The letter to Heraclius by the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a), which was carried by Dahiyah al-Kalbi, read as follows:
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the slave and Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the emperor of Rome. Peace be on him who follows the guidance. After this, I invite you to accept Islam. Accept Islam and you will prosper and Allah will give you double rewards. But if you refuse, the sin of your people also will fall on your shoulders. O People of the Book! Come to a word common between us and you: that we shall not worship anything save Allah, and that we shall not associate anything with Him, nor shall some of us take others for lords besides Allah. But if they turn back, then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims.
Heraclius wanted to know more about this religion, so he summoned some Arab merchants who had come to Gaza with a caravan. Abu Sufyan, one of the bitterest enemies of the Prophet, happened to be in that group, so he became its spokesman. The conversation that took place between Heraclius and Abu Sufyan is preserved in the books of traditions:
Heraclius: Is the family of the person claiming prophethood a noble one?
Abu Sufyan: It is a noble family.
Heraclius: Has anyone else in", this family claimed prophethood?
Abu Sufyan: No.
Heraclius: Has there been any king in this family?
Abu Sufyan: No.
Heraclius: Are the people who have accepted this religion weak or influential?
Abu Sufyan: They are weak people.
Heraclius: Are his followers increasing or decreasing?
Abu Sufyan: They are on the increase.
Heraclius: Have you ever known him to tell lies?
Abu Sufyan: No.
Heraclius: Does he ever commit a breach of any pact?
Abu Sufyan: He has not done it so far, but we would like to see if he keeps up a new peace treaty that we have recently negotiated with him.
Heraclius: Have you ever fought against him?
Abu Sufyan: Yes.
Heraclius: What was the result?
Abu Sufyan: Sometimes we won and sometimes he.
Heraclius: What does he teach?
Abu Sufyan: He bids people to worship one God and not to associate any partners with Him, to offer prayers, to be truthful and chaste, and to bestow alms.
Heraclius then summed up the conversation thus:
"You say that this man belongs to a noble family. Prophets always come from noble families. You say that no one else in the family ever before claimed prophethood. Had it been so, I would have thought that he was influenced by family traditions. You say that none of his predecessors was a king. Had it been so, I would have thought that he was aspiring to attain kingship. You admit that he never tells lies. A person who does not tell a lie to a man cannot tell a lie about God. You say that poor people are the adherents of his creed. The first followers of prophets always come from this class. You say that his religion is expanding. This is a characteristic of a true religion. You say that he does not deceive. Prophets do not deceive anyone. You say that he bids you to offer prayers and to observe purity and chastity. If all this is true, his realm will come right up to my domain. I had thought that a prophet might be coming, but I did not think that he would be born in Arabia. If I could go there, I would have paid homage to him."
Abu Sufyan used to say that he had to give true answers to the emperor, as he was afraid of being contradicted by one or more of his caravan companion if he gave any false reply.
Marhum Allama Shaykh Tabarsi is quoted from his Tafseer ‘Majma 'al-Bayaan’ about the revelation of the 92nd Surah of Holy Qur’an ‘al-Layl:
A branch of the date palm tree of one of the Muslims reached the house of a poor man. When the palmist climbed the date palm tree to take off the dates, sometimes some of the dates would drop in the house of this poor man and his children would pick them up. The man would come down from the tree and snatch the dates from them, many times if he saw a date in the mouth of any of the children, he would put his finger in their mouth and bring it out.
The poor man complained to the Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.a): The Prophet (s.a.w.a) said: You go home, I will solve this problem for you. Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a ) went to the owner of the tree and offered him to give it to him so that he can give it a tree in the heaven.
To this the owner replied,"I have a lot of date palm trees, but no one's dates are as good as this tree (so I'm not ready to make this deal)." One of the companions of the Prophet (s.a.w.a) heard this conversation. He said: O Messenger of Allah, if I go and buy this tree from this person, will you give me what you were giving to him?
Prophet (s.a.w.a) replied: Yes!
The man went and met the owner of the tree and talked to him about it. The owner of the date palm tree said: “Do you know that Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave me a palm tree in Paradise in return? But I did not accept. I told them that I enjoy its dates very much, I have a lot of date palm trees but no one's dates are so good.”
The buyer asked if he wanted to sell or not. He said: I will not sell it, but only if you give me so much that no one will. He asked: How much do you want for it? He said forty trees.
The buyer said in astonishment: So you ask for a very high price for a date palm tree that has become crooked. Forty date palm trees!
Then after a short silence he said: Very well, I will give you forty date palm trees.
The seller (greedy) said, "If you are telling the truth, call some men to testify." Incidentally, some people were passing by. He called them and made them witnesses in the matter.
