Ali (a.s) reveals his mysteries to a well

Shaheed al Awwal Shaikh Mohammad bin Maki has related that Maytham said: One day my Master, the Commander of the faithful Imam Ali (a.s), took me out of Kufa to the desert until we reached the Mosque of Ja'fi. Then he turned towards the Qibla and recited four units of Prayers. After finishing the Prayers he glorified Allah and stretched his hands saying,

"O Lord! How shall I call upon You when I have disobeyed You. And how shall I not call upon You when I recognize You and Your love is present in my heart. I have stretched my hands full of sins in Your presence and my eyes full of desires…(till the end of a long supplication)."

Then he recited a supplication in a silent tone and fell into prostration and repeated, "Al Afw" (O Pardoner) a hundred times. Then he arose and came out of the Mosque and I started following him until we reached a desert. Then Imam drew a line and said,

"Beware, do not cross this line."

Saying this he went away from me. The night being dark I said to myself, "You have left your Master alone inspite of several of his enemies, what will be your excuse in the presence of Allah and His Prophet? By Allah! I will follow him so as to inquire his condition inspite of disobeying his orders."

Hence I followed him and saw him bending his upper body with his head into a well and talk‌ing with it, while hearing to it too. He became aware that someone was with him; hence he turned towards me and asked who it was. I replied that I was Maytham. He said,

"Did not I order you not to cross the line"?

I replied, "O my Master! I was afraid lest your enemies might harm you, thus I was uneasy." He asked,

"Have you heard whatever I said (to the well)"?

I re‌plied in the negative. He continued,

"O Maytham! My heart contains myster‌ies, and when it becomes narrow on account of it, I dig the earth with my fists and bury the mysteries under the stones, the Beeches grow from the earth, among my seeds this tunes in."

Shaikh Mufeed writes in Irshad that Maytham was a retainer of one of the women of Bani Asad. Imam Ali (a.s) bought him from her and freed him. He asked his name, to which he replied that his name was Salim. Imam said,

"The Holy Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.s) informed me that the name your father had kept in Persia was Maytham."

Maytham replied, "Verily the Prophet of Allah (s.a.w.s) and the Commander of the faithful (a.s) speaks the truth. By Allah! That is my name." Imam said,

"Then return to the name by which the Prophet has addressed you and leave the name Salim, while your agnomen (Kuniyah)[1]should be Abu Salim."

One day Imam Ali (a.s) told him,

"After my death you will be arrested and put to the gallows and a weapon shall be pierced into your stomach. Then on the third day blood will come forth from your nose and mouth, which will dye your beard, thus await that dye. You shall be hanged at the door of Amr bin Hurays, you being the tenth (to be crucified among other nine), while the timber of your gallow will be the shortest and will be the nearest to the ground than others. Come, I shall show you the Palm-tree by whose trunk you shall be hanged."

Then he showed him the Palm-tree. Maytham often visit‌ed the tree and Prayed below it and would say, "What a blessed palm-tree you are, that I have been made for you and you have been made for me." He often went near the tree and took care of it until it was cut down. He knew that place in Kufa where he would be hanged. He often visited Amr bin Hurays and would say, "I shall soon be your neighbour, thus be a fair neighbour to me." Amr would say, "Are you buying the house of Ibne Mas'ood or Ibne Hakeem"? For he was not aware as to what Maytham meant.

The year, in which he was martyred, Maytham went for Haj and thereafter went to the presence of Ummu-Salamah (a.s). Ummu-Salamah asked him as to who he was and he replied that he was Maytham. She said, "By Allah! I have often heard the Prophet remember your name at mid-night." Then Maytham inquired about Imam Husain (a.s) from Ummu-Salamah, to which she replied that he was in his garden. He said, "Please tell him that I would have loved to offer my salutations to him, but Allah willing, we shall meet one another in the presence of the Lord of the worlds." Ummu-Salamah called for some scent and perfumed Maytham's beard with it and said, "Very soon it will be dyed with blood."

