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SERMON 222
About keeping aloof from oppression
and misappropriation.
Aqil's condition of poverty and
destitution
By Allah, I would rather pass a night in wakefulness
on the thorns of as-sadan (a plant having sharp prickles) or be driven in chains as a
prisoner than meet Allah and His Messenger on the Day of Judgement as an oppressor over
any person or a usurper of anything out of worldly wealth. And how can I oppress any one
for (the sake of a life) that is fast moving towards destruction and is to remain under
the earth for a long time.
By Allah, I certainly saw (my brother) Aqil fallen
in destitution and he asked me a sa (about three kilograms in weight) out of your (share
of) wheat, and I also saw his children with dishevelled hair and a dusty countenance due
to starvation, as though their faces had been blackened by indigo. He came to me several
times and repeated his request to me again and again. I heard him, and he thought I would
sell my faith to him and follow his tread leaving my own way. Then I (just) heated a piece
of iron and took it near his body so that he might take a lesson from it, then he cried as
a person in protracted illness cries with pain and he was about to get burnt with its
branding. Then I said to him, "Moaning women may moan over you, O' Aqil. Do you cry
on account of this (heated) iron which has been made by a man for fun while you are
driving me towards the fire which Allah, the Powerful, has prepared for (a manifestation
of) His wrath? Should you cry from pain, but I should not cry from the flames?"
A stranger incident than this is that a man
but I disliked it as though it was the saliva of a serpent or its vomit. I asked him
whether it was a reward, or zakat (poor-tax) or charity, for these are forbidden to us
members of the Prophet's family. He said it was neither this nor that but a present. Then
I said, "Childless women may weep over you. Have you come to deviate me from the
religion of Allah, or are you mad, or have you been overpowered by some jinn, or are you
speaking without senses? "
By Allah, even if I am given all the domains of the
seven (stars) with all that exists under the skies in order that I may disobey Allah to
the extent of snatching one grain of barley from an ant I would not do it. For me your
world is lighter than the leaf in the mouth of a locust that is chewing it. What has Ali
to do with bounties that will pass away and pleasures that will not last? We do seek
protection of Allah from the slip of wisdom and the evils of mistakes, and from Him we
seek succour.
(1).
It was al-Ashath ibn Qays.
.Forward to Sermon 223.Back to Sermon 221.
