Are you asleep or awake Habbah 'Arni and Nawf Bakali were lying in the courtyard of Darul-Amarah (fort) of Kufah. After the midnight, they saw that the Leader of the Faithful, 'Ali (AS), was coming from the fort towards the coutyard. But his condition was bad; he was having extraordinary fear and was unable to keep the equilibrium of his body. Keeping his hands on the wall and having his body in bent position, he was walking slowly with the support of the wall. And he was reciting the last Ayahs of Surah Ali 'Imran as follows:
As soon as he finished these Ayahs, his condition became bad; he then repeated these Ayahs again and again and his condition became bad to worse and he became almost unconscious. Both Habbah and Nawf were witnessing this amazing scene, while lying on their beds. Habbah, while quite startled, was looking this astonishing scene. But Nawf was unable to control his tears and he was continuously weeping. By this tim, 'Ali (AS) reached the bed of Habbah and said: "Are you awake or asleep?" Habbah replied: "I am awake, O Leader of the Pious! If a person like you has such a condition with awe and fear of Allah, then what would heppen to we poor people." The Leader of the Pious looked down and wept. He then said: "O Habbah! all of us will be presented before Allah one day. And no deed of ours is hidden from Him. He is very near to you and me. Nothing can act as an obstruction between us and Allah. Then he said to Nawf: "Are you asleep?" (Nawf replied:) "No, O Leader of the Pious! I am awake. It is for some time that I am shedding my tears." 'Ali (AS) said: "O Nawf! If today you shed your tears in fear of Allah, tomorrow your eyes will glitter. "O Nawf! No one has more respect than that person who cries in the fear of Allah and that he likes to do it only for His sake. "O Nawf! The one who loves Allah and that whatever he loves, he does it just for the sake of Allah, does not prefer anything over love of Allah. And the one who dislikes anything, and does it for the sake of Allah, he would receive nothing except virtue for his disliking. Whenever you reach such a stage, you have attained the truths of faith to their perfection." After this, he preached and gave a peice of advice to Habbah and Nawf. His last sentence was: "I have told you that you should fear from Allah." Then he passed by both of them and got busy with his own work. He started his prayers and while doing so, he said: "O Allah! I wish I knew that when I am neglectful towards You, do You ignore me or do You still care for me? I wish I knew that in these long neglectful dreams of mine and in my shortcomings in thanking you, what is my position before You?' Habbah and Nawf said: "By Allah! he kept on walking and he had the same condition continuously till dawn." Taken from: Anecdotes of Pious Men by Br. Mutahhari Contributed by Sister Mahwash Hirmendi |
Aqeel, Ali's Guest |
| 'Aqeel came to Imam 'Ali's (as) house in Kufa when he was
the caliph of the time. 'Ali (as) asked his oler son, Hassan ibn-e 'Ali to give a gift to
his uncle. Imam Hassan (as) gave one of his outfits to his uncle.
The next night, 'Ali (as), and 'Aqeel were sitting at the roof of the Daar ul 'Imara (governor's office). It was dinner time. 'Aqeel was expecting a fancy dinner since he was in the caliph's company. Opposite to his expectation, the dinner was very simple. Surprised, he asked: "Is this all the dinner?" 'Ali (as) said: "Isn't this enough of a blessing from Allah (swt)? I praise Allah for all these blessings." 'Aqeel said: "Perhaps I shall present my request and be excused to leave. I am heavily indebted. Give an order so that my debt be paid off. You can also help me as much as you can afford.""How much do you owe?" "Hundred thousand Darham." "Oh, that is quite a bit! I am sorry my brother, that I don't have it all, so that I could pay them now. But wait till I get paid, then I shall give you some. Had I not the responsibility of my own family, I would pay you all of my next months pay." "What?! Should I wait till the next month's pay? But the public treasury is in your hand, and you are telling me to wait until next month so that you could pay me from your own pay check?! You can pay me whatever amount you would want out of the public treasury. Why do you want me to wait? Moreover, how much is your pay? I don't think it could pay off all my loan." "I am not surprised by your suggestion. Whether there is money in the public treasury or not is not mine or your concern. I and you are one like the thousand other Muslims. Granted that you are my brother, and I should help you from my own income. But not from public treasure." The discussion continued, and 'Aqeel was insisting that he should be paid off from the public treasure, so that he could leave content. The bazaar of Kufa was apparent from the place they were sitting. One could see safes of the merchants from there. Upon 'Aqeel's insistence, 'Ali (as) told him: "If you continue to insist, I will offer you a suggestion. If you act on it, you can have more than you want." "What should I do?" "You see those safes. As soon as there is nobody in the market, just sneak down there, and break the safes, and take as much money as you like." "Who those safes belong to?" "To the merchant. They put all