140. Akhbār al-QuÆāt –narrating from Ali ibn Rabi`a: “Indeed Ali (a.s.) had employed a man from the Bani Asad tribe by the name of Âubi`at ibn Zuhayr. When his mission concluded, he went to Ali (a.s.) along with a sack full of money and said: “O Commander of the Faithful! Some people have brought me these gifts which have amounted to this. If they are lawful for me, I will use them; otherwise I am bringing them to you.”
Ali (a.s.) said: “If you had kept them, it would have been treachery.”
Then he took it from him and placed it in the public treasury.”1
141. Imām Ali (a.s.) –in his sermon in which he states his treatment with ‘Aqil when he had asked for some money from the Public Treasury: “A very strange thing which happened is that a man came to us with a closed flask full of honey paste but I disliked it as though it was the saliva of a snake or its vomit. I asked him: “Is this a reward or zakāt or charity, for these are forbidden to us, the members of the Prophet’s family [Alhul-Bayt].” He said that it was neither this nor that, but a present.”
“Then I said: “May childless women weep over you. Have you come to mislead me from the religion of God by tricking me? Are you insane, or have you been overpowered by some jinn or are you speaking nonsense?”
“By God, even if I am given all the seven domains with all that exists under the skies in order that I may disobey God to the extent of snatching a grain of barley from an ant, I would not do it. For me, your world is lower than a 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 seek the protection of God from the slumber of the intellect and the ugliness of stumbles, and from Him we seek succor.”2
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Rigorousness along with Softness
142. Imām Ali (a.s.) –in his letter to one of his administrators:
“The farmers of your province complain of your strictness, arrogance, humiliating treatment and harshness. I deliberated over it and found that if on account of their paganism they do
not deserve any favorable treatment of extra privileges they
do not deserve to be treated cruelly either because of our agreement with them that we have to respect. Therefore tolerate them and at the same time keep the position of strictness and behave between harshness and mercy and keep them neither too close nor too far and do not repel and drive them away, by the will of God.”3
1.. Akhbār al-Qudāt, vol. ۱, p. ۵۹.
2.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon ۲۲۴, Bihār al-Anwār, vol. ۴۱, p. ۱۶۲, h. ۵۷.
3.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Letter ۱۹, Bihār al-Anwār, vol. ۳۳, p. ۴۸۹, h. ۶۹۴, Ansāb al-Ashrāf, vol. ۲, p. ۳۹۰. It is stated in Ansāb al-Ashrāf that he wrote this letter to `Amr ibn Salama al-Arhabi in which instead of the phrase ‘behave with them in between strictness and softness’, he wrote ‘no injustice should be done to them nor their pledge be broken; however, they should pay land tax and in order to preserve them nothing beyond their capacity should be taken from them. I commanded you to this and God is our resort. Wassalām.’
