SERMON 19
Amir al-mu'minin was delivering a lecture from the pulpit of (the
mosque of) Kufah when al-Ash`ath ibn Qays
(1)
objected and said, "O' Amir al-mu'minin this thing is not in your favour
but against you."
(2) Amir al-mu'minin looked at him
with anger and said:
How do you
know what is for me and what is against me? ! Curse of Allah and others be
on you. You are a weaver and son of a weaver. You are the son of an
unbeliever and yourself a hypocrite. You were arrested once by the
Unbelievers and once by the Muslims, but your wealth and birth could not
save you from either. The man who contrives for his own people to be put
to sword and invites death and destruction for them does deserve that the
near ones should hate him and the remote ones should not trust him.
as-Sayyid
ar-Radi says: This man was arrested once when an unbeliever and once in
days of Islam. As for Amir al-mu'minin's words that the man contrived for
his own people to be put to sword, the reference herein is to the incident
which occurred to al-Ash`ath ibn Qays in confrontation with Khalid ibn
Walid at Yamamah, where he deceived his people and contrived a trick till
Khalid attacked them. After this incident his people nicknamed him "`Urf
an-Nar" which in the parlance stood for traitor.
AL-ASH`ATH IBN QAYS AL-KINDI
(1). His original name was Ma`di Karib and
surname Abu Muhammad but because of his dishevelled hair he is better
known as al-Ash`ath (one having dishevelled hair). When after Proclamation
(of Prophethood) he came to Mecca along with his tribe, the Prophet
invited him and his tribe to accept Islam. But all of them turned back
without anyone accepting Islam. When after hijrah (immigration of the Holy
Prophet) Islam became established and in full swing and deputations began
to come to Medina in large numbers he also came to the Prophet's audience
with Banu Kindah and accepted Islam. The author of al-`Isti`ab writes that
after the Prophet this man again turned unbeliever but when during the
Caliphate of Abu Bakr he was brought to Medina as prisoner he again
accepted Islam, though this time too his Islam was a show. Thus,
ash-Shaykh Muhammad `Abduh writes in his annotations on Nahj al-balaghah:
Just as `Abdullah ibn Ubay
ibn Salul was a companion of the Prophet, al-Ash`ath was a companion of
`Ali and both were high ranking hypocrites.
He lost one of his eyes in
the battle of Yarmuk. Ibn Qutaybah has included him in the list of the
one-eyed. Abu Bakr's sister Umm Farwah bint Abi Quhafah, who was once the
wife of an al-Azdi and then of Tamim ad-Darimi, was on the third occasion
married to this al-Ash`ath. Three sons were born of her viz. Muhammad,
Isma`il and Is'haq. Books on biography show that she was blind. Ibn
Abi'l-Hadid has quoted the following statement of Abu'l-Faraj wherefrom it
appears that this man was equally involved in the assassination of `Ali
(p.b.u.h.):
On the night of the
assassination Ibn Muljam came to al-Ash`ath ibn Qays and both retired to a
corner of the mosque and sat there when Hujr ibn `Adi passed by that side
and he heard al-Ash`ath saying to Ibn Muljam, "Be quick now or else dawn's
light would disgrace you." On hearing this Hujr said to al-Ash`ath, "O'
one-eyed man, you are preparing to kill 'Ali" and hastened towards `Ali
ibn Abi Talib, but Ibn Muljam had preceded him and struck 'Ali with sword
when Hujr turned back people were crying, "Ali has been killed."
It was his daughter who
killed Imam Hasan (p.b.u.h.) by poisoning him. Mas`udi has written that:
His (Hasan's) wife Ja`dah
bint al-Ash`ath poisoned him while Mu`awiyah had conspired with her that
if she could contrive to poison Hasan he would pay her one hundred
thousand Dirhams and marry her to Yazid. (Muruj adh-dhahab, vol. 2, p.
