Imam Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (as), who was the treasury of the divine knowledge, never failed to answer any questions and he himself used to say: “Ask whatever you want”.
Here we refer to an odd question:
During the reign of Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (as), a woman at her husband’s house gave birth to a strange baby who had two bodies and two heads from the waist up.
This extraordinary creation made it difficult for the parents of the child to realize whether the child was one or two (Because the juridical rulings of inheritance, worship and transactions have different consequences on the issue of being one or two), so this made the child’s parents to ask Imam Ali bin Abi Talib (as):
“O Ali, a baby is born with two heads. Having two heads, is he regarded one person and inherits one share from his father, or two persons who inherit two shares?”
Imam Ali (a) said: “Put the baby to sleep. When both heads fall asleep, then wake the first head slowly. If the other head wakes up at the same time with the first head, it shows that he is one person and inherits one share from his father. But if by waking up of the first head, the second head is still asleep, it shows that he is two persons and they inherit two shares from the father.
This was one of the virtues of Imam Ali (as) who answered any question without hesitation or thought and you can read more about this in the link here.
Source:
Kulayni (1407 AH), Al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 399, h. 2.
Sheikh Mufid, Irshad, chapter 62, section 2, p. 201.
