155 (207) وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاء...

155 (207) وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاء مَرْضَاتِ اللّهِ وَاللّهُ رَؤُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ " And among people is he who sells his self to seek the pleasure of Allah; and Allah is affectionate unto His (faithful) servants." Commentary: Ibn-i-Abil-Hadeed, one of the scholars of the Sunni schools who lived in the seventh century A.H., has cited in his famous book, Sharh-i-Nahjul-Balaqah (the Explanation of the statements of Imam 'Ali (a.s.)) , that the commentators totally had said that the above verse was revealed about and in the praise of Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib after that he readily slept in the bed of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) on the night known as Laylat-ul-Mabit.(1) This idea is in wide scale famous so that none can deny it but a pagan or a crazy one.

The explanation of the event precisely is such that the pagans of Mecca decided to elect one person from each tribe to kill the (p.b.u.h.) all together in order to prevent the rise of Bani-Hashim tribe in vengeance for his bloodshed. They thought, in that way, they could be free from the Prophet's Call. But the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) became aware of their hostile plot before it was too late.

Then, 'Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib (a.s.) accepted readily to sleep in the Prophet's bed so that he (p.b.u.h.) could get out of Mecca safely. As soon as Ali (a.s.) slept in that bed instead of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) , the Providence questioned His two dear angels, Gabriel and Michael, which of them was ready to be devoted to the other, but neither of them was ready to do that.

So, the Lord told them to watch then how 'Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib (a.s.) was ready to devote his soul for the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) . Many of the Muslim scholars have confessed to the above fact. The Late 'Allamah Amini has mentioned the names of such scholars in (1) Sharh-i-Nahjul-Balaqah, vol. 13, p. 262, Egypt Edition, 1961 156 his famous book: Al-Qadir, vol. 2, p. 48, including Musnad-i-Imam Ahmad Hanbal, vol. 1, p. 348.

It is cited in Atyab-ul-Bayan Fi Tafsir-il-Qur'an that the book called Qayat-ul-Maram has narrated twenty traditions, nine of which are through the Sunnite scholars and eleven of them are narrated through Shi'ah scholars, denoting that the verse under discussion was revealed on the virtue of Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib (a.s.) on Laylat-ul-Mabit i.e. the night when he (a.s.) slept in the Prophet's bed and the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) migrated to Medina.

( 1) One of the books written in the third century A.H.

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