650)
His son Muhammad ibn
al-Ash`ath was active in playing fraud with Hadrat Muslim ibn `Aqil in
Kufah and in shedding Imam Husayn's blood in Karbala. But despite all
these points he is among those from whom al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud,
at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah have related traditions.
(2).
After the battle of Nahrawan, Amir al-mu'minin was delivering a sermon in
the mosque of Kufah about ill effects of "Arbitration" when a man stood up
and said "O' Amir al-mu'minin, first you desisted us from this Arbitration
but thereafter you allowed it. We cannot understand which of these two was
more correct and proper." On hearing this Amir al-mu'minin clapped his one
hand over the other and said, "This is the reward of one who gives up firm
view" that is, this is the outcome of your actions as you had abandoned
firmness and caution and insisted on "Arbitration" but al-Ash`ath mistook
it to mean as though Amir al mu'minin implied that "my worry was due to
having accepted Arbitration," so he spoke out, "O' Amir al-mu'minin this
brings blame on your own self" whereupon Amir al-mu'minin said harshly:
What do you know what I am
saying, and what do you understand what is for me or against me. You are a
weaver and the son of a weaver brought up by unbelievers and a hypocrite.
Curse of Allah and all the world be upon you.
Commentators have written
several reasons for Amir al-mu'minin calling Ash`ath a weaver. First
reason is, because he and his father like most of the people of his native
place pursued the industry of weaving cloth. So, in order to refer to the
lowliness of his occupation he has been called 'weaver'. Yamanese had
other occupations also but mostly this profession was followed among them.
Describing their occupations Khalid ibn Safwan has mentioned this one
first of all.
What can I say about a
people among whom there are only weavers, leather dyers, monkey keepers
and donkey riders. The hoopoe found them out, the mouse flooded them and a
woman ruled over them. (al-Bayan wa't-tabyin, vol. 1, p. 130)
The second reason is that
"hiyakah" means walking by bending on either side, and since out of pride
and conceit this man used to walk shrugging his shoulders and making bends
in his body, he has been called "hayik".
The third reason is --- and it is more conspicuous and clear --- that he
has been called a weaver to denote his foolishness and lowliness because
every low person is proverbially known as a weaver. Their wisdom and
sagacity can be well gauged by the fact that their follies had become
proverbial, while nothing attains proverbial status without peculiar
characteristics. Now, that Amir al-mu'minin has also confirmed it no
further argument or reasoning is needed. The fourth reason is that by this
is meant the person who conspires against Allah and the Holy Prophet and
prepares webs of which is the peculiarity of hypocrites. Thus, in Wasa'il
ash-Shi`ah (vol. 12, p. 101) it is stated:
It was mentioned before Imam
Ja`far as-Sadiq (p.b.u.h.) that the weaver is accursed when he explained
that the weaver implies the person who concocts against Allah and the
Prophet.
After the word weaver Amir
al-mu'minin has used the word hypocrite, and there is no conjunction in
between them in order to emphasise the nearness of meaning thereof. Then,
on the basis of this hypocrisy and concealment of truth he declared him
deserving of the curse of Allah and all others, as Allah the Glorified
says:
Verily, those that conceal
what we have sent of (Our) manifest evidences and guidance, after what we
have (so) clearly shown for mankind in the Book (they are), those that
Allah doth curse them and (also) curse them all those who curse (such
ones). (Qur'an, 2:159)
After this Amir al-mu'minin
says that "You could not avoid the degradation of being prisoner when you
were unbeliever, nor did these ignominies spare you after acceptance of
Islam, and you were taken prisoner." When an unbeliever the event of his
being taken prisoner occurred in this way that when the tribe of Banu
Murad killed his father Qays, he (al-Ash`ath) collected the warriors of
Banu Kindah and divided them in three groups.
Over one group he himself
took the command, and on the others he placed Kabs ibn Hani' and
al-Qash`am ibn Yazid al-Arqam as chiefs, and set off to deal with Banu
Murad. But as misfortune would have it instead of Banu Murad he attacked
Banu al-Harith ibn Ka`b.
