However...

However, as regards accumulation of wealth which is untainted by usurpation, oppression and hoarding he says: “Whoever dies while earning by lawful means will die in such a condition that God will be pleased with him”.

It was for this reason that Ali had decided that he would demolish the structures which had been erected on the foundation of usurpation and oppression, abolish the custom of spending the wealth of the public treasury on one's relatives, and would not permit the influential class to exploit the common man. In one of his speeches he declared thus in clear words: “Look here!

Whoever was assigned land by Uthman out of Allah's property should return it to the public treasury because nothing can annul an old right. If I come to know that women have been married by spending the money of the public treasury or that money has been distributed in different cities, my utmost effort will be to restore that money to its original position. Justice covers a wide range, and if justice is hard upon a person injustice will be harder upon him”.

It is possible that there may have been some kings and rulers who may not have given anything to an undeserving person from the public treasury and may not have spent public money lavishly on their friends and relatives. However, we do not come across anyone like Ali, who compelled those who had become rich by unlawful means during the period of the former governments to render account of their earning and to return to the public treasury the wealth which they had earned unlawfully.

This brave action of Ali proves that he had immense knowledge of the state of affairs and had such a perfect faith in social justice as was not possessed by anyone else.

If the rule that only that person who works hard and renders service to the society should be rewarded, is correct, then the question arises as to what public service Harith son of Hakam had rendered that he should have been given three hundred thousand dirhams by Uthman from the public treasury on the day his (Harith's) marriage took place? Was marrying Uthman's daughter a public service?

[^1] What service had Talha and Zubayr rendered to the Muslims as a recompense whereof they got such large amounts of dirhams and dinars and big land grants from Uthman that if they had been distributed among the hundreds of thousands of the Muslims all of them would have become rich and would have got more than they might have hoped and desired?