Islam Guidance

letter45 - To `Othman Ibn Hunayf al-Ansari Who Was Imam Ali Ibn Aba Talib’s Governor of Basrah When He Came to Know That the People of Basrah Had Invited `Othman to a Banquet which He Attended

O son of Hunayf! I have come to know that a young man of Basrah invited you to a feast and you leapt towards it. Foods of different colors were being chosen for you and big bowls were being given to you. I never thought that you would accept the feast of a people who turn the beggars out while inviting the rich. Look at the morsels which you take. Leave out that about which you are in doubt and take that about which you are sure that it has been secured lawfully.
Remember that every follower has a leader whom he follows, and from the glory of whose knowledge he derives light. Realize that your Imam is satisfied with two shabby pieces of cloth out of the (comforts of the) world and two loaves for his meal. Certainly, you cannot do so, but at least support me in piety, exertion, chastity and uprightness because, by Allah, I have not treasured any gold out of your world nor amassed plentiful wealth nor collected any clothes other than these two shabby sheets.
Of course, all that we had in our possession under this sky was Fadak, but a group of people felt greedy for it, and the other party withheld themselves from it. Allah is, after all, the best arbiter. What shall I do? Fadak or no Fadak, tomorrow this body is to go into the grave in the darkness of which it will be destroyed and (even) news of it will disappear. It is a pit that, even if its width is widened or the hands of the digger make it broad and open, the stones and clods of clay will narrow it and the falling earth will close its opening. I try to keep myself engaged in piety so that on the Day of Great Fear it will be peaceful and steady in slippery places.
Had I wished, I could have taken the way leading to (worldly pleasures like) pure honey, fine wheat and silk clothes, but it cannot be that my passions lead me and greed takes me to choosing good meals while in the Hijaz or in Yamama there may be people who have no hope of getting bread or who do not have a full meal. Shall I lie down with a satiated belly while around me there may be hungry bellies and thirsty livers? Or shall I be as the poet has said:
It is enough for you to have a disease that you lie with your belly full
While around you people may be badly yearning for dried leather...?
Shall I be content with being called Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful), although I do not share with the people the hardships of the world? Or shall I be an example for them in the distresses of life? I have not been created to keep myself busy eating good foods like a tied animal whose only worry is his fodder or like a loose animal whose activity is to swallow. It fills its belly with its feed and forgets the purpose behind it. Shall I be left uncontrolled to pasture freely, or draw the rope of misguidance or roam aimlessly in the paths of bewilderment?
I see as if one of you will say that if this is what the son of Aba Talib eats, then weakness must have made him unfit to fight his foes and encounter the brave ones. Remember that the tree of the forest is the best timber, while green twigs have soft bark and the wild bushes are very strong for burning and slow in dying. My relationship with the Messenger of Allah is that of one branch with another, or like the wrist with the forearm. By Allah, if the Arabs join together to fight me, I will not run away from them, and if I get the opportunity, I will hasten to catch them by their necks. I shall surely strive to relieve the earth of this man of perverse mind and uncouth body till the bits of earth are removed from the grain.

An excerpt from the same which is the end of the letter:

Get away from me, O world! Your rein is on your own shoulders as I have released myself from your clutches, removed myself from your snares and avoided walking into your slippery places. Where are those whom you have deceived by your jokes? Where are those communities whom you have enticed with your embellishments? They are all confined to graves and hidden in burial places. By Allah, if you had been a visible personality and a body capable of feeling, I will have awarded you the penalties fixed by Allah because of the people whom you received through desires, the communities whom you threw into destruction and the rulers whom you consigned to ruin and drove to places of distress after which there is neither going nor returning. Indeed, whoever stepped on your slippery place slipped, whoever rode your waves was drowned, and whoever evaded your snares received inward support. Whoever keeps himself safe from you does not worry even though his affairs may be straitened and the world to him is like a day which is near to expire.
Get away from me for, by Allah, I do not bow before you so that you may humiliate me, nor do I let loose the reins for you so that you may drive me away! I swear by Allah an oath wherein I, except if Allah wills otherwise, shall so train myself that it will feel joyed if it gets one loaf to eat and be content with only salt to season it. I shall let my eyes empty themselves of tears like the stream whose water has flown away. Should Ali eat whatever he has and fall asleep like the cattle who fill their stomachs from the pasture land then lie down, or as the grazing goats, eat the green grass then go into their pen! His eyes may die if he, after long years, follows the ways of loose cattle and pasturing animals.
Blessed is whoever carries out his obligations towards Allah and endures his hardships, allows himself no sleep in the night but when sleep overpowers him, he lies down on the ground using his hand as a pillow, along with those who keep their eyes wakeful in fear of the Day of Judgment, whose bodies are ever away from beds, whose lips are humming in remembrance of Allah and whose sins have been erased through their prolonged beseeching for forgiveness. They are the party of Allah; Be it known, “... verily the part of Allah alone shall be the successful one” (Holy Qur’an, 58: 22). Therefore, O Ibn Hunayf, fear Allah and be content with your own loaves so that you may escape Hell.

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