A Discussion of the Narrations

1) Protection of Children Through the Righteous Deeds of Their Fathers

From Abū Jaʿfar and Abū ʿAbdallāh (a.s.) who said: “Children are protected through the deeds of their fathers, just as God protected the two youths due to the righteousness of their father.”(507)

From Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his forefathers, that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “Indeed God succeeds the righteous servant after his death in his family and wealth, even if his family were evil people.” Then he recited this verse to its end: “And their father was righteous.”(508)

From Isḥāq ibn ʿAmmār who said: I heard Abū ʿAbdallāh (a.s.) saying: “Indeed God improves through the righteousness of the believing man his children and his children’s children, and protects him in his small house and the small houses around him. They remain under God’s protection due to his honor before God.” Then he mentioned the two youths and said: “And their father was righteous.” Have you not seen that God acknowledged their father’s righteousness for their sake?(509)

From Abū ʿAbdallāh (a.s.) who said: “Indeed God protects the believer’s children for their father’s sake up to a thousand years, and between the two youths and their father were seven hundred years.”(510)

Note: The blessings of a righteous person, if they do not reach their immediate children, reach subsequent generations.

2) Rewarding Children According to Their Fathers’ Good and Evil Deeds

From Abū ʿAbdallāh (a.s.): When the Scholar rebuilt the wall, God—blessed and exalted—revealed to Moses: “I reward children according to their fathers’ efforts—if good then good, and if evil then evil… As you judge, so shall you be judged.”(511)

Note: Family members are like a single person in righteousness and corruption, good and evil, benefit and harm, and other positive and negative matters. They are together, and their prosperity and adversity are counted as one. Therefore, for the welfare of all, the principle of “We shall unite their offspring with them”(512) and “We shall not diminish anything from their deeds”(513) and similar matters are presented.

Of course, the principle of each individual’s independence in the measure of accounting for deeds remains preserved.

3) Gold and Silver or Spiritual Treasure

From the Prophet: Regarding “And beneath it was a treasure belonging to them,” it was a treasure of gold and silver.(514)

From Abū Jaʿfar regarding God’s—mighty and exalted—words: “And beneath it was a treasure belonging to them.” He said: By God! It was neither gold nor silver, but rather it was a tablet containing four statements: “I am God, there is no deity but Me, and Muḥammad is My messenger. I am amazed at one who is certain of death, how can his heart be joyful? And I am amazed at one who is certain of the reckoning, how can he laugh? And I am amazed at one who is certain of destiny, how can he be impatient with God regarding his provision? And I am amazed at one who sees the first creation, how can he deny the final creation?”(515)

Note:

Similar narrations with slight verbal differences have been reported through other chains from Imam al-Ṣādiq and Imam al-Riḍā (a.s.).(516)

In two other narrations from the Commander of the Faithful and Imam al-Riḍā (a.s.), it is mentioned that this treasure was a golden tablet with inscriptions similar to the aforementioned narration: “From ʿAlī regarding God’s—mighty and exalted—words: ‘And beneath it was a treasure belonging to them.’ He said: That treasure was a golden tablet inscribed with: ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. There is no deity but God, Muḥammad is the messenger of God. I am amazed…’”(517) And “From Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Naṣr who said: I heard al-Riḍā (a.s.) saying: ‘…and in the treasure which God mentioned: And beneath it was a treasure belonging to them, was a golden tablet inscribed with: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful…’”(518)

From the text of the Qur’an and the hadith explaining and commenting on it, it appears that protecting future generations is necessary, and the quality of the fathers’ lives affects the ease or difficulty of their children’s livelihood. What was beneath the wall for the two orphans could have become suitable capital for their earnings, and the influence of that treasure, whether material or spiritual, direct or indirect, cannot be denied in any way, and if it was a scholarly text, it would be considered influential in some way.

4) Imam Ḥusayn’s Argumentation with Nāfiʿ and His Reference to the Verse

From Yazīd ibn Ruʾbān who said: Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq entered the Sacred Mosque while Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī and ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās were sitting in the Ḥijr, and he sat with them… He said: “O Ibn al-Azraq! I have been informed that you declare my father, my brother, and me as unbelievers!” Nāfiʿ said to him: “If I say that, it is because you have concealed the rulings and teachings of Islam, and when you changed them, we replaced you.” Ḥusayn said to him: “O Ibn al-Azraq! I will ask you a question, so answer me about God’s words—there is no deity but Him: ‘And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and beneath it was a treasure belonging to them’ until His words ‘their treasure’—who protected them? Tell me, which were better, their parents or the Messenger of God and Fāṭima, daughter of the Messenger of God?” He replied: “Rather, the Messenger of God and Fāṭima.” He said: “So what protected them until we were prevented from disbelief?” Then he stood up, shook his garment and said: “God has informed us about you, O people of Quraysh! You are ‘a disputatious people’”(519)(520)

Al-Fakhr al-Rāzī writes that Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī or some of the Khawārij related this same incident.(521)

Note: No one can resist the arguments of God’s conclusive proofs. The reasoning of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī was in line with Islam’s supreme goal, which is to venerate the Seal of Prophethood; otherwise, his own Imamate, infallibility, purity, and personal authority would all serve as decisive proof for the necessity of preserving the dignity of all members of the family of Ṭāhā and the household of Yāsīn, and there would have been no need to argue using the verse about “the treasure beneath the wall of two orphans.”

The End

• The End •