Aqil's condition of poverty and destitution (Nahjul Balagha - Sermon 222)

 
By Allah (SWT), I would rather pass a night in wakefulness on the thorns of as-sa'dan (a plant having sharp prickles) or be driven in chains as a prisoner than meet Allah (SWT) and His Messenger on the Day of Judgement as an oppressor over any person or a usurper of anything out of worldly wealth. And how can I oppress any one 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 (SWT), I certainly saw (my brother) Aqil fallen in destitution and he asked me a sa (about three kilograms in weight) 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 (just) 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' Aqil. 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 (SWT), the Powerful, has prepared for (a manifestation of) His wrath? Should you cry from pain, but I should not cry from the flames?"

Hadhrat Ali Murtaza's (as) Justice with the people

 
Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (as) narrated the following.

When he holds the position of caliphate, Ali Murtaza (as) scaled the mimbar (pulpit) and said: "All praise and thanks be to Allah (SWT). I will not seize a single dirham from your shares so long as a single bunch of my dates in Yathrib is available. Be sure. Do you think I will prefer you to myself?" Older brother Aqil stood up and said: "This means that you will put me and the black ones of Madinah on the same level, does it not?" Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) asked him to sit down, and said, "You have no preference to the black ones of Madinah except by means of a virtue in Islam or piety."
The following narration in recorded by Ibn Hagar in his book titled 'Sawaiq al-Muhriqa'
(Ibn Asakir narrated that) Older brother Aqil asked Amir ul-Mu'minin (as) to give him some money because he was poor. Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) told him to wait until his share of the State Treasury would come out. As Aqil insisted, Hadhrat Ali Murtaza (as) asked a man to take Aqil to the market and lead him to the locks of the stores so that he would unlock and take from them. "Do you want me to be thief?" asked Aqil. Hadhrat Ali Murtaza (as) said: "And do you want me to be thief as you ask me to give you the shares of Muslims?" Aqil then threatened he would join Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan.
As soon as Aqil ibn Abi Talib asked him, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan gave him one hundred thousand dirhams and asked him to take the mimbar and tell people his story with his brother.
Aqil ibn Abi Talib ascended the mimbar and said: "People, when I tried to make Ali ibn Abi Talib give up his religion, he refused and preferred his religion to me. But when I asked Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan to prefer me to his religion, he did."
These stories are just a small portion of the righteous life of Hadhrat Ali Murtaza (as). His life is a comprehensive and extensive scene of the manifest of high spiritual characteristics in a pure and divine leader. It is on us to promote ethics and spirituality in ourselves using such teachings, and to obey his clear path as much as possible.