all praise—and he did not instruct(1) that what he left behind(2) be returned to the public treasury. After his death, al-Hasan addressed the people and said, “He left(3) neither gold nor silver, except for seven hundred dirhams remaining from his stipend.”
Al-Aswad ibn Āmir narrated: Sharīk al-Nakhaī told us, from Āsim ibn Kulayb, from Muhammad ibn Kab al-Qurazī, who said: Ali (said)(4), “I remember that, during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, I would tie a stone to my stomach because of severe hunger; yet today my charitable giving from my wealth amounts to forty thousand(5).” Ahmad narrated it from Hajjāj, from Sharīk(6). Ibrāhīm ibn Saīd al-Jawharī also narrated it, and his version reads: “It amounts to four thousand dinars.”
How does this compare with Abū Bakr’s detachment from worldly life?! Yet both of them—may Allah be pleased with them—were detached from worldly life.
Ibn Hazm(7) said, “Some people said, ‘Ali was the most detached of them from worldly life.’” He said, “This one has lied
(1) In (ن) and (س): *wa-lam yu'mar* (“and he was not instructed”).
(2) In (ن), (س), and (ب): *mā taraka* (“what he left”).
(3) In (س): *mā turikat* (“nothing was left”), which is erroneous.
(4) *Qāla* (“said”) appears only in (ب).
(5) The hadith is found in *Kitāb Fadā'il al-Sahābah* (The Book of the Virtues of the Companions), with this chain of transmission, 2:712 (no. 1218).
(6) In *Fadā'il al-Sahābah*, see the preceding number and nos. 899, 927, and 1217. The editor declared the hadith weak through all the aforementioned chains of transmission and discussed it at 1:539. Concerning Sharīk, he stated at 2:712: “Sharīk Abū Abd Allāh al-Nakhaī had a poor memory.” See also his discussion of the hadith at 1:539, where he states: “Al-Dūlābī also narrated it in *al-Kunā* (Teknonyms), 2:163, from Sharīk, omitting the words, ‘and indeed my charitable giving…,’ and so forth. The hadith contains no explicit statement that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—also tied a stone to his stomach. Although that is possible, it is not authentically established of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace….”
(7) In his book *al-Fisal fī al-Milal wa-l-Ahwā' wa-l-Nihal*, 4:216–18. There are differences between the text of our book and that of *al-Fisal*; I shall note the most significant of them, Allah willing.