Hadith 59

upon Ardasheykhura, and they were five hundred people. The women and the children cried to him and the men shouted, ‘O Abu Al-Fazl! O bearer of the weight! O shelter of the weak and remover of the curse! Confer upon us, buy us and free us! ’
Maslaqah said, ‘I swear by Allah-azwj, I shall be charitable upon them, surely Allah Recompenses the charitable ones’ [12: 88]’. His words reached Ma’qal. He said, ‘By Allah-azwj, if I come to know he has said it being helpful to them and feeling upon them and contempt upon me, I will strike off his neck, and even if there was the annihilation of the clan of Tameem and Bakr and Wail, in that’. Then Masqalah sent Zuhl Bin Al-Haris to Ma’qal. He said, ‘Sell to me the Christians of the clan of Najiya’. He said, ‘I shall sell to you for a thousand, thousand Dirhams (million)’. He refused to him. He did not cease bargaining with him until he sold them for five hundred thousand Dirhams and handed them over to him and said, ‘Hasten with the wealth to Amir Al-Momineen-asws’. Masqalah said, ‘I shall send most of it right now’. Then it was like that until there did not remain anything from it, and Ma’qal came back to Amir Al-Momineen-asws and informed him with what had happened from the matters. He-asws said: ‘You have done well, and were correct, and appropriate’. And Ali-asws awaited Masqalah that he would send someone with the wealth, but he was delayed with it. And it reached Ali-asws that Masqalah had freed the captives and did not ask them to assist him in freeing themselves with anything. He-asws said: ‘I-asws do not see Masqalah except that he has attacked with an attack, nor do I see you all except and you will be seeing him praised very soon’. Then he-asws wrote to him: ‘As for after, surely from the greatest of the betrayals is the betraying the community, and the greatest of the frauds upon the people of the city is defrauding the Imam-asws, and in your possession is from the rights of the Muslims, five hundred thousand Dirhams, so send it to me-asws when my-asws messenger comes to you, or else come to me-asws when you look into my-asws letter, for I-asws have sent ahead (my-ra order) to my-asws messenger that he should not leave you for even one moment to stay after his arrival to you, except if you sent the money. And the greetings’. When he read his-asws letter, he came to him-asws at Al-Kufa. He-asws did not acknowledge him for days, not mentioning anything to him, then he-asws asked him for the wealth. He paid to him-asws two hundred thousand Dirhams and was unable from the remainder, so he fled and joined up with Muawiya. When that reached Ali-asws, he-asws said: ‘What is the matter with him? May Allah-azwj Aggrieve him! He did the deed of the chief and fled the fleeing of the slave and betrayed the betrayal of the immoral. If he was unable, we would not have increased upon his containment. If we have found something to be for him, we would have taken it, and if we had not found any wealth to be fo