Thereafter Maytham went to Kufa and was seized and taken to Ubaydullah. Ubaydullah was told that, "This man is the most beloved of Ali." He said, "Woe be to you! This Persian man"? He was replied in the affirmative. Then Ubaydullah asked Maytham, "Where is your Lord"? Maytham replied, "In ambush of the oppressors, while you are one of the oppressors." Ubaydullah said, "Even after being a Persian (non-Arab) you say what you mean (your Arabic is eloquent). Tell me then, what your Master (Imam Ali) predicted to

[1] The use of "Abu" (father of) or "Umm" (mother of) followed by the name of the son, often as a prefix for one's name.

you as to what I shall do to you"? Maytham replied, "Yes, he did tell us that I will be the tenth one whom you shall put to the gallows, and that the timber of my gallow would be the shortest, and also that I shall be closer to the ground than them." Ubaydullah said, "By Allah! I shall do the opposite of what he said." Maytham replied, "How can you do the opposite, when by Allah, Imam Ali (a.s) had heard it from the Prophet (s.a.w.s), while he had heard it from Jibra'eel, who in turn heard it from the Al‌mighty. How can you oppose them? And I even know the place in Kufa where I shall be hanged, and I shall be the first in Islam to be bridled."

Thus Maytham was imprisoned alongwith Mukhtar bin Abu Ubaydah Saqafi. Maytham told Mukhtar, "You shall be freed from here and will rise to avenge the blood of Imam Husain (a.s), and you shall kill him who will kill us." When Ubaydullah called for Mukhtar to be killed, a message arrived from Yazeed ordering him to free Mukhtar. He released him and ordered Maytham to be crucified.

He came out of the prison and confronted a man who told him that, "Do you not have the ability to free yourself from this"? Maytham smiled and point‌ing to the Palm-tree said, "I have been created for it and it has been brought up for me."

When Maytham was hanged on the gallows, people gathered around him at the door of the house of Amr bin Hurays who said, "By Allah! He often said that he would be my neighbour." When Maytham was crucified, Amr ordered his maid to sweep the ground beneath and sprinkle water and fumigate it." Maytham then started relating the virtues of Bani Hashim on the gallows. News reached Ubaydullah that the slave had insulted him to which he ordered that a bridle should be put in his mouth; hence Maytham was the first man in Islam to be bridled. Maytham was martyred ten days before Imam Husain (a.s) came to Iraq. On the third day a weapon (probably a spear) was pierced into his stomach and he exclaimed "Allaho Akbar", and at the end of the day blood oozed from his nose and mouth. (May Allahs Mercy and Blessing be Upon him)

It is related that seven date-sellers pledged that they would take the corpse of Maytham from there and bury him. During night they came there when the guards had lightened a fire and could not see them. They took him down from the gallows and buried him near the stream in the street of Bani Murad, and threw away the gallow into the garbage. When morning dawned the horsemen went in pusuit of them but failed to find them.

I (the author) say that among the progeny of Maytham is Abul Hasan Maytham bin Ali bin Isma'il bin Shu'ayb bin Maytham at-Tammaar, who was a Shi'ah Mutakallim (Scholastic) during the times of Mamoon and Mu'tasim.

He held debates with the atheists and opponents, and his contemporary was Abu Huzayl Allaf, the chief of Mu'tazilah in Basra.

Shaikh Mufeed narrates that Ali bin Maytham once asked Abu Huzayl Allaf that, "Do you not believe that iblees (shaitan) restrains from performing all good deeds and that he invites towards the evil"? Abu Huzayl replied in the affirmative. Ali said, "Then does he invite towards evil without being unaware that it is evil, and he stops from good without knowing that it is good"? Abu Huzayl replied, "Yes, he knows all that." Abul Hasan (Ali) con‌tinued, "Thus it is proved that shaitan is aware of all that is good or evil." Abu Huzayl agreed to it, to which Ali said, "Then tell me about the Imam (Caliph) after the Prophet whether he knew all that was good or evil"? Abu Huzayl replied in the negative. Ali said, "Then shaitan is more learned than your Imam." Hearing this Abu Huzayl was dumb-founded.

It should be noted that frequently Maytham is pronounced with a Kisrah (a vowel coming below an alphabet) below meen (as Maytham), but some write the name of Maysam bin Ali Bahrani, the expounder of Nahjul Balagha, with the Fatha (a vowel coming above an alphabet) of meem (as Maysam).