. Is it not so that the Messenger of God (PBUH) relied upon Ali in the tight straits of the battlefield? Is it not so that the Messenger of God (PBUH) and the Muslims have said of Ali: Ali has wearied himself in the Essence of God!
(We say: it appears that the expression "makdud fi dhat Allah" (worn out in the Essence of God) is a scribal corruption of the well-known expression "mamsus fi dhat Allah".
This expression has been narrated by the hafiz Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani in Hilyat al-Awliya, from Ka'b ibn Ujra, from his father, from the Messenger of God (PBUH); and by al-Haythami in Majma' al-Zawa'id, vol. 9, p. 131, from al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir from the same — in this wording: "He said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: Do not revile Ali, for he is mamsus (touched, absorbed) in the Essence of God." Likewise al-Manawi, one of the Sunni scholars, has narrated it in his book Kunuz al-Haqa'iq fi Hadith Khayr al-Khala'iq from Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani. Al-Majlisi too has narrated it from Abu Nu'aym in the Bihar, in the chapter "The unbelief of whoever reviles him or disavows him," and has expounded it with a commentary.
Mamsus has been interpreted in two ways. Some have said: it means that Ali (AS) has touched the Essence of God — that is, has come into contact with it, has witnessed it with the whole of his being. Others have said: mamsus means mad and possessed, and this expression, applied to Ali (AS), means that he is intoxicated, bewildered, and mad with God, having wholly relinquished himself and become enraptured by God — that is, Ali (AS) has dissolved in God and reached absolute annihilation.
On the other hand, Ahmad in his Musnad, vol. 3, p. 86, has narrated from the Messenger of God (PBUH) that he said: "By God, he is indeed rough (akhshan) in the Essence of God — or in the way of God," and has also narrated it in this wording: "Verily Ali is rough in the Essence of God." Likewise Shaykh al-Mufid, in another of his books, al-Irshad, vol. 1, p. 153, cites this expression with an addition, from the words of the Messenger of God (PBUH): "Ali is rough in the Essence of God, mighty and majestic is He, no flatterer in his religion." In meaning, these expressions are closer to "makdud fi dhat Allah" than to "mansus fi dhat Allah." In any case, it appears that one and the same hadith and episode, because of the obscurity of its wording and meaning, has been transmitted and copied in different forms.)
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan wrote to Ali ibn Abi Talib, blessings of God be upon him: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Now then, O Ali: I shall surely strike you with a piercing flame that no wind extinguishes and no water puts out. Farewell. When Ali, peace be upon him, read his letter, he called for inkwell and paper and wrote: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Now then, O Mu'awiya: you have lied. I am Ali ibn Abi Talib; I am the father of Hasan and Husayn, the slayer of your grandfather, your uncle, your maternal uncle, and your father; I am the one who annihilated your people on the day of Badr, the day of the Conquest, and the day of Uhud. That same sword is in my hand; my forearm bears it with the courage of my heart, just as the Prophet (PBUH) left it in the hand of the legatee (wasi). I have not exchanged God for another lord, nor Muhammad (PBUH) for another prophet, nor taken a substitute for the sword. And peace be upon whoever follows the guidance. Then he folded the letter and summoned al-Tirimmah ibn Adi al-Ta'i, who was an eloquent, tall man, and said to him: Take this letter of mine, go with it to Mu'awiya, and bring back his answer. Al-Tirimmah took the letter, called for a turban and put it on, then mounted a full-grown camel and traveled until he alighted at Damascus. He asked after Mu'awiya's commanders and was told: they gather at the Green Gate (Bab al-Khadra'). So he dismounted and hobbled his camel until they had gathered. One of them said: O Arab of the desert, have you news from heaven? He said: Yes — Gabriel is in heaven, the Angel of Death is in the air, and Ali is in the judgment. They said to him: O Arab, from whom have you come? He said: From the God-fearing, pure one — to the vile hypocrite. They said to him: O Arab, will you not come down to the ground so that we may consult with you? He said: By God, there is no blessing in your counsel, and no one like me consults the likes of you. They said: O Arab, then we shall write to Yazid about you — Yazid was in those days their heir apparent. So they wrote to him: Now then, O Yazid: there has arrived from Ali ibn Abi Talib an Arab with a tongue that speaks and does not weary, that says much and does not flag. Farewell. When Yazid read the letter, it was not long before he came out; and when he looked at him he said: Peace be upon you, O Arab. He said: God is al-Salam (Peace), the Faithful, the Guardian — and [peace] upon the son of the commander of the faithful. He said: Verily the commander of the faithful sends you greetings. He said: His greeting is with me from Kufa. He said: He offers to grant your needs. He said: The first of my needs of him is that his soul be plucked from between his two sides, and that he rise from his seat so that one who has better right to it and more title may sit in it. He said to him: O Arab, then we shall bring you in to him, for there is no managing you. He said: For that have I come. So