“Take back your dates and return the dirham to her, for she has no authority to transact,” and the man complied.
I then asked him, “Do you know who this is?”
He said, “No.”
I replied, “This is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Commander of the Believers.” At that, he poured out the dates and handed her her dirham (1).
The man said, “I would like you to be pleased with me, O Commander of the Believers.”
ʿAlī answered, “How could I not be pleased with you so long as you give people their due?”
As he moved on past other date-sellers he said, “O sellers of dates, feed the poor; it will bring blessing (2) to your earnings.”
He walked on with a group of Muslims until he came to the fishmongers and declared, “No dead fish is to be sold in our market.”
Then he went to Dār Furāt—the cloth-market—and approached an elderly merchant, saying, “Old man, treat me fairly and sell me a shirt for three dirhams.” When the man recognised him he would not sell him anything. He tried another merchant, and when that one recognised him he also refused. Finally he approached a young lad, bought a shirt from him for three dirhams, and put it on; it reached from his wrists to mid-calf (3).
While putting it on he said, “Praise be to Allah who has provided me with apparel by which I may look presentable among the people and with which I can cover my nakedness (4).”
Someone asked, “O Commander of the Believers, is this something you say on your own, or something you heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him?”
He replied, “No! It is something I heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, when he put on new clothes.”
The father of the boy who owned the garment was told, “Today your son sold a shirt to the Commander of the Believers for three dirhams.” He said, “Why did you not take only two dirhams from him?” So he took a dirham from his son, went to the Commander of the Believers—who was sitting with the Muslims at the Rahbah gate—and said, “Please take this dirham.”
ʿAlī asked, “What is this dirham for?”
He replied, “The shirt is really worth only two dirhams.”
ʿAlī said, “He sold it to me with my good pleasure, and he received payment with his good pleasure.”
ʿAmr ibn Shumr (5) reports, on the authority of Jābir al-Juʿfī, from al-Shaʿbī, that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib found his coat of mail in the possession of a Christian man and brought him before the judge Shurayḥ. ʿAlī sat down next to Shurayḥ and said, “O Shurayḥ, had my opponent been a Muslim I would have sat only with him, but he is a Christian, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
‘When you and they are on the same road, force them to its narrow side and humble them as Allah has humbled them, yet without wrongdoing.’
This coat of mail is mine; I neither sold it nor gave it away.”
Shurayḥ turned to the Christian and asked, “What do you say about what the Commander of the Believers asserts?”
The Christian replied, “The mail coat is mine, and I do not regard the Commander of the Believers as a liar.”
Shurayḥ looked towards ʿAlī and said, “O Commander of the Believers, do you have any proof?” ʿAlī laughed and said, “Shurayḥ has spoken correctly; I have no proof.” Shurayḥ therefore ruled in favour of the Christian.
The Christian took the mail coat, walked a few steps, then returned and said, “By Allah, these are truly the judgements of the prophets: the Commander of the Believers brings me before his own judge, and that judge rules against him! I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. The mail coat is yours, O Commander of the Believers. I was following the army when you were on your way to Ṣiffīn, and it fell from your dapple-grey camel.”
He said, “As for—”