By Allah, I would rather pass a night in wakefulness on the thorns of sadan (a plant) or be driven in chains as a prisoner than meet Allah and His Messenger on Judgement Day as an oppressor over anyone or usurper of anything out of worldly wealth. How can I oppress anyone 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 saw (my brother) Aqeel fallen in destitution and he asked me a sa` (three kg) 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 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 Aqeel. 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 His wrath? Should you cry from pain, but I should not cry from the flames?"
A stranger incident than this is a man 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 reward, or Zakaat 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 religion of Allah, or are you mad, or have been overpowered by some jinn, or 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.