he sought leave for him to enter before his father. When he came in to Mu'awiya and looked at Mu'awiya and the throne, he said: Peace be upon you, O king. He said: What kept you from saying, O commander of the faithful? He said: We are the faithful — who then made you commander over us? He said: Hand me your letter. He said: I would loathe to tread upon your carpet. He said: Then hand it to my vizier. He said: The vizier has betrayed and the commander has wronged. He said: Then hand it to my servant. He said: An evil servant — his master bought him unlawfully and employs him outside the obedience of God. He said: Then what is the way, O Arab? He said: A believer like me contrives no device for a hypocrite like you. Rise, humbled, and take it. So Mu'awiya rose, humbled, and took it, broke its seal, and read it. Then he said: O Arab, how did you leave Ali? He said: I left him, by God, sturdy, capable, masterful, generous, brave, and munificent — he has met no army but routed it, no champion but felled him, no fortress but demolished it. He said: How did you leave the companions of Ali? He said: I left them with Ali, peace be upon him, among them like the full moon, while they are like the stars. He said to him: O Arab, I do not think there is at Ali's door anyone more learned than you. He said: Woe to you! Ask your Lord's forgiveness for what you have said. If you saw the eloquent, the lettered, the masters of speech, and fell into the sea of their sciences, you would drown. He said: Woe upon your mother! He said: Nay — blessed is she! She bore a believer who prods a hypocrite like you. He said to him: O Arab, shall you have a prize from me? He said: I see the diminishing of your soul — why then should I not see the diminishing of your wealth? So he ordered him a hundred thousand dirhams, and then said: Now what do you say? He said: I praise God and censure you. He said: And why, woe to you? He said: Because it was no inheritance of yours or of your father's — it is from the treasury of the Muslims that you have given it to me. Then Mu'awiya turned to his scribe and said: Write the Arab an answer, for we have no strength against him. So he wrote: Now then, O Ali: I shall send against you forty loads of mustard seed, with every seed a thousand fighters, who will drink the Tigris and water themselves from the Euphrates. When al-Tirimmah looked at what the scribe had written, he turned to Mu'awiya and said: Shame upon you, O Mu'awiya! I know not which of you two is the more shameless — you or your scribe. Woe to you! If you gathered the jinn and mankind and the people of the Psalms and of the Criterion, for all that they might say, they would not say what you have said. He said: He did not write it at my command. He said: If he did not write it at your command, then he has held you weak in your own dominion; and if he wrote it at your command, then I am ashamed on your behalf for the lie. For which of the two will you excuse yourself, and from which will you take warning? Know that Ali, blessings of God be upon him, has a rooster with a torn comb (ashtar), of excellent stock, who picks up the mustard seeds for his army and his hosts and gathers them in his crop. He said: And who is that, O Arab? He said: That is Malik ibn al-Harith al-Ashtar. Then he took the letter and the prize and set off with it to Ali ibn Abi Talib, blessings of God be upon him. And Mu'awiya turned to his companions and said: I hold that if I had sent you all together on every errand on which his master sent him, you would not have rendered for me a tenth of a tenth of what he rendered for his master. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 138)
Mu'awiya wrote to Ali (AS): "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Now then, O son of Abu Talib: I shall bring down upon your head such a fire as neither wind nor water can extinguish. Farewell." When Ali (AS) read the letter, he called for paper and ink and wrote: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Now then: Mu'awiya, do not lie! I am Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abu al-Hasan, the father of Hasan and Husayn, the slayer of your grandfather, your maternal uncle, your paternal uncle, and your father — the very one who slew the whole of your folk and tribe at Badr and at Uhud. That same sword is still in my hand and that same courage is still in my heart, and I am the servant of the same God and upon the religion of the same Prophet." At the end of the letter he wrote: "And peace be upon whoever follows the guidance." Then he sealed the letter and gave it to al-Tirimmah ibn Adi, who was a tall and eloquent man, and said: Deliver this letter to Mu'awiya, take his answer, and return. Al-Tirimmah bound a desert turban upon his head, mounted a swift camel, and set out. When he reached Damascus he asked after Mu'awiya's guards. He was told: go to Bab al-Khadra'. He went there, made his camel kneel, and waited until the guards of the palace gathered around him and said: It seems you have brought news from heaven?! He said: Yes — Gabriel is in heaven, the Angel of Death is in the air, and Ali (AS) is in the judgment. They said: From whose side have you come? He said: From the God-fearing, pure one to the vile hypocrite. They said: O Arab, come down a little so that we may counsel you and see what you want! He said: There is no good in your counsel, and one like me asks nothing of the likes of you. They said: Wait, then, until we write a note to the heir apparent, Yazid, that such a person has