SERMON 180
Condemning his disobedient men
I praise Allah for whatever
matter He ordained and whatever action He destines and for my trial with
you, O' group of people who do not obey when I order and do not respond
when I call you. If you are at ease you engage in (conceited)
conversation, but if you are faced with battle you show weakness. If
people agree on one Imam you taunt each other.
If you are faced with an
arduous matter you turn away from it. May others have no father (woe to
your enemy!) what are you waiting for in the matter of your assistance and
for fighting for your rights? For you there is either death or disgrace.
By Allah, if my day (of death) comes.
and it is sure to come, it
will cause separation between me and you although I am sick of your
company and feel lonely with you.
May Allah deal with you! Is
there no religion which may unite you nor sense of shamefulness that may
sharpen you? Is it not strange that Mu`awiyah calls out to some rude low
people and they follow him without any support or grant, but when I call
you, although you are the successors of Islam and the (worthy) survivors
of the people, with support and distributed grants you scatter away from
me and oppose me? Truly, there is nothing between me to you which I like
and you also like it, or with which I am angry and you may also unite
against it. What I love most is death.
I have taught you the
Qur'an, clarified to you arguments, apprised you of what you were ignorant
and made you swallow what you were spitting out. Even a blind man would
have been able to see, and he who was sleeping would have been awakened.
How ignorant of Allah is their leader Mu`awiyah and their instructor Ibn
an-Nabighah.
(1)
(1).
"an-Nabighah" is the surname of Layla bint Harmalah al-`Anaziyyah, mother
of `Amr ibn al-`As.
The reason for attributing
him to his mother is her common reputation in the matter. When Arwa bint
al-Harith ibn `Abd al-Muttalib went to Mu`awiyah, during the conversation,
when `Amr ibn al-`As intervened, she said to him: "O' son of an-Nabighah,
you too dare speak, although your mother was known publicly and was a
singer of Mecca.
That is why five persons
claimed you (as a son), and when she was asked she admitted that five
people had visited her and that you should be regarded as the son of him
you resembled most. You must have resembled al-`As ibn Wa'il and therefore
you came to be known as his son."
These five persons were (1)
al-`As ibn Wa'il, (2) Abu Lahab, (3) Umayyah ibn Khalaf, (4) Hisham ibn
al-Mughirah, and (5) Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. (Ibn `Abd Rabbih, al-`lqd
al-farid, vol. 2, p. 120; Ibn Tayfur, Balaghat an-nisa', p. 27; Ibn
Hijjah, Thamarat al-awraq, vol. 1, p. 132; Safwat, Jamharat khutab
al-`Arab, vol. 2, p.363; Ibn Abi'l-Hadid, vol. 6, pp. 283-285, 291;
al-Halabi, as-Sirah vol. 1, p. 46).
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