THE HOLY QURAN – PART 46

IMAM AL-HADI (A.S.) & THE HOLY QURAN- (SECTION 2)

INCIDENT OF MAAL AL-KATHEER

Once Mutawakkil, the Abbasi ruler was poisoned, so he kept a vow that: “Should I recover, I will give MAALUL-KATHEER in the cause of Allah (SWT).” MAALUL-KATHEER in Arabic means ‘plenty of money’. Mutawakkil vowed to give plenty of money but he did not specify the amount. Eventually, when he recovered, Mutawakkil invited some scholars to his court; mentioned to them about his vow sought their guidance on the amount that could be considered by Islam as MAALUL-KATHEER. He got different answers from them. One scholar said, “It is 1000 dirhams.” The other said, “It is 10,000 dirhams.” The third scholar said, “It should be 100,000 dirhams.”

Mutawakkil was in a dilemma and did not know whom to follow. In the end, one of the courtiers said,  “O Mutawakkil! If you allow me, I will get you a correct answer for your question.” Mutawakkil looked at him with surprise but he saw his courtier appeared quite confident of himself. After thinking for a while, he said, “Alright then! Go and fetch me a correct answer. If you satisfy me, I will gift you 10,000 dirhams otherwise I shall have you whipped.”

The man left the court of Mutawakkil and arrived at the doorstep of the Ulil-Amr of his time, who was no other than Imam Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi (as). At that time, our Imam (as) was under surveillance. As soon as he saw this man, the Imam (as) said to him: “You have come to ask me about MAALUL-KATHEER. Go and tell Mutawakkil that it amounts to (only) 80 dirhams.” When Mutawakkil heard this, he was not convinced. He therefore asked for a proof from the Holy Quran. Imam (as) told the man: “(Tell Mutawakkil) that Allah (SWT) tells His prophet in the Holy Quran: “Allah has certainly rendered you victory in many situations”. (9:24)

When we counted those situations, they were 80 in number. This, therefore, shows that the meaning of KATHEER is 80!” Mutawakkil was so pleased with this reply that he rewarded the person with 10,000 dirhams as promised. (Ahsanul-Muqaal)