Eternal Words Nahj al-Balaghah Letters will24 - Imam Ali Ibn Aba Talib’s Will Regarding How His Property Should Be Dealt With. He Wrote it upon His Return from Siffin
will24 - Imam Ali Ibn Aba Talib’s Will Regarding How His Property Should Be Dealt With. He Wrote it upon His Return from Siffin
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This is what Ali ibn Aba Talib, the slave of Allah, has laid down about his property, seeking Allah’s pleasure, so that He may, by its virtue, grant him entry into Paradise and accord him peace.
An excerpt from the same:
It will be administered by [my oldest son] Hassan ibn Ali (p.b.u.h.). He will take from it a suitable portion for his own livelihood while also spending of it on charity. If something happens to Hassan and Hussain (p.b.u.h.) survives him, he (Hussain [p.b.u.h.]) will administer it after Hassan and deal with it accordingly. In the charitable estate of the two sons of Fatima (p.b.u.h.), they have the same rights as all (other) sons of Ali. I have laid down the (functions of) administration of the two sons of Fatima (p.b.u.h.) in order to seek the pleasure of Allah and nearness to the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) with due regard for his honor and in consideration of his kinship [to them].
It is obligatory on him who administers it to retain the estate as it is and to spends the surplus as he has been required and instructed. He should not sell the seedlings in the plantations of these villages till the land changes its face by turning them into [fully grown] plants. As for those of my slave girls, if any of them has a child or is pregnant, she would be retained for the sake of the [birth of the] child and will partake of his share. If the child dies and she survives, then she is free; bondage is removed from her and emancipation is granted to her.
Sayyid ar-Razi says the following: “In this will, in Imam Ali ibn Aba Talib’s phrase ‘alla yabi’a min nakhliha wadiyyatan’, the word wadiyyah means ‘seedling of a date-palm’, and its plural is wadiyy. And his words ‘hatta tushkila arduha ghirasan’ is one of the most eloquent form of expression, and it means that when a number of date plants grow on the land, then whoever had seen it before the growth will now regard it as a different land.”