their cash in them." "What? Do you tell me to break the safes and take the money of those poor people who have worked so hard, put their money in there with reliance upon Allah (swt)?" Then how do you suggest to me that I should open the door of public treasure to you? Who does this money belong to? This also belongs to a people who are resting in their homes not worrying about their trust. Now, I have a different suggestion. If you will act upon it." "What do you suggest?" "If you will, let us both take our swords and go the ancient city of Heera, where some very wealthy business people live. We will attack one of them, and gain a huge sum of money." "My dear brother! I have not come to steal. All I am asking for is some money from the public treasure. Just give me some, so that I could pay my debts." "It is better if we steal the money of one person rather than the money of hundreds of thousands of Muslims. How is it that stealing from one individual is considered stealing, while stealing from the public treasure is not theft? Do you think that stealing has to be done with violence, and force? The most criminal theft is the one that you are offering to me." [1] [1] Bihar al Anwar, v 9 Print of Tabriz p. 613 |
Imam Ali (a.s.) and the Candle |
| A candle burnt by his side, as he sat down meticulously recording all the
revenue and the expenses of the treasury.
Just then Talha and Zubair appeared. They aspired to some positions of authority in Ali's (a.s.) rule and had come to strike a deal. If Ali (a.s.) gave them a place of distinction, they would in turn pledge their full support. Ali (a.s.) knew of this. Just as they sat down, Ali (a.s.) put out the candle and lit another one. ©& Talha and Zubair exchanged a glance of surprise and then one of them said: "O Ali, we have come on some important business. But why did you extinguish the first candle?" Imam Ali (a.s.) replied: "That was a candle bought of Treasury funds. As long as I worked for the Treasury, I used it. Now you have come for some personal work, so I use the candle bought of my personal fund."Talha and Zubair left him without saying another word. |
The Virtues Of The Family Of The Prophet
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| The family members of the Prophet were the true friends and well wishers
of the people who felt strong grief when they saw people in any kind of distress or
suffering. They worked hard to restore the rights of the deprived and gave all their
belongings to the needy.
They were always ready to face hardships in order to save others. Sometimes, they would even give to the needy the food or clothing which they themselves urgently needed. There are many of such happenings that took place in the life of our religious leaders. For instance, once Imam Ali's children were sick. Their mother, daughter of the Prophet, vowed to fast three days on the recovery of her children, in thanksgiving to Allah. Imam Ali and the children all joined Lady Fatema in thanksgiving. All of them fasted. It was sunset and they had only a few barley loaves of bread for their breakfast. As they were about to eat their food, someone knocked at their door, saying:I am a poor man. Please give me some food. The food, which the whole family had, was very little. They gave it all to the poor man. The next day, when the family wanted to break their fast an orphan began knocking at the door asking for food. The same thing happened on the third day with a stranger. Each time they gave their food to the needy and they, themselves, remained hungry continuing their fast. Muslim commentators say, "The next day, the Holy Prophet came to the family with these verses of the Quran: "Surely the righteous shall drink of a cup the admixture of which is camphor, a fountain from which the servants of Allah shall drink; they make it to flow a (goodly) flowing forth. They fulfil vows and fear a day the evil of which shall be spreading far and wide. And they give food out of love for Allah to the poor and the orphan and the Active: We only feed you for Allah's sake. We desire from you neither reward nor thanks: Surely we fear from our Allah a stern, distressful day. Therefore, Allah will guard them from the evil of that day and cause them to meet with ease and happiness; And reward them because they were patient, with garden and silk." (Quran, 76:5-I2) |
The Stranger Taken from Anecdotes of Pious Men, Allama Murtaza Motahhari Tired and exhausted with the water-skin on her back, she was gasping and going towards her house where innocent children, their eyes fixed at the door, were eagerly waiting for the arrival of their mother. On her way, an unknown man ap- proached her. He took the water-skin from her and placed it on his back. The door opened and the children saw their mother entering the house with a stranger. He placed the water-skin on the ground and said: The stranger said no more. Bowing down his head he went away. But the thought of the help- less window and orphans remained in his mind. He could hardly sleep in the night. Early in the morn- ing he picked up a basket; put some meat, flour and dates in it; went straight to her house and knocked at the door."Well,it seems you don't have anyone to fetch water for you; how come you are so forlorn?"
