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MONITORING THE TRADING COMMUNITY

According to the Islamic point of view, every person is responsible for the moral instruction of the persons under his care. Such person could be a father, a guardian, or a mentor. Each will be responsible for the training of his wards. The Prophet of Islam (a.s) has said:

“Every one of you is responsible and answerable for the persons under you.”

When every individual is answerable for the training of his family and the persons under him, then one who is the leader of the Ummah is certainly responsible for the moral uplift of all the people. This requires that he did not leave the task to his functionaries and rested. To the contrary, he should personally keep a watch on the habits and behavior of the people. This cannot be done by remaining in the chambers of the state capital. It is necessary that he meets and mingles with the people.

It was the practice of Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) that he personally used to go and meet people in ordinary dress, sometimes incognito and at others openly. During these visits, he used to go to the lanes, bylines; used to inquire the rates of different commodities from the merchants and as a mentor of morality, he used to give appropriate instructions. He used to instruct them to be fair in their dealings and warn them against cheating and delivering short quantities to buyers by weight of the materials. To shake them up, he used to recite this Verse of the Holy Qur’an to them:

تِلْكَ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ نَجْعَلُهَا لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُرِيدُونَ عُلُوًّا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فَسَادًا وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ.

“As for that future abode, We assign it to those who have no desire to exalt themselves in the earth nor is to make mischief and the good end for those who guard against evil. (28/83)”

There is an incident about a butcher’s shop. The Imam (a.s) was once passing through that area when he noticed a slave girl asking the butcher to give some more. Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) observed, “Yes! Give some more because it is a matter of felicity!”


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Once passing through the marts, he stopped at a tailor’s shop. He advised the tailor to use strong thread for sewing the clothes and the cut pieces that remained from the material must be returned to the owner. He added, “I have heard the Prophet (a.s) say that on the Day of Judgment the man who has stolen cloth will be brought in such a manner that all the pieces of cloth that he had stolen will be loaded on his head!”

Ibn Kathir writes in Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah that Abū-Matar al-Misri says, “I was coming out of the al-Kūfah Mosque when someone called me from the back that I must pick up the lapel of my shawl that was touching the ground. When I turned back, I saw a Bedouin carrying a whip in his hand, with a loincloth around his waist and a shawl around the shoulders. This simplicity was so great that I was much impressed. I asked a man about the identity of the person. The man said I looked a stranger. I affirmed that I hailed from al-Basrah. He replied that the person I asked about was Amir al-Mu’minin `Ali ibn Abi-Talib (a.s). I shook in my limbs and instead of moving forward, I went back a few steps and went behind the Imam (a.s). I saw that he stopped near the shops of grocers and told them, “Sell! But do not sell by taking oaths. This way the prosperity will depart even if all the material was sold!” Then he went to the section of the date sellers where he found a slave girl crying. When he asked her the reason for her crying, she said that she had bought dates from the shopkeeper for 1 dirham which her master did not like and asked her to return to the shop. The shopkeeper was not taking the dates back. The Imam (a.s) told the shopkeeper that the girl was a slave and a poor person and you must help her by taking the dates back. The shopkeeper refused to comply. I could not keep quiet. I told him, ‘Do you know who is asking you to take back the dates? He is Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s)!’ Hearing this, the shopkeeper took back the dates from the girl and gave her the dirham. Then the Imam (a.s) addressed the shopkeepers, ‘Give to the poor to eat, your business will flourish!’ Now he moved to the fish market. And said, ‘Beware! Do not sell fish that has died inside the water, not caring for legitimate and taboo!’ He moved forward and entered the cloth merchant’s area. He asked one shopkeeper to give a cloak worth about 3 dirhams. The person recognized the Imam (a.s) and welcomed him. But the Imam (a.s) did not buy the cloak from him. From another shop, he bought a cloak for three dirhams. When the Imam (a.s) returned to al-Rahbah, one person came and wanted to give him 1 dirham. When he asked why the person was giving him the money, he said, “O Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s)! I have been told by the shopkeepers that you had visited my shop and bought a cloak from my son. He did not recognize you and sold the cloak worth two dirhams for three. This is the same dirham that


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you paid in excess of the cost. The Imam (a.s) refused to accept the money that the young man had sold and he had bought at the price quoted and the transaction was complete!”

The purpose of Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) could have been the purchase of the cloak but the requirement of Enjoining the good and forbidding the evil was not forgotten. Wherever he found anything good, he deemed it his duty to encourage people to emulate it, and stop them from bad things, however insignificant that might be. Therefore, when he saw a person moving on the street with the lapel of his shawl trailing on the ground, he asked him to pick it up because those days that style of the lapel trailing behind on the ground was indicative of pride and conceit of a person. When he saw tears in the eyes of the slave girl, he persuaded the merchant to take back the dates that were not approved by her master. The Imam (a.s) also encouraged the merchants to give some of their materials to the poor saying that the act would be felicitous for them. He also exhorted them not to bring taboo things to the market. He asked the merchants not to take false oaths to promote their sales saying that a person loses his reputation with people if he continues to take false oaths! The Imam (a.s) did not buy a cloak from a shopkeeper who had recognized him. He bought it from another shop. When the shopkeeper learnt that it was Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) he tried to return to him some money saying that his son has taken that in excess of the actual price. The Imam (a.s) refused to take the money saying that the youth had sold the cloak to him and he had bought it, thus the transaction was complete between them. The attitude of Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) was also an example for the functionaries of the state to emulate his style of functioning.