One day a person came to Ali (A.S.). He was planning to ask Ali (A.S.) sucha question which would take Ali (A.S.) a long time to answer and because of that his Maghrib Prayers would be
delayed. He asked, "Ali you say you know everything in the world, then tell me which animals
lay eggs and which animals give birth to their young ones"
Hazrat Ali (A.S.) looked back at him smiled and said, "The animals who have their 'EARS' outside their body give birth to their young ones and the animals who have their 'EARS' inside their body lay eggs."
A person was about to die, and before dying he wrote his Will whichwent as follows ...
"I have 17 Camels, and I have three sons. Divide my Camels in such a way that My eldest son gets half of them, the second one gets 1/3rd of the total and my youngest son gets 1/9th of the total number of Camels"
After his death when the relatives read his will they got extremely perplexed and said to each other that how can we divide 17 camels like this?
So after a long hard thought they decided that there was only one man in Arabia who could help them:"Ali Ibne Abi Taalib." So they all cameto the door of Ali (A.S.) and put forward their problem.
Hazrat Ali (A.S.) said, "Ok. I will divide the camels as per the man's will."
He said, "I will lend one of my camelsto the total which makes it 18 (17Ư=18), now lets divide as per his will"
The Eldest gets 1/2 of 18 = 9
The second one gets 1/3 of 18 = 6
and The Youngest gets 1/9 of 18 = 2
Now the total number of camels = 17
Then Hazrat Ali (A.S.) said, "Now I will take my Camel back."
This was the genius that Hazrat Ali was in his time.
KNOWLEDGE v/s WEALTH
Hazrat Ali once replied to a group of ten learned men who said, "We seek your permission for putting a question to you."
Hazrat Ali replied, "You are at perfectliberty."
They said, "Of knowledge and wealth, which is better and why. Please give a separate answer to each of us."
Hazrat Ali answered in ten parts:
1. Knowledge is the legacy of the Prophets; wealth is the inheritance of the Pharaohs. Therefore, knowledge is better than wealth.
2. You are to guard your wealth but knowledge guards you. Therefore, knowledge is better.
3. A man of wealth has many enemies, while a man of knowledge has many friends. Hence, knowledgeis better.
4. Knowledge is better because it increases with distribution, while wealth decreases by that act.
5. Knowledge is better because a learned man is apt to be generous while a wealthy person is apt to be miserly.
6. Knowledge is better because it cannot be stolen while wealth can be stolen.
7. Knowledge is better because time cannot harm knowledge but wealth rusts in course of time and wears away.
8. Knowledge is better because it is boundless while wealth is limited and you can keep account of it.
9. Knowledge is better because it illuminates the mind while wealth isapt to blacken it.
10. Knowledge is better because it induced the humanity in our Prophetto say to GOD.
"We worship thee as we are your servants," while wealth engendered in Pharaoh and Nimrod the vanity which made them claim God-head.
How far is the sun??
A man asked Imam Ali (a.s.) in Masjid-e-Kufa, "What is the distance between me and (pointing towards the sun) and the sun".
It is worth mentioning here about the complexity of this question. This man was an Arab. And in the Arabic language the numbers or count is limited upto one thousand (1000). The count in Arabic does not exceed 1000. The answer to the question this man asked dealt in millions (distance).
It was like a challenge to Imam Ali (a.s.) to answer him in a convincing manner without confusing him.
The man got convinced and walked away.
But it is for us now to ponder on what Imam Ali (a.s.) answered:
"If an Arab horse starts walking from here and continues walking for500 years, then he (horse) will reach the sun."
The man got convinced and walked away.
But it is for us now to ponder on what Imam Ali (a.s.) said. This one sentence of Imam Ali (a.s.) shows and proves the genius that Imam Ali (a.s.) was.
Imam Ali (a.s.) said "If an Arab horse...", the average speed of an arab horse is 22 mph (miles per hour).
If a horse runs the full day (24hours) it will cover approximately 520 miles. This gives us the distance the horse will cover in 24 hrs (one day).
To calculate the distance covered by the horse in one month we multiply it 520 by 29.5 (Taking an average of the number of months in Urdu calendar. Assuming that 6 months are of 29 days and 6 months are of 30 days.). It gives us something around 15,500. The horse covers 15,500 miles in one month (30 days).
To get the distance that he will travel in one year we multiply it by 12. Since there are 12 months in a year. It gives you 1, 86,000. Then multiply 1, 86,000 by 500 as the horse should run for 500 years. It gives you 9, 34, 00,000 miles.
Now if you ask an astronomer aboutthe distance of sun from the earth hewill tell you that the distance is never constant. The orbit of the earth is oval in shape. Sometimes it comes nearer to the sun and on occasions it distances itself from the sun. When the earth is closest to the sun its distance is 9, 10, 00,000 milesand the distance when it is farthest from the sun is 9, 48, 00,000 miles.
When you take an average on these two distances it comes around 9, 30,000 miles.
Imam Ali (a.s.) 1400 years back told us about the distance of the earth from the sun. This also proves that Imam Ali (a.s.) was a genius in Astronomy, Zoology and Arithmetic.
No comments:
Post a Comment