Mu`awiyah asked `Aqil to tell him the story of the blazing iron bar. `Aqil said: Life had become extremely hard for me. I pleaded with my brother `Ali but he took no heed of it. One day, I took my children in whose appearance poverty and indigence could be seen to `Ali. He said, “Come at night so that I will give you something.”
At night, when one of my sons was holding my hand led me to `Ali. I said to my son, “Go and sit at a distance.” Having this impression that `Ali was going to give me a purse of money, I stretched out my hand. But what I touched was a blazing iron bar. I withdrew my hand with a loud cry.
At this moment `Ali said, “This is the iron bar blazed by the fire of the world. How will be our situation on the Judgment Day when we are fastened with the chains of Hell?” Then he recited this verse:
إِذِ الْأَغْلَالُ فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ وَالسَّلَاسِلُ يُسْحَبُونَ
When the fetters and the chains shall be on their necks; they shall be dragged (40:71)
Imam `Ali (a.s), commented, “You have no right on me except what Allah has made obligatory for you. Go back home!”
Mu`awiyah was extremely amazed and said, “Alas, alas! Women are barren to give birth to his peer.”
(Sharh Nahj al-Balaghah: 253/11)