SERMON 217
About the excesses of the Quraysh
O' my Allah! I beseech Thee to take revenge on the Quraysh
and those who are assisting them, for they have cut asunder my kinship and
over-turned my cup and have joined together to contest a right to which I
was entitled more than anyone else.
They said to me: "If you get your right, that will be just,
but if you are denied the right, that too will be just. Endure it with
sadness or kill yourself in grief."
I looked around but found no one to shield me, protect me
or help me except the members of my family.
I refrained from flinging them into death and therefore
closed my eyes despite the dust, kept swallowing saliva despite (the
suffocation of) grief and endured pangs of anger although it was more
bitter than colocynth and more grievous than the bite of knives.
as-Sayyid ar-Radi says: This
utterance of Amir al-mu'minin has already appeared in an earlier Sermon
(171), but I have repeated it here because of the difference of versions.
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