Hence, after taking the oath of allegiance, those nobles and...

Hence, after taking the oath of allegiance, those nobles and dignitaries demanded from him that they might be given larger shares from the public treasury as compared with others, but Ali replied: “I am not going to give anyone anything to which he is not entitled”. Talha and Zubayr came to him to make a deal and said: “We are prepared to take the oath of allegiance to you on the condition that we shall be your partners in running the government”.

However, Ali replied to them in the negative without any hesitation. On hearing this reply they left him and began mobilizing an army to fight against him, as will be mentioned in detail later. Ali knew very well that Talha and Zubayr were very influential and they had a large number of supporters in Kufa and Basra. However, it was justice which Ali loved most. He said: “Do you want me to achieve success by means of oppression? By Allah this will never be. Unjustified award is extravagance”.

Food is not brought before a person who is satiated. Wealth, small or large, was not lawful in the eyes of Ali until it was acquired by lawful, means. It should not have been acquired by hoarding, or by exploiting the people or by taking undue advantage of one's position as a ruler. Ali forgave many crimes of the criminals and overlooked many evil deeds of the oppressors, but he did not tolerate that the hoarders, should exploit and oppress the people.

According to him oppression was a curse in whatever shape it might be, but the worst oppression was that exercised by the powerful on the weak, by the hoarder on the public, and by the ruler on the ruled. He could not ignore an oppression, which might give birth to wickedness and crime in the society. Study `Nahj al-Balaghah' and you will see how fiery his words are when he speaks about the exploitation of the people. He mentioned this topic in every speech of his.

His remarks show that he was fully convinced that exploitation of the wealth of others is a social crime. Whoever acquires wealth by unlawful means is an oppressor and must be punished for his offence. In one of his sermons Ali says about the hoarders: “And he should remember the wealth which he accumulated and did not care as to where he acquired it from (i.e. did not make any difference between lawful and unlawful sources) and collected wealth by lawful and unlawful means.

He should rest assured that he will be punished for accumulating the wealth by illegal means”.