come. They wrote to Yazid: An Arab has come, apparently from Ali, whose tongue never dulls and who is exceedingly quick of reply. Yazid came himself and said: Greetings, O Arab! Al-Tirimmah said: God is al-Salam, the Faithful, the Guardian — and greetings to the son of the commander of the faithful. Yazid said: The commander of the faithful greets you as well! Al-Tirimmah said: His greeting is with me from Kufa! Yazid said: What is your request of Mu'awiya? Al-Tirimmah said: My first request is his death — and, failing that, his rising from a seat that is not his own, so that he who is rightful and worthier may sit in it! Yazid, seeing that he was no match for his tongue, sought leave from his father, and al-Tirimmah entered before Mu'awiya. When he saw Mu'awiya upon the throne, he said: Peace be upon the king! Mu'awiya said: Why do you not call me commander of the faithful?! Al-Tirimmah said: We are the faithful; what has made you commander over us?! Mu'awiya said: Give me your letter! Al-Tirimmah said: I loathe to set foot upon your carpet. Mu'awiya said: Then give the letter to the vizier. Al-Tirimmah said: A treacherous vizier and a tyrannous commander! Mu'awiya said: Then give it to the servant! Al-Tirimmah said: A wretched servant, unlawfully bought and unlawfully employed! Mu'awiya said: Then what are we to do? Al-Tirimmah said: Take the trouble yourself: rise from the throne, come, and take the letter from me! Mu'awiya, having no other course, rose himself, came, and took the letter. He read it and then said: How fare the state and condition of Ali in Kufa? Al-Tirimmah said: Sturdy, capable, masterful, generous, brave, and munificent — he has met no army but routed it, felled every champion who has faced him, and demolished every fortress he has come against. Mu'awiya said: How are Ali's companions? Al-Tirimmah said: Like thousands of stars gathered around the full moon: Ali among them is as the full moon and they as the stars. Mu'awiya, seeking to beguile al-Tirimmah, said: I should think that among them there is none more eloquent or more learned than you. Al-Tirimmah said: Ask forgiveness! They are all eloquent, articulate masters of speech — and you, O wretch, are drowned in the sea of their knowledge. Mu'awiya, who had fallen into a rage, said: Fie upon your mother! Al-Tirimmah said: Blessed is she, who raised a believer who does not fear a hypocrite like you. Mu'awiya said: Shall I give you a gift? Al-Tirimmah said: Yes — whatever is diminished from your life and your wealth is pleasing to me. Mu'awiya ordered that he be given a hundred thousand dirhams, and afterward turned to him and said: Now what do you say?! Al-Tirimmah said: Now too I praise God and censure you; this money is the treasury of the Muslims, not your property. Mu'awiya said to his scribe: Write an answer to Ali in reply to his letter; I am no match for this Arab's tongue. The scribe wrote: O Ali, I shall come against you with forty loads of mustard seed, with each seed a thousand fighters, who will drink the Tigris dry and make water into the Euphrates! When al-Tirimmah looked at the contents of the letter, he said: What a foul thing to say! O Mu'awiya, how shameless you are! Mu'awiya, realizing that something disgraceful had been written and might remain in history, said: The scribe wrote these things! Al-Tirimmah said: If he wrote it without your leave, then truly feeble is your rule; and if it was by your leave, then truly feeble is your shame! In either case this letter is a lasting blemish upon you. But I shall give you your answer myself: Ali too has a rooster, of the tribe of Nakha', who devours all your mustard seeds one by one and gathers them in his gizzard. Mu'awiya said: Whom do you mean? Al-Tirimmah said: Malik al-Ashtar al-Nakha'i. Then he took the letter and the hundred thousand dirhams and set out for Iraq. After his departure Mu'awiya turned to those around him and said: Had I sent all of you together to Ali, you could not have accomplished against them a hundredth of what this one man did against us for his master Ali!
(We say: al-Tirimmah ibn Adi, of the tribe of Tayy, was one of the eloquent companions and poets of the army of Ali (AS), of whom history preserves mention in only two places: one is this very episode, and the second is the episode of Karbala, when, together with a few men of Midhhaj, he met Imam Husayn (AS) at Udhayb al-Hijanat, reported the martyrdom of Qays ibn Musahhar, and proposed a halt.
Al-Tirimmah said to the Imam: I see few helpers with you, and these troops of Hurr alone would prevail in combat against you; and one day before setting out from Kufa I saw a great mass of people making ready for war with you — never until now had I seen so mighty an army. I adjure you by God: so far as you are able, do not draw near them. If you wish, come to my tribe, for there are men there who will help you. The Imam replied that to flee and to abandon wives and children would be a disgrace for him. Al-Tirimmah said: Let us go to the mountain of Banu Tayy; I will bring twenty thousand men of Tayy to fight in your service. The Imam said: May God reward you and your tribe with good. We and this company have made a covenant from which I cannot turn back.
From that halting-place, al-Tirimmah took upon himself the guiding of the caravan of Husayn ibn Ali (AS) by byways toward Kufa; and after covering some distance, with the Imam's leave he went to his family to bring them provisions — but when he returned, he heard the news of the martyrdom of Sayyid al-Shuhada.)
