Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Sermons
Sermon
222

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 (1) came to us
in the night;with a closed flask full of honey paste 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.