Shaybah ibn Naʿāmah said, “When ʿAlī died, they discovered that he had been supporting one hundred households. (1)

I (the author) say: For this reason he was thought to be miserly; he spent in secret while his family assumed he was hoarding silver coins.

Someone remarked, “We did not notice the disappearance of clandestine charity until ʿAlī passed away. (2)

Wāqid ibn Muḥammad al-ʿUmarī related—through Saʿīd ibn Marjānah—that when ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated Abū Hurayrah’s report: “Whoever frees a believing soul, Allah will free, limb for limb, his entire body from the Fire—even his private parts for their counterpart. (3)” ʿAlī immediately emancipated a slave boy of his; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar had previously offered him ten thousand dirhams for that slave.

Ḥātim ibn Abī Ṣaghīrah reported from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn visited Muḥammad ibn Usāmah ibn Zayd while the latter was ill. Muḥammad began to weep, so he asked, “What troubles you?” He replied, “I am in debt.” He said, “How much?” He answered, “A little over ten thousand dinars.” He said, “Then it is on me. (4)”

ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā narrated: My father told me, from his father, from his grandfather, that ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn said, “I feel ashamed before Allah to meet a brother of mine, ask Allah to grant him Paradise, and yet withhold from him the goods of this world. Tomorrow it will be said to me, ‘Had Paradise been in your hands, you would have been even more tight-fisted with it!’ (5)”

Abū Ḥāzim al-Madani said, “I have never seen a Hāshimite more versed in jurisprudence than ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. I heard him being asked, ‘What rank did Abū Bakr and ʿUmar hold with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him?’”