Ali ibn Asbat, from more than one of the companions of Ibn Da'b, said: I found people relating that the Arabs used to say: If God raises up a prophet among us, there will be found in one of his companions seventy traits of the noble qualities of this world and the next. So they looked and searched whether even ten traits might be gathered in one man, let alone seventy, and they found no such traits gathered for religion and the world save in Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him. Ibn Da'b said: We said to them: And what are these traits? They said: Solidarity with others, asceticism, the abandonment of vain hope, modesty, generosity, eloquence in sermons, leadership, forbearance, knowledge, and decisive judgment — for never was anyone brought before him to whom he said, Come back tomorrow, or whom he turned away; he decided the case there on the spot. And courage — he never turned his back, no one ever came out against him in single combat but he slew him, he never shrank from anyone who called him to a duel, and he never struck anyone lengthwise but he split him through, nor crosswise but he cut him in two halves. And they related that the Messenger of God (PBUH) mounted him upon a horse, and he said: May my father and my mother be your ransom — what have I to do with horses? I pursue no one and I flee from no one; and when I gird on my sword, I do not lay it down save for that for which I girded it on. And the abandonment of exultation at victory, the abandonment of the display of vainglory, and the abandonment of deceit, cunning, and treachery: the people gathered around him all together and said to him, Write to the one who has opposed you, confirming him in his governorship, and then depose him — but he said: Cunning, deceit, and treachery are in the Fire. And pure desire toward God, and the feeding of food, and the insignificance in his sight of whatever of this world he gained, and his refusal to prefer himself and his children over any one of his subjects. His sister Umm Hani, daughter of Abu Talib, came in to him and he gave her twenty dirhams. Umm Hani then asked her Persian freedwoman: How much did the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, give you? She said: Twenty dirhams. So she turned away in anger, and he said to her: Go your way, may God have mercy upon you; we have found in the Book of God no preference for Ishmael over Isaac. And there were sent to him from Khurasan the daughters of Khosrow (Kisra), and he said to them: I shall give you in marriage. They said to him: We have no wish for marriage, for we have no equals save your sons; if you marry us to them, we consent. But he was averse to favoring his sons with what could not be shared among all the Muslims. And there was sent to him from Basra, from the diving of the sea, a precious gift whose value none could reckon. His daughter Umm Kulthum said: O Commander of the Faithful, may I adorn myself with it and let it hang about my neck? But he said: O Abu Rafi', take it into the treasury; there is no way to that, until there remains no woman of the Muslims but has the like of it. And when he was invested with rule, he stood up to preach in Medina and said: O company of Emigrants and Helpers! O company of Quraysh! Know, by God, that I shall not diminish anything of your fay' (public revenue) so long as a single palm-trunk of mine stands in Yathrib. Do you then think that I would withhold from myself and my children while giving to you? And I shall surely make the black and the red equal. Aqil ibn Abi Talib rose before him and said: Will you make me and one of the blacks of Medina the same? He said: Sit down, may God, exalted is He, have mercy upon you. Was there no one here to speak other than you? You have no superiority over them save by precedence in Islam or by piety. He said: Verily, when the leader of the Muslims is entrusted with their affairs, he wears the dress of the lowest of their poor, lest the poor man's poverty drive him to distress.
And his food was the meanest of what the subjects ate, and his clothing the meanest of what any of the Muslims wore; and his dividing was with equality, and his justice was among the subjects; and firmness in his warfare, and preservation — which is what the Arabs call reason ('aql).
And magnanimity, and the spreading of wisdom, and thoroughness in exhortation, and defense of the wronged, and coming to the aid of the distressed.
The Kufans related that Sa'id ibn Qays al-Hamdani saw him one day, in the intensity of the heat, in the courtyard by a wall, and said: O Commander of the Faithful, at this hour? He said: I have come out only to help someone wronged or to aid someone in distress. And while he was thus, a woman came to him whose heart had been torn loose, not knowing where in the world to turn, until she stopped before him and said: O Commander of the Faithful, my husband has wronged me and transgressed against me and has sworn that he will beat me — so come with me to him. He lowered his head, then raised it, saying: No, by God, not until the right of the wronged is taken for him without stammering. And where is your dwelling? She said: In such-and-such a place. So he set off with her until she came to her dwelling and said: This is my dwelling. He said: He gave the greeting of peace, and a young man came out wearing a colored wrap. He said: Fear God, for you have terrified your wife. He said: And what business is that of yours? By God, because of your words I will surely burn her with fire! The young man knew nothing more until he had unsheathed the sword and said to him: I command you to what is right and forbid you what is wrong — and do you reject what is right? Repent, or I will kill you! He said: And the people came from the lanes asking after the Commander of the Faithful (AS), until they stopped around him. He said: Then the young man was struck with remorse and said: O Commander of the Faithful, pardon me, may God pardon you. And [among his virtues were] manliness, and chastity of belly and of loins, and managing wealth with his own hand so as to be free of need of the wealth of others, and the abandonment of weakness and abasement, and the abandonment of complaint, and the concealment of the wounds he found on his body — and they were a thousand wounds in the way of God — and commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and establishing the legal punishments even against himself, and refraining from concealment, in what pertains to God's good pleasure, concerning his own children.
For one of the commanders gave Umm Kulthum a gift of ambergris, and he ascended the pulpit and said: O people, Umm Kulthum, the daughter of Ali, has betrayed you in a matter of ambergris — and by God, had she stolen it, I would have cut off her hand.
And purity of heart and strength of breast: when the Kharijites pronounced their judgment against him and everyone who was in the mosque fled, he remained on the pulpit alone.
And what the people relate, that the birds wept over him; and what is narrated from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, that the stones of the land of Jerusalem were turned over at the time of his killing and fresh blood was found beneath them — a tremendous matter, such that the monks spoke of it and made declarations about him; and the departure of heat from him in the days of heat, so that he felt neither heat nor cold.
And beauty: he said, one day he came into view before the Messenger of God (PBUH), who said: I thought nothing other than that the moon on the night of its fullness had risen upon me.