Then he came to the service of the Prophet (s.a.w.a) and said: O Messenger of Allaah! That date palm tree has come into my possession, and I present it to you.
The Prophet (s.a.w.a) went to the family of the poor man and said to the owner of the house: “Now, this date palm tree belongs to you and your children.”
Abu Baseer was once in the company of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (a) when a woman came and said to the Imam, “I have come to ask a question. I am ill. Physicians in Iraq have told me to take liquor. Now I want to know what to do in such circumstances?”
The Imam asked her, “Why don't you drink what the doctors have prescribed for you?”
She replied, “As I am your follower, I shall obey what you say. If you permit me, I shall drink it; if not, I shall keep away from it; so that if I am asked by the Almighty God on the Day of Judgement why I did so, I shall reply that I followed the instructions of the Imam of the day.”
Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (a) turned to Abu Baseer and said: “O Abu Baseer. Did you listen to what this woman has to say? Are you not moved by her faith? Inspite of her illness, she is refraining from taking liquor without the Imam's permission.”
The Imam then turned to the woman and said, “By God, I do not permit you to drink. If you do so, you shall be sorry when your soul reaches your throat (that is at the time of death)”.
So saying the Imam pointed at her throat; and asked her three times if she understood what he had said. The woman nodded her head.
Once Usman was on his way to pilgrimage to Mecca and attired in the restricted costume (Ehram) of Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Meanwhile, a man happened to bring a roasted bird to him as a gift and for his friends.
Usman did not seem to feel any restriction connected therewith, but his companions did not touch the meat. Thereupon, Usman exclaimed:
“Brothers! This meat of the bird is not prohibited for us, because we did of the pilgrimage. Therefore, I don’t see any harm in eating this meat”.
But the people present in his tent said, “You may not, but Hazrat Ali (a.s.) does not like it despite all the explanation you have given in this connection.”
Then Usman called Hazrat Ali (a.s.) through some one.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) who was marking the camels there seemed a bit annoyed but still he accompanied the man to the tent of Usman. Usman said to him:
“O Ali (a.s.)! You always seem to go against me in all the religious matters.”
On this Hazrat Ali (a.s.) said to the people present there,
“I ask you to tell on oath whether the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) had not once refused the meat of a roasted wild donkey with the excuse that he and his companions were dressed in the restricted clothes of Haj and if the meat was not given to those who were not?”
About twelve persons present there said on oath that it had actually happened what had been described by Hazrat Ali (a.s.).
Then Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked the people present there again to say on oath as to whether five eggs of the Ostrich were not once brought to the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) as a gift when he was on his way to Mecca for Haj and also whether had he not refused to eat them on the same place.
About a dozen of people again said on oath that it had happened the same way as was described by Hazrat Ali (a.s.).
Thereupon, Usman went inside his tent, leaving the gift with those who had brought it.[1]
[1] Musnad Ahmad bin Hambal, vol. 1, pp. 100-104; Manaaqib vol. 2,
p. 194; Naasekhut Tawaarikh, vol. 3, p. 738; Kitabul Um lil Shafai, vol. 7,
p. 257; Sunan-e-Baihaqi, vol. 5, p. 194; Kanzul Ummaal, vol. 3, p. 53, Abu
Turab, vol. 2, pp. 280-281
The complainer had brought his complaint to the powerful judge of the time, Umar bin Khattab.
The involved parties were to be present and the complaint to be presented.
The complaint was against Amir al-Mu'mineen (pbuh). Umar called unto both people, and seated himself at the chair of judge.
As per Islamic rules, both involved parties must sit by each other, so that equality may be maintained.The khalifa called the complainer, to stand before the judge.
Then he called Imam Ali (pbuh) to stand by this person:
"O Ab-al Hasan, stand by him."
As Imam Ali (pbuh) heard this comment, signs of distress appeared on his face.
The Khalifa asked:
"O Ali, aren't you willing to stand by him?"
Imam (pbuh):
"No, my distress is not for standing by him. My distress comes from the fact that you didn't comply with demands of justice, and equality. You called me with respect, calling me Ab-al Hasan. But you called on this person with his regular name. That is the cause of my distress."
The voice of human justice, p 49.
The explanation of Nahj-al Balagha
of Ibn Abi Hadeed, print of Beirut, v 4, p 18
It has been described by Saduq (r.a.) on the authority of Saad Bin Tarif who has carried it from Asbagh
A man came to Hazrat Ali (a.s.) and submitted to him that he had committed a major crime and asked him to purify him. Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked him whether he was suffering from any major disease.
When he replied in the affirmative, Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked him to go away, get the disease treated and then come back to him.
When he came back Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked him whether he repented over what he had done.
The man said, “Yes” and wept bitterly.
