The contest began with the sacrifice of one camel and...

The contest began with the sacrifice of one camel and reached the number of one hundred camels. The last time that this camel-killing contest took place was in the time of caliphate of the Alawite. The people of Kufah hurried with their baskets to the place of the slaughter where several hundred camels were slaughtered, to obtain free meat.

The Imam heard of this incident, and declared: "Do not eat the flesh of these camels, since they have been killed, not in the Name of God, but for the sake of pride and glory and on the basis of pagan customs." The declaration of the Imam is related to the verse of the Qur'an which says: "Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood and flesh of swine, and that on which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked." 276 The people of Kufah obeyed the order of Imam 'Ali and refused to partake of that flesh.

They threw it all on a heap of rubbish at Kanasah of Kufah to be eaten by dogs and vultures.277 In our opinion 'A'ishah belongs to the second group since she was always desirous prestige, reputation and respect, and to gain these benefits the best way was such a show of generosity. She could not easily let all the reputation and influence which she had gained during the rule of the former caliphs, be forgotten.278 Credit and greatness, too, required assets.

Therefore, as we shall see, she did her utmost to tolerate hardships and sometimes indigence caused by her extravagant offers, or she found herself compelled to be indebted to the tyrannical son of Abu Sufyan for securing money to be bountiful. The reason why we venture to make such a claim is that we find 'A'ishah scattering as bounties the money that was repeatedly sent to her by such oppressive rulers as Mu'awiyah and his governors.

Could such riches which have been gathered by oppression, be really offered for the sake of God and His satisfaction, whereas the first Islamic and heavenly duty of 'A'ishah would in such a case have been to keep away from Mu'awiyah and whatever was connected to him? Umm Dharrah, who was a woman who occasionally visited 'A'ishah, narrates: They sent 'A'ishah two large bags full of money.

She said: "I think there must be eighty thousand or one hundred thousand drachmas in these bags." Then she asked to bring her a large tray. On that day she had been observing a fast. Then she began to distribute all that money, and by nightfall not a single drachma was left with her.