And his distinction from other people in the firm solidity of his frame: he said, he had a hump like the hump of a bull, with a great breadth between the shoulders, and his forearms could not be told apart from his upper arms because of how tightly they were knit together from the firmness of his build. He never took anyone by the hand but that he held his breath — and had he pressed a little more, he would have killed him. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 144)
Ibn Da'b says: The Arabs used to say in earlier times: If a prophet were raised up among us, each of his companions would possess seventy virtues. But when Muhammad (PBUH) was raised up among them, there was no one among his companions who possessed even ten virtues, even worldly ones. Only Ali (AS) possessed seventy virtues in religion and in the world. Among them:
Selfless sharing, asceticism, the abandonment of vain hopes, modesty, generosity, eloquence, leadership, forbearance, knowledge, decisive judgment: he never told anyone, "Come back another time for judgment"; rather, he issued the ruling in that very session.
Likewise courage: he never evaded combat with anyone, never fled the battlefield, and accepted the challenge of anyone who called him to fight — but he never called anyone to fight. Whomever he struck, he brought down to the ground. It is said the Messenger of God (PBUH) gave him a swift horse; he replied: Of what use is it to me? I neither pursue an enemy who flees, nor flee from any enemy. I do not draw my sword except to bring it down upon the head of the one against whom I have drawn it.
Likewise the renunciation of exultation in victory, the renunciation of displays of elation, and the renunciation of deceit, cunning, and treachery. Thus when they told him: First keep your enemies in their posts, and dismiss them after your caliphate is firmly established! — he said: Cunning, deceit, and treachery are in the Fire!
Likewise pure and sincere devotion to God,
likewise the feeding of others,
likewise regarding as small whatever of this world came into his hands,
Likewise refraining from preferring himself and his children over others. His sister Umm Hani came to him, and Ali (AS) gave her twenty dirhams. When Umm Hani saw that the Commander of the Faithful (AS) had also given twenty dirhams to her Persian slave-girl, she was upset and turned away in anger. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Be angry then, Umm Hani — may you be in God's keeping; I have not found in the Book of God that the children of Ishmael have a greater share of the public treasury than the children of Isaac. Likewise, when the daughters of Khosrow were sent to him from Khorasan, he said to them: Marry here! They said: We have no need of marriage, and these people are not our equals in rank. If you wish, we will marry one of your own sons. But the Commander of the Faithful (AS) did not approve, for he did not wish to claim any merit for his own children over the rest of the Muslims. One day a pearl necklace of staggering price arrived from Basra. His daughter Umm Kulthum begged that the necklace might be hers. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Abu Rafi', add the necklace to the public treasury! The daughter of the Commander of the Faithful cannot have such a necklace unless every Muslim woman has such a necklace around her neck. When he took charge of the public treasury of Medina, he gathered everyone and said: O people, neither I, nor my kin, nor my children have any greater share in the public treasury than you, and white and black are equal in the public treasury. His brother Aqil stood up and said: You mean I am equal to some black slave in the public treasury? The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Sit down! May God have mercy on you. Was there no one here but you to speak up?! Yes — you are equal to everyone, unless you possess greater piety. He used to say: The leader of the Muslims must dress like the poorest of them, so that the poverty of the poor man not wound him. Indeed, the food of the Commander of the Faithful was like the food of the poorest, and his clothing like the clothing of the poorest. His share of the public treasury was equal to everyone else's, and his justice was always spread among the subjects.
Among Ali's other qualities were firmness in war and reason.
Likewise generosity and giving, and the possession of wisdom, which welled up ceaselessly from his heart and flowed upon his tongue.
Likewise, Ali was devoted to exhorting and counseling the people.
He strove greatly to take the right of the wronged from the wrongdoer. The Kufans relate that on a hot day he was sitting in the shade of the wall of his house. They asked: What are you doing here? He said: There may be some wronged person whose right needs to be taken, and who is too shy to knock. As it happened, a woman came and said: My husband has driven me out of the house and has sworn to beat me! And I have nowhere to go. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) rose and said to the woman: Show me your husband's house! — while murmuring under his breath: The right of the wronged must be taken from the wrongdoer without any faltering of the tongue. Ali went to the door of that woman's house. A young man came out wearing colorful clothes. Ali said: Have you driven your wife out of the house? The young man, who did not recognize the Commander of the Faithful, said: Yes — and if I wish, I will set her on fire; what business is it of yours?! Words rose between the two, and the young man reached for his sword, and Ali (AS) also drew his sword. The people, who knew Ali, gathered around the two of them. The young man, realizing what a mistake he had made, fell at Ali's feet and begged forgiveness. Ali returned the woman to her husband's house.
Among the other qualities of Ali (AS) were chivalry, chastity of belly and of loins, and putting wealth to work so as to be free of need of others.
Another of his qualities was that there was never in him any weakness or servility before others.
Ali (AS) never complained of anything, and even concealed his pain. In the course of his life he received in all a thousand wounds in the way of God, and never uttered a word of complaint.
Among his other qualities were diligence in commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and establishing the legal punishments even against himself and his own kin.
Ali (AS) did not cover up the faults of his kin, but exposed them, so that others would take heed. One day his daughter Umm Kulthum received a gift of ambergris from one of the commanders. Ali (AS) went up on the pulpit and said: O people, know that my daughter Umm Kulthum has betrayed the Muslims in a matter of ambergris! By God, had she committed theft, I would have cut off her hand.
Among the other characteristics of Ali (AS) was purity of heart. Ali was utterly fearless. One day the Kharijites rose up in tumult in the mosque, and Ali's companions all fled the mosque in fear. But Ali (AS) remained alone on the pulpit and was not frightened by their uproar.
