ʿAlī’s Alms While Bowing: The Objections

Qur’an 5:55 · Al-Māʾidah · With other exegetes

إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَهُمْ رَٰكِعُونَ

Your guardian is only Allah, His Messenger, and the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakāt while bowing down (5:55)

The question

Could ʿAlī have given alms while bowing in prayer, and is the report that the verse was revealed about it sound?

Views answered: Fakhr al-Rāzī · Ibn Taymiyya · a narration in al-Qurṭubī · With: ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Jawādī Āmulī’s argument

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī answers Fakhr al-Rāzī’s objections to the occasion of revelation one by one: the zakāt of the verse includes recommended alms, so ʿAlī’s poverty is no objection; delay and “excessive action” are not at issue, and Rāzī himself cites the view that giving while bowing is a minor act; reading “bowing” as submission contradicts Rāzī’s own argument; hearing the poor is itself worship; and ʿAlī did cite the verse, at the Council (Shūrā). With ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī, he calls the claim of fabrication obstinacy, since Shia and Sunni narrators alike transmitted the event.

Views compared

The objections are given as al-Tasnim reports them. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.

ʿAlī was poor Read →

Fakhr al-Rāzī

The verse speaks of obligatory zakāt, from which the poor ʿAlī was exempt.

Jawādī Āmulī

The zakāt here covers both obligatory and recommended alms; the Qur’an speaks of recommended zakāt in Meccan and Medinan verses alike.

Delaying zakāt Read →

Fakhr al-Rāzī

Delaying zakāt is forbidden, so ʿAlī should have paid it before prayer.

Jawādī Āmulī

The urgency of paying is customary, not rational; and if delay were forbidden, the charge would fall on Abū Bakr and all believers too.

An act that spoils prayer Read →

Fakhr al-Rāzī

Giving alms in prayer is an excessive action that invalidates it, so “bowing” means submission.

Jawādī Āmulī

It is a minor act, as Rāzī himself reports; God praises it in the verse; and taking “bowing” as submission contradicts Rāzī’s own three groups of people.

Presence of heart Read →

Fakhr al-Rāzī

If ʿAlī heard the beggar, his heart was not present in prayer.

Jawādī Āmulī

Hearing the poor and helping them is itself worship; feeling physical pain is what contradicts presence of heart, and ʿAlī did not feel an arrow in his leg.

Why did ʿAlī not cite it? Read →

Fakhr al-Rāzī

If the verse established his Imamate, ʿAlī would have cited it as proof.

Jawādī Āmulī

He is not named in the verse; even the thousands who witnessed al-Ghadīr refused him; and narrations report that he did cite it on the day of the Council.

A fabricated report? Read →

Ibn Taymiyya; a narration in al-Qurṭubī

The report of the ring is fabricated, by consensus; and Imam al-Bāqir said only that ʿAlī was “among the faithful”. In al-Mizan ↗

Jawādī Āmulī

Many sound narrations from the Household say it was revealed about ʿAlī, and Shia and Sunni narrators alike transmitted it, so calling it fabricated is obstinacy.

Reading guide

Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.

1. The zakāt of a poor man
2. Delay, and an act that spoils prayer
3. “Bowing” as submission
4. Presence of heart
5. Why ʿAlī did not cite the verse
6. The narrations, al-Qurṭubī and Ibn Taymiyya

The whole commentary on 5:55 → · The same verse in al-Mizan’s Key Debates ↗