Jadd bin Qais

Imam Ali(as) faced a similar situation which was earlier faced by the Holy Prophet(saww) with regard to Jadd bin Qais. Jadd was a follower of Abdullah bin Ubayy in hypocrisy. On the other hand, Ali was very much like the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) in character and elegance.

After Allah made Abdullah bin Ubayy and his co-conspirators lick dust and made their own trap destroy them, Abdullah bin Ubayy met Jadd and said: Muhammad is an extremely clear magician but Ali is not so clever. Therefore, invite Ali for a feast in your house and after digging the foundations of the walls of your garden, make some men stand behind holding that wall with the help of wooden planks. When Ali and his companions begin to eat, let the wall fall on them, so that all may die together. The cursed one did so.

When Ali (a.s.) arrived, he gave that wall a support of his holy hand and prevented it from falling. Then he asked his faithful companions to start eating reciting: Bismillaah. Ali (a.s.) himself also began to eat with them. When all ate perfectly, then also he kept the wall, which was thirty yards long, fifteen yards high and two yards thick, from falling.

His faithful companions said: O Sir! How can it be that we continue eating and you continue to hold this heavy wall from falling. How hard it is for your honor. Amirul Momineen (a.s.) replied: I find this wall lighter than the morsel of food in my right hand.

Jadd bin Qais then fled away from there imagining that Ali (a.s.) and his companions will be killed under the falling wall and then the Prophet will call him to giving compensation. He hid in the house of Abdullah bin Ubayy. Finally they came to know that Ali (a.s.) had stalled the wall from falling with his left hand and was eating with his companions with his right hand and that they had not been crushed under the wall.

Hearing this, Abushuroor and Abuddawahi, who were the original planners of this plots said: Ali is very expert in the magic of Muhammad, so we cannot defeat him. At last when all had eaten, Ali (a.s.), with his left hand, made that wall stand upright, filled up its gaps and returned from there with his companions safely.

Seeing him back, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) told Ali (a.s.): O Abul Hasan! Today you acted like brother Khizr (a.s.). He had also repaired a falling wall. Almighty Allah had made that job easy for Khizr (a.s.) through our Ahlul Bayt’s supplication.