Some have said that at the time he was struck down and lay upon his bed, the birds wept. The monks of Jerusalem have said that in the days when Ali was slain in Iraq, whenever they lifted stones in Jerusalem, fresh blood lay beneath them.
Among the strange characteristics of Ali (AS) was that he felt neither cold nor heat.
Ali (AS) was exceedingly beautiful. One day he came in to the Prophet (PBUH), and the Prophet said: It is as though the moon of the fourteenth night has come in upon me!
Among the marvels of Ali (AS) was that the muscles at the back of his neck were so massive that it was as though he bore a hump upon his shoulders. His two shoulder blades were exceedingly broad, and from the sheer density of muscle there seemed to be no boundary between his forearm and his upper arm. When Ali (AS) took hold of someone, that person could not free himself from his grip, and had he prolonged it, the man might have been suffocated.
From al-Asbagh ibn Nubata, who said: I asked the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), about Salman al-Farsi, God's mercy be upon him, and I said: What do you say of him? He said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) said: A man whom God, the Blessed and Exalted, loves in heaven and whom His Messenger loves on earth; a man such that Gabriel never came to me without commanding me, from my Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, to convey greetings of peace to him. He said: Salman is of me: whoever treats him harshly has treated me harshly, whoever harms him has harmed me, whoever distances him has distanced me, and whoever draws him near has drawn me near. For God, the Blessed and Exalted, has commanded me to acquaint him with the knowledge of deaths and calamities, of genealogies, and of decisive speech. He said: Salman was never a Magian; rather, he outwardly displayed polytheism while concealing faith within. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 221)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was asked about Salman. He said: The Messenger of God (PBUH) used to say: Salman is loved by God in heaven and by the Messenger of God on earth. He used to say: Salman is one to whom, whenever Gabriel descends, he bears God's greetings of peace as well. He used to say: Salman is of me; whoever treats him unkindly has treated me unkindly, and whoever harms him has harmed me. Whoever distances himself from him has distanced himself from me, and whoever befriends him has drawn near to me. He used to say: God has commanded me to teach him the knowledge of calamities and deaths, of genealogies, and of decisive speech. Salman was never a Magian; rather, he was inwardly a believer.
From Abu al-Jarud, tracing it back, who said: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Hold fast to truthful brothers, and gain many of them, for they are an equipment in times of ease and an army in times of trial. Take counsel in your affairs with those who fear God, and love your brothers in proportion to their piety. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 226)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: As far as you are able, find friends who are truthful with you; such people are companions in prosperity and helpers in adversity. Take counsel with those who fear God. Love most the friend who is most God-fearing.
Furat ibn Ahnaf said: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Live plainly, that you not become famous; keep your person hidden, that you not be talked of; learn and conceal; and keep silent, that you may remain safe. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 232)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Refrain from displaying yourself, that you not become famous, and efface yourself, that you not be remembered. Learn true knowledge and keep it hidden. Keep silent, that you may remain safe.
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Whoever goes to excess in contention does wrong, and whoever falls short in it is wronged; and he who contends with you cannot maintain the fear of God. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 239)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: One who is excessively contentious against an adversary is drawn into wrongdoing. And one who falls short before an adversary drives the adversary into wrongdoing and is needlessly wronged himself. One who contends with a believer loses the grace of observing piety.
(We say: the last sentence has also been transmitted in this form: "And he who contends cannot maintain the fear of God" (wa la yastati'u an yattaqiya llaha man yukhasim); and in this form: "wa la yastati'u an yattaqiya llaha man khasama"; and in this form: "wa la yastati'u an yabqa lillahi man yukhasim." This multiplicity of transmission and copying indicates that its meaning was obscure to the scholars and hadith transmitters. What we have cited appears in volume 72 of Bihar [al-Anwar] and seems to be the most correct reading.)
And the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Little deed with much knowledge is better than much deed with little knowledge. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 245)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: A person's scarcity of deeds is made up for by the abundance of his knowledge; but one who is not knowledgeable will not be saved by his many deeds.
From al-Hasan ibn Abd Allah, from al-Sadiq (AS), who said: The Commander of the Faithful, God's blessings be upon him, delivered a sermon and said: None affirms me as true save one whose faith is pure and unalloyed, and none declares me a liar save one whose unbelief is pure and unalloyed. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 248)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: O people, none believes in me except the pure believer, and none denies me except the pure unbeliever.
