(3) In the same letter (to ‘Uthman ibn Hunayf)...

(3) In the same letter (to ‘Uthman ibn Hunayf), he says: It is absolutely out of the question that my desires should overpower me and my greed should lead me to relish choicest foods while in the Hijaz and Yamamah there may be some people who despair of even a single loaf of bread and who do not get a full meal.

Shall I lie with a satiated belly while around me are those whose stomachs are hungry and whose lives are burning?(4) At the same time, Imam Ali (a) would reproach anyone else for practising the same kind of asceticism in life. When faced with their objection as to why he himself practised it, he would reply, “I am not like you. The leaders have a different duty.” This approach of Imam Ali (a) can be observed in the conversation with ‘Asim ibn Ziyad al-Harith.

(5) It has been related from al-Kafi that Amir al-Mu’minin (‘a) said: God has appointed me the leader of the people and made it my duty to adopt a way of living, in food and clothing, on a par with the poorest classes of society, so that, on the one hand, it may soothe the distress of the poor and, on the other, restrain the rich from revolting. (6) An incident is related to the life of the great faqih Wahid Behbahani, may God be pleased with him.

One day he observed one of his daughters-in-law wearing a garment made of a fabric usually worn by women of rich families of those days. He reproached his son (the late Aqa Muhammad Isma’il, the lady’s husband) in that regard. The son recited this verse of the Quran in reply to his father’s remarks: Say: ‘Who has forbidden the ornament of God which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of His providing?

(7) The father said: “I don’t say that putting on a good dress, eating good food, and making use of God’s bounties is forbidden. Not at all, Such restrictions do not exist in Islam. However, there is one thing to be remembered. We are a family charged with the duty of the religious leadership of Muslims and have special responsibilities. When the people of poor families see the rich live luxuriously, their frustration is aggravated.

Their only consolation is that at least the ‘Aqa’s family’ lives like they do. Now if we too adopt the lifestyles of the rich, which will deprive them of their only consolation.