while the base sort of people are lured by it, like a destitute yet perceptive man who sits waiting (1) for the first stroke of his divining arrows to secure him gain and spare him loss. In the same way, the Muslim who is innocent of treachery stands between two good outcomes: he calls upon Allah, and what is with Allah is best for him; or Allah provides him with wealth so that he becomes a man of family and property together with his honor and religion; or Allah grants him in the Hereafter—and the Hereafter is better and more lasting—(2). Sowing is of two kinds: the sowing of this world—wealth and taqwā (God-consciousness) (3); and the sowing of the Hereafter—the enduring righteous deeds. Allah, Exalted is He, may gather both kinds for certain people.
Sufyān ath-Thawrī said, “Who besides ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) could speak such words so well?”
He also related, on the authority of Zubayd (4) al-Yāmī, from Muhājir al-ʿĀmirī (5), that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib wrote a covenant for one of his companions who had been placed over a town:
“To proceed: let not your seclusion from your subjects become prolonged, for a ruler’s withdrawal from the people is a branch of constriction and a sign of scant knowledge of affairs. Withdrawing cuts you off (6) from knowing what is hidden behind that veil: the great among them is thereby weakened, the small magnified, the fair made ugly, the ugly beautified, and truth becomes mingled with falsehood. The governor is but a human being; he does not know what people conceal from him of their concerns, and there are no outward marks (7) by which the various forms of truth can be distinguished from lies. Therefore fortify yourself against infringing on people’s rights by keeping only a gentle screen. You are one of two men: either you are someone whose soul is tight-fisted about giving what is right—so why hide yourself from a rightful due that is binding upon you?—or you possess noble character that fulfils (8) such dues. But if you are afflicted with withholding and miserliness, how swiftly your favor will vanish (9), and how quickly people will stop asking you once they despair of you—even though most of the needs (10) they bring to you cost you nothing: a complaint of oppression or a plea for justice. So benefit from what I have set forth for you and confine yourself to your allotted share and sound judgment, if Allah wills.”
Al-Madāʾinī said: ʿAlī wrote to one of his governors, “Easy now! You have reached the limit, and your deeds have been laid before you in the place where the self-deluded cries out in regret, the squanderer longs for repentance, and the wrongdoer yearns to return.”
Hushaym reported: ʿUmar ibn Abī Zāʾidah narrated from al-Shaʿbī, who said, “Abū Bakr composed poetry, ʿUmar composed poetry, and ʿAlī composed poetry; ʿAlī was the most renowned of the three.”