Sharif ibn Rabi'a, from Qanbar, the servant of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), who said: I was with the Commander of the Faithful (AS) when a man entered and said: O Commander of the Faithful, I have a craving for melon. He said: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) ordered me to buy melon, so I sent a dirham, and they brought us three melons. I cut open one, and behold, it was bitter. I said: It is bitter, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: Throw it away — from the Fire and to the Fire! He said: I cut open the second, and behold, it was sour. I said: It is sour, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: Throw it away — from the Fire and to the Fire! He said: I cut open the third, and behold, it was worm-eaten. I said: It is worm-eaten, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: Throw it away — from the Fire and to the Fire! He said: Then I sent another dirham, and they brought us three melons, and I leapt to my feet and said: Excuse me, O Commander of the Faithful, from cutting them — as though he had taken the cutting of them as an ill omen. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said to him: Sit down, O Qanbar, for they are under command. So I sat down and cut open one, and behold, it was sweet. I said: It is sweet, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: Eat, and feed us. So I ate a slice, fed him a slice, and fed his companion a slice. Then he turned to me — the Commander of the Faithful (AS) — and said: O Qanbar, God, the Blessed and Exalted, presented our wilaya (guardianship) to the inhabitants of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth — jinn, mankind, fruit, and other things. Whatever accepted our wilaya became good, pure, and sweet, and whatever did not accept it became foul, bad, and putrid. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 249)
Qanbar, the servant of Ali (AS), says: One day a guest arrived for Ali and said: O Ali, I have a craving for melon. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) told me: Go and buy melon! I went to the market, paid a dirham, took three melons, and returned. I cut open the first, but it was bitter. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Throw it away! It is from the Fire and it goes toward the Fire. When I cut the next melon, it was sour; again the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Throw it away! It is from the Fire and it goes toward the Fire. The third was worm-eaten, and at the Commander of the Faithful's (AS) order I threw that one away too; again he said the same words. I went back to the market, paid a dirham, took three melons, and returned. This time the melon was sweet. I said: It is sweet! He said: Eat of it yourself, and give us some too. I sliced it, ate some myself, and gave some to Ali (AS) and to his guest. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Qanbar! God presented our wilaya to the inhabitants of heaven and earth, to jinn and mankind, and also to the fruits. Every one that accepted our wilaya became good, pure, and sweet, and every one that did not accept it became foul, impure, and rotten.
Ahmad and Abd Allah, the two sons of Muhammad ibn Isa, and Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn Abi al-Khattab, from al-Hasan ibn Mahbub, from Abu Hamza al-Thumali, from Suwayd ibn Ghafala, who said: I was with the Commander of the Faithful (AS) when a man came to him and said: O Commander of the Faithful, I have come to you from Wadi al-Qura, and Khalid ibn Urfuta has died. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: He has not died. The man repeated it to him, and he (AS) said to him: He has not died — and turned his face away from him. He repeated it a third time, saying: Glory be to God! I inform you that he has died, and you say he has not died? Ali (AS) said: By Him in whose hand is my soul, he will not die until he leads an army of misguidance whose banner is carried by Habib ibn Jammaz. He said: Habib ibn Jammaz heard of this and came to the Commander of the Faithful (AS) and said to him: I adjure you by God concerning me — I am a partisan (shi'a) of yours, and you have mentioned me in connection with a matter of which, by God, I know nothing in myself. Ali (AS) said to him: Who are you? He said: I am Habib ibn Jammaz. Ali (AS) said to him: If you are Habib ibn Jammaz, then none but you shall carry it — you shall surely carry it. Habib turned away from him, and the Commander of the Faithful (AS) proceeded to say: If you are Habib, you shall surely carry it, and you shall enter with it through this gate — and he pointed with his hand to the Gate of the Elephant (Bab al-Fil). Abu Hamza said: By God, Khalid ibn Urfuta did not die until Umar ibn Sa'd was sent against al-Husayn ibn Ali (AS), and he placed Khalid ibn Urfuta over his vanguard and made Habib ibn Jammaz his standard-bearer. And he marched with it until he entered the mosque through the Gate of the Elephant. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 280)
The narrator says: I was with the Commander of the Faithful (AS) when someone came and said: I come from Wadi al-Qura — Khalid ibn Urfuta has died! The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said to him: Khalid has not died! A little later another person came and brought the same news. Again the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Khalid has not died! A little later a third messenger arrived, gave the same news, and heard the same reply. The third messenger said: Glory be to God! I tell you he has died and you say he has not?! The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: I swear by Him in whose hand is my soul, he has not died and will not die until he equips and leads the vanguard of an army of misguidance — an army whose standard-bearer will be Habib ibn Jammaz! These words passed from mouth to mouth until they reached the ears of Habib ibn Jammaz. So he came before Ali (AS) and said: I am your partisan! I have heard that you have said such a thing about me. My heart is with you. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Are you Habib ibn Jammaz?! He said: Yes. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If you are Habib ibn Jammaz, then you yourself will carry the banner of misguidance, and no one else! And you will enter the mosque through this gate — and the Commander of the Faithful (AS) pointed to the Bab al-Fil. Habib was upset and left Ali's (AS) presence. The narrator says: A little later it became clear that Khalid ibn Urfuta had not died, and years passed until the time of Umar ibn Sa'd arrived. We saw that Khalid was the vanguard of his army, and the banner was in the hand of Habib ibn Jammaz. And just as the Commander of the Faithful (AS) had said, he entered the mosque of Kufa through the Bab al-Fil with the banner in hand.
From Abu Hamza al-Thumali, who said: The Mughira ibn Sa'id and I were sitting in the mosque when al-Hakam ibn Utayba came to us and said: I heard from Abu Ja'far (AS): In the book of Ali [it stands]: "And We did not send before you any messenger, or prophet, or muhaddath (one spoken to), but that when he had a desire, Satan cast something into his desire." I said: And what is a muhaddath? He said: A tapping is made in his ear, and he hears a ringing like the ringing of a basin, or a knocking is made upon his heart, and he hears a sound like the sound of a chain falling into a basin. I said: A prophet, then? He said: No — rather, like Khidr and Dhu al-Qarnayn. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 287)
The narrator says: I asked Imam al-Baqir (AS) about the muhaddath. He said: This word appears in the book of Ali (AS), and the muhaddath is one who hears in his ear a sound like the ringing of a basin, or feels in his heart a sound like that of a chain dropped into a basin — and thereupon matters become clear to him. The narrator says, I asked: Does that mean he is a prophet? He said: No; he is like Khidr and Dhu al-Qarnayn — they too were muhaddath.