Then Hazrat Ali (a.s.) told him that repentance had purified him as sincere repentance and penitence was sufficient for purification.
But it has been unanimously accepted that nobody else than an Imam can grant forgiveness like this.
Abu Turab, vol. 2, p. 118
A group of people came to Imam Ali Zaynul Abedeen (pbuh) saying that they were his Shias (followers).
“What do you do when you get something?” he asked them.
“We say Alhamdulillah” they replied.
“What do you do when something is taken away from you?” Imam asked
“We lament a little and come to terms with it” they replied
“What do you do when you do not receive anything” Imam asked further.
“Nothing” they replied.
“Even the dogs of Madina do that”. Imam said.
“When they are given something (food), they wag their tails in shukr.
When something is taken away from them, they bark a little and walk away.
When they do not get anything, they walk around the streets.”
Our Shias are those who say Alhamdulillah
- when they receive something,
- when something is taken away and
- when they receive nothing.
During the ‘Khilafat’ (Caliphate) of Hazrat Ali (a.s.) two men, a slave and his master, were travelling to Kufa after performing Hajj (Pilgrimage). The slave committed some mistake and the master beat him for that. The slave said to his master:
“You are my slave, but still you are beating me for nothing.”
Some other people wanted to decide between the two, but the slave did not admit his mistake and went on repeating that he was the master of the man accompanying him till they all entered Kufa.
The master then said to his slave:
“Let us go to Ameerul Momineen (a.s.) for judgement”.
To that the slave agreed and they both went to Hazrat Ali (a.s.), but while giving their statements before him both claimed to be the master of each other.
The one who was actually the master started weeping that he was the real master and that his father had sent him on pilgrimage to Mecca. He had taken his slave with him who committed a mistake on his way back home and he therefore beat him. By saying that he was the master he wanted to take away wrongfully all his possessions.
But, the slave also repeated the same story on oath.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) after hearing both ordered them to present themselves before him the next day.
Meanwhile, he ordered two holes to be made in a wall, each one quite enough for the head of a man to pass through.
When the two men came to him the following day he ordered each of them to put his head into the two holes.
This done, he ordered his personal servant “Cut off the head of the slave”. No sooner the slave heard this order he pulled out his head from the hole while the one who was the master did not move even slightly.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) then reprimanded the slave, who went away with his master hanging his head in shame.
Kulaini and Sheikh Mohiyyuddin ibne Arabi have described on the authority of Aasim Bin Hamza Alsalooli, who said that he saw a young man crying in a street of Medina,
“O’ God decide the case between me and my mother”.
Umar, who was passing by admonished the youth:
‘Don’t call your mother’s name’.
The man said, “O’ Ameer ul-Momineen! My mother gave me birth and then nursed me for two years, but now when I have grown up, she refuses to own me as her son. She also denies to have ever been married to my father, who is dead, but wants to keep his whole property with the claim that my father was her only brother and thus deprives me of my due share therein”.
Hearing this Umar called the woman, who produced about forty persons from her tribe as witnesses. They all gave evidence in her favour. Thereupon Umar decided the case against the youth and ordered him to be imprisoned for ‘iftara’ (wrong accusation).
When the youth was being carried away to the prison; Hazrat Ali (a.s.) happened to pass by that way. The young boy implored him to come to his rescue and related his story to him also.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked his escort to take him back to Umar which they did.
Umar asked them as to why they had brought him back.
They told him that it was done at the order of Hazrat Ali (a.s.).
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) who had also by the time, reached the scene asked Umar, whether he consented if he decided the case.
To this Umar replied. “By all means, what would be better than this? I have heard the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) saying that your knowledge is the best than that of all of us.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) then called the woman and all the witnesses again. They all repeated turn by turn, what they had said before Umar. Hazrat Ali (a.s.) then asked the woman and her near relatives if they agreed to his marrying her to somebody to which they all agreed.
Thereupon, Hazrat Ali (a.s.) asked his personal servant Qambar to bring 400 dirhams and said
to the woman, “I marry you to this young man for 400 dirhams as your dower.” When the dirhams were brought, he handed them over to the young man and ordered him to go away with the woman and give the dirhams to her. When the young man was about to leave Hazrat Ali (a.s.) added: “Come to me again but not before you both have passed the night as husband and wife”. Hearing this, the woman cried out: ‘Fie, Fie.’ Then she said, “O brother of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) you have married me to my own son”.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) said: “Why did you deny the fact before?”
The woman apologized took the hand of the young man in her hand and went away. When she was gone, Umar exclaimed, “Had not there been Ali, Umar would have perished”.
The above event has also been described by Saheb Fazl ibne Shazan who has carried it from Waqadi from Jaabir and from Salman turn by turn with some difference.
