SERMON 172
About the Consultative Committee and the
Battle of Jamal
Praise be to Allah from whose view one sky
does not conceal another sky nor one earth another earth.
A part of the same sermon
About the Consultative Committee after the
death of `Umar ibn al-Khattab
Someone
(1) said to me, "O' son of Abi
Talib, you are eager for the caliphate." Then I told him:
"Rather, you are, by Allah,
more greedy, although more remote, while I am more suited as well as
nearer. I have demanded it as my right, while you are intervening between
me and it, and you are turning my face from it.
" When I knocked at his ears
with arguments among the crowd of those present he was startled as if he
was stunned not knowing what reply to give me about it.
O' my Allah! I seek Thy
succour against the Quraysh and those who are assisting them, because they
are denying me (the rights of) kinship, have lowered my high position, and
are united in opposing me in the matter (of the caliphate) which is my
right, and then they said, "Know that the rightful thing is that you have
it and also that you may leave it."
(2)
A part of the same sermon
Describing the people of Jamal
They (Talhah, az-Zubayr and
their supporters) came out dragging the wife of the Messenger of Allah
(the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants) just as
a maidslave is dragged for sale.
They took her to Basrah
where those two (Talhah and az-Zubayr) put their own women in their houses
but exposed the wife of the Messenger of Allah to themselves and to others
in the army in which there was not a single individual who had not offered
me his obedience and sworn to me allegiance quite obediently, without any
compulsion.
Here in Basrah they
approached my governor and treasurers of the public treasury and its other
inhabitants. They killed some of them in captivity and others by
treachery.
By Allah, even if they had
wilfully killed only one individual from among the Muslims without any
fault, it would have been lawful for me to kill the whole of this army
because they were present in it but did not disagree with it nor prevented
it by tongue or hand, not to say that they killed from among the Muslims a
number equal to that with which they had marched on them.
(1).
On the occasion of the Consultative Committee Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas repeated
to Amir al-mu'minin what Caliph `Umar had said in his last hours namely
that "O' `Ali, you are very greedy for the position of caliphate," and
`Ali replied that, "He who demands his own right cannot be called greedy;
rather greedy is he who prevents the securing of the right and tries to
grab it despite being unfit for it."
There is no doubt that Amir
al-mu'minin considered the Caliphate to be his right, and demanded his
right. The demand for a right does not dispel a right so that it may be
put forth as an excuse for not assigning him the caliphate, and the demand
may be held as a mark of greed. Even if it was greed, who was not involved
in this greed? Was not the pull between the muhajirun and the ansar the
mutual struggle between the members of the Consultative Committee and the
mischief mongering of Talhah and az-Zubayr the product of this very greed.
If Amir al-mu'minin had been
greedy for this position, he would have stood for it, closing his eyes to
the consequences and results, when `Abbas (uncle of the Prophet) and Abu
Sufyan pressed him for (accepting) allegiance, and when, after the third
Caliph people thronged to him for (swearing) allegiance, he should have
accepted their offer without paying any attention to the deteriorated
conditions.
But at no time did Amir
al-mu'minin take any step which could prove that he wanted the Caliphate
for the sake of caliphate, but rather his demand for the caliphate was
only with the object that its features should not be altered and the
religion should not become the victim of others' desires, not that he
should enjoy the pleasures of life which could be attributed to greed.
(2).
Explaining the meaning, Ibn Abi'l-Hadid writes that Amir al-mu'minin's
intention was to say:
They (the Quraysh and those
who are assisting them) were not only content to keep me away from my
right over the caliphate which they have usurped (from me), but rather
claimed that it was their right whether to give it to me or prevent me
from the same; and that I have no right to argue with them.
Furthermore, the intention
(of Amir al-mu'minin) is that:
If they had not said that it
is right to keep away from the caliphate, it would have been easy to
endure it because this would have, at least, showed their admitting my
right although they were not prepared to concede it. (Sharh Nahj
al-balaghah, vol. 9, p. 306)
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