Sa'd ibn Tarif al-Iskaf, from al-Asbagh ibn Nubata: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) ascended the pulpit, praised God and extolled Him, and then said: O people, our Shia are from a treasured clay, and I recognize them the moment I look at them; for when the Messenger of God (PBUH) put his saliva upon my eyes — I was suffering from inflammation of the eyes — he said: O God, remove heat and cold from him, and give him sight to distinguish his friend from his enemy. Since then no eye ailment, no heat, and no cold has afflicted me, and I truly know my friend from my enemy. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 310)
The narrator says: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) went up on the pulpit in the mosque of Kufa, and after praise and glorification of God he said: O people! Our Shia have been created from a special clay, and the moment I look at them, I know them! At the time the Messenger of God (PBUH) breathed upon my eye and my eye-ache was healed, he prayed for me and said: O God, protect Ali from heat and cold, and grant that he may distinguish friend from enemy. Since that time I have suffered neither eye-ache nor any sensation of heat or cold, and at a single glance I distinguish friend from foe.
From Sa'd ibn Tarif al-Khaffaf, from Abu Ja'far (AS), who said: One day, while the Commander of the Faithful (AS) was sitting in the mosque with his companions around him, a man of his Shia came to him and said: O Commander of the Faithful, God knows that I serve Him with love of you in secret just as I serve Him with love of you openly, and I take you as my guardian in secret just as I take you openly. The Commander of the Faithful said to him: You have spoken truly. Now take a garment for poverty, for poverty comes more swiftly to our Shia than the flood to the bottom of the valley. He said: The man turned away weeping for joy at the words of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), "You have spoken truly." He said: There was there a man of the Kharijites, and a companion of his, near the Commander of the Faithful (AS). One of the two said: By God, I have never seen the like of today: a man came to him and said, "I love you," and he said to him, "You have spoken truly." The other said: What do you find objectionable in that? Can he do anything, when told "I love you," but say "You have spoken truly"? Do you know that I love him? He said: No. He said: Then I will stand up and say to him what that man said to him, and he will answer me as he answered him. He said: Yes. So the man stood up and said to him the same words as the first man. He looked at him for a long while, then said to him: You have lied. No, by God, you do not love me, nor do I love you. He said: The Kharijite wept and said: O Commander of the Faithful, do you receive me with this when God knows the contrary? Stretch out your hand that I may pledge allegiance to you. Ali said: Upon what? He said: Upon what Zurayq and Habtar did. He said to him: Clap your hand, then — may God curse the two of them! By God, it is as if I see you slain in misguidance, the beasts of Iraq trampling your face, your own people not recognizing you. He said: It was not long before the people of Nahrawan rose against him, and the man went out with them and was killed. (al-Ikhtisas, vol. 1, p. 312)
The narrator says: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) was seated among his companions when a man of the Shia entered and said: O Commander of the Faithful! God knows that I love you in secret just as I love you openly. The Imam said: You speak the truth. Take up a covering for poverty, for poverty comes toward our Shia more swiftly than a flood rushing down a mountainside. On hearing these words the man wept for joy and departed. One of the Kharijites present in the gathering said to his companion: By God, I have never seen anything like this: a man came to him and professed love, and he confirmed him — as though he knew his heart! His companion said: It is nothing special; whoever is told "I love you" replies "you speak the truth." Then he added: What is your opinion of me? Do you suppose I am one of Ali's friends? His companion said: No! He said: I will go before Ali right now and say the same as that man said, and you will see that he gives me the same answer he gave him. So saying, he rose, came before the Imam, and spoke the same words. On hearing this, the Imam gazed deeply at him and said: By God, you lie! Neither do you love me, nor do I love you. That hypocrite, seeking to deceive the Imam, wept and said: O Commander of the Faithful! Do you receive me like this when God knows the contrary?! Open your hand, that as a token of love I may pledge allegiance to you! The Imam said: On what condition? He said: On what Zurayq and Habtar (the first and the second) did. The Imam said: Be gone! May God curse those two! By God, I see you slain upon the path of misguidance, and the beasts of Iraq will have so crushed your face that your own people will not recognize your corpse. The narrator says: Not long afterward this man rose in rebellion with the Kharijites of Nahrawan and was killed in exactly that manner.
(We say: concerning the phrase "take up a garment for poverty," according to the explanatory narrations from the later Imams (AS), what is meant by the "day of poverty" in this exalted saying is the Resurrection, and the garment or robe for the Resurrection is utter surrender to God, which is the very station of annihilation (fana). The cloak of the Sufi path was likewise meant to be a symbol of it. His saying that "poverty comes more swiftly to our Shia than the flood to the bottom of the valley" means that the path of annihilation, which is the key to divine wilaya, is prepared and made ready for our Shia — blessed are they! — whereas for the other paths it is attained only with great hardship and difficulty. Grasp this point, for it is one of the graces of Ali!)