255. Da`ā'im al-Islām: “He [Ali] (a.s.) gave lengthy instructions to Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym al-Azdi –whom he had sent to collect taxes – in which he enjoined him to be wary of God who is his Lord in hidden affairs and secret actions and to meet people cheerfully and gently. He enjoined him to commit himself to humbleness and to avoid arrogance, as God elevates the humble and debases the arrogant.”
“Then he told Mikhnaf, ‘O Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym! Indeed you have a fixed share and a known right in these taxes and you have other sharers in them who are the poor, the destitute, the indebted, warriors, travelers (with no money), the slaves and those whose hearts are to be reconciled. We shall fully discharge your rights so you should also discharge their rights fully. If you do not do so, you will have the largest number of enemies on the Day of Judgment. How wretched is a man whose enemies are such people!”1
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Special Concern for the Orphans
256. al-Kāfi – narrating from Habib ibn Abi Thābit: “Honey and figs were brought for the Commander of the Faithful from Hamadān and Hulwān,2 and he ordered the authorities of the tribes to bring along the orphans. He seated them next to the [leather] containers of honey to eat from them while he distributed it among the people, container by container.”
They asked him: “O Commander of the Faithful! Why do they lick the honey?”
He said: “The Imām is a father to the orphans, and as their father I made them eat honey.”3
1.. Da`ā'im al-Islām, vol. ۱, p. ۲۵۲, Bihār al-Anwār, vol. ۹۶, p. ۸۵, h. ۷.
2.. An ancient city in Persia that the Arabs conquered in ۶۶۰ CE and the Seljuqis set it on fire in ۱۰۴۶ CE, and it was destroyed by earthquake in ۱۱۴۹ CE.
3.. al-Kāfi, vol. ۱, p. ۴۰۶, h. ۵, Bihār al-Anwār, vol. ۴۱, p. ۱۲۳, h. ۳۰.