The result was that Kabs ibn
Hani' and al-Qash`am ibn Yazid al-Arqam were killed and this man was taken
prisoner alive. Eventually he got a release by paying three thousand
camels as ransom. In Amir al-mu'minin's words, "Your wealth or birth could
not save you from either," the reference is not to real 'fidyah' (release
money) because he was actually released on payment of release money but
the intention is that neither plenty of wealth nor his high position and
prestige in his tribe could save him from this ignominy, and he could not
protect himself from being a prisoner .
The event of his second
imprisonment is that when the Holy Prophet of Islam passed away from this
world a rebellion occurred in the region of Hadramawt for repelling which
Caliph Abu Bakr wrote to the governor of the place Ziyad ibn Labid
al-Bayadi.
al-Ansari that he should
secure allegiance and collect zakat and charities from those people. When
Ziyad ibn Labid went to the tribe of Banu `Amr ibn Mu`awiyah for
collection of zakat he took keen fancy for a she-camel of Shaytan ibn Hujr
which was very handsome and of huge body. He jumped over it and took
possession of it.
Shaytan ibn Hujr did not
agree to spare it and said to him to take over some other she-camel in its
place but Ziyad would not agree. Shaytan sent for his brother al-`Adda'
ibn Hujr for his support.
On coming he too had a talk
but Ziyad insisted on his point and did not, by any means, consent to keep
off his hand from that she-camel. At last both these brothers appealed to
Masruq ibn Ma`di Karib for help. Consequently, Masruq also used his
influence so that Ziyad might leave the she-camel but he refused
categorically, whereupon Masruq became enthusiastic and untying the
she-camel handed it over to Shaytan. On this Ziyad was infuriated and
collecting his men became ready to fight.
On the other side Banu
Wali`ah also assembled to face them, but could not defeat Ziyad and were
badly beaten at his hands. Their women were taken away and property was
looted. Eventually those who had survived were obliged to take refuge
under the protection of al-Ash`ath. Al-Ash`ath promised assistance on the
condition that he should be acknowledged ruler of the area.
Those people agreed to this
condition and his coronation was also formally solemnised. After having
his authority acknowledged he arranged an army and set out to fight Ziyad.
On the other side Abu Bakr had written to the chief of Yemen, al-Muhajir
ibn Abi Umayyah to go for the help of Ziyad with a contingent.
Al-Muhajir was coming with
his contingent when they came face to face. Seeing each other they drew
swords and commenced fighting at ad-Zurqan.
In the end al-Ash`ath fled
from the battle-field and taking his remaining men closed himself in the
fort of an-Nujayr. The enemy was such as to let them alone. They laid
siege around the fort. Al-Ash`ath thought how long could he remain shut up
in the fort with this lack of equipment and men, and that he should think
out some way of escape.
So one night he stealthily
came out of the fort and met Ziyad and al-Muhajir and conspired with them
that if they gave asylum to nine members of his family he would get the
fort gate opened. They accepted this term and asked him to write for them
the names of those nine persons.
He wrote down the nine names
and made them over to them, but acting on his traditional wisdom forgot to
write his own name in that list. After settling this he told his people
that he has secured protection for them and the gate of the fort should be
opened. When the gate was opened Ziyad forces pounced upon them. They said
they had been promised protection whereupon Ziyad's army said that this
was wrong and that al-Ash`ath had asked protection only for nine members
of his house, whose names preserved with them.
In short eight hundred
persons were put to sword and hands of several women were chopped off,
while according to the settlement nine men were left off, but the case of
al-Ash`ath became complicated. Eventually it was decided he should be sent
to Abu Bakr and he should decided about him. At last he was sent to Medina
in chains along with a thousand women prisoners. On the way relations and
others, men and women, all hurled curses at him and the women were calling
him traitor and one who got his own people put to sword. Who else can be a
greater traitor? However, when he reached Medina Abu Bakr released him and
on that occasion he was married to Umm Farwah.
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