"I am the man who brought your water yes- terday. Now I have brought some food for the children" "May God bless you and judge between us and Ali" She opened the door. Entering the house she said:
"Very well, but I can do the job of kneading and cooking better than you. You take care of the children till I finish cooking" She went to knead the flour Immediately he grilled some meat which he had brought and fed the children saying to each child while putting morsel in his mouth:
The flour got ready; she called: "Gentlemen! put fire in the oven" He went and put fire in the oven. When flames rose up, he brought his face near the fire and said,
By chance, a woman from the neighbouring house came in. Recognizing the stranger, she cried: "Woe, don't you recognize the man who is helping you? He is Amirul-Muumineen (comman- der of the faithful) Ali bin Abi-Talib" The widow came forward and shame facedly cried:
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THE FIVE LOAVES
Zarr Bin Hobeish relates this story. Two travellers sat together on the way to their destination to have a meal. One had five loaves of bread. The other had three. A third traveller was passing by and at the request of the two joined in the meal. The travellers cut each of the loaf of bread in three equal parts. Each of the travellers ate eight broken pieces of the loaf. At the time of leaving the third traveller took out eight dirhams and gave to the first two men who had offered him the meal, and went away. On receiving the money the two travellers started quarrelling as to who should have how much of the money. The five-loaf-man demanded five dirharns. The three-loaf-man insisted on dividing the money in two equal parts. The dispute was brought to Imam Ali lbn Abi Talib (the Caliph of the time in Arabia) to be decided. Imam Ali (a) requested the three-loaf-man to accept three dirhams. The man refused and said that he would take only four dirhams. At this Imam Ali (a) returned, "You can have only one dirham. You had eight loaves between yourselves. each loaf was broken in three parts. Therefore, you had 24 equal parts. Your three loaves made nine parts out of which you have eaten eight portions, leaving just one to the third traveller. Your friend had five loaves which divided into three made fifteen pieces. He ate eight pieces and gave seven pieces to the guest. As such the guest shared one part from your loaves and seven from those of your friend. So you should get one dirham and your friend should receive seven dirhams. |
In the Company of the Caliph
When 'Ali (as) was coming to Kufa, he entered the city of Anbar populated by Iranians. The Iranian farmers were very happy to see their beloved caliph passing through their town. They came to his visit. When it was time for 'Ali (as) to leave, they started running infront of his horse. 'Ali (as) inquired about this behaviour. "This is one way that we extend respect to our leaders and respectful individuals. This is our custom that has been practiced for years." (1): Nahj al Balagha. Kalamat-e Qhisar (Short words), # 37. |
The Guests
A father and a son were once guests of Imam Ali (as). As they arrived, Imam received them warmly and arranged for their comfortable accommodation. In a room where they were seated, Imam sat opposite them, engaging them in a friendly conversation. And then it was time for the meal. After food had been served and eaten, Qambar, Imam's servant, brought a basin and a pitcher full of water for washing the guests' hands. Imam took the pitcher himself and asked the father to extend his hands so that he would pour the water. When it was the son's turn, Imam instructed his own son Muhammad b. Hanafiyyah, to hold the pitcher and wash the guest's hands. Looking at his son, Imam said:"How is it possible that my Imam serves me? It should be otherwise," the guest said. I washed your father's hands. My son washed your hands. If your father had not been my guest today, I would have washed your hands myself. But Allah loves to see that when a father and a son are present in a place, the father enjoys a privilege and a priority. Taken from: Pearls of Wisdom
On the Knowledge of God A Bedouin approached Imam Ali (as) in the Battle of Camel and asked if he asserted that God was one. In answer, Imam Ali (as) said: Also Imam Ali (as) said:To say that God is one has four meanings; Two of these meanings are false and two correct. As for the two incorrect meanings, one is that one should say 'God is one' and be thinking of number and counting. This meaning is false because that which has no second cannot enter into the category of number. Do you not see that those who said that God is the third of trinity [i.e, the Christians] fell into infidelity? Another meaning is to say that so and so is one of this people, namely as a species of this genus or a member of this species. This meaning is also not correct when applied to God, for it implies likening something to God and God is above all likeness.
This means that to prove that the Being of God is unlimited and infinite suffices to prove His Oneness, for to conceive a second for the Infinite is impossible. Ref: Shi'ite Islam - Page 127-28 |