Aban narrates from Sulaym ‘We were sitting around Amirul Mumineen and he had a group of companions sitting with him. A person said to him (“O Amirul Mumineen, only if you had convinced people.”) i.e. for Jihad.
He (a.s) stood up and gave a sermon: “Be aware that I convinced you, but you were not convinced. I advised you but you did not accept. I called you but you did not listen. So you are present but are like absent, and are alive but are like the dead ones, are deaf but have ears. I am showing you wisdom and am telling you good things in which there is cure and is sufficient And I am arousing you for jihad against the oppressors. I do not reach the end of my talk and I see you getting distant. Different groups develop and recite poetry in front of each other and mentioned proverbs in front of each other and ask the price of dates and milk. May evil befall on you – you got tired of wars and to fight for it. Your hearts became empty by remembrance (dhikr) of wars. Instead of wars you got involved in useless and misguiding talks and making lame excuses. May evil befall you, fight against them before they fight against you because. By God, no war was fought in the house of a community but they were humiliated By God. I do not think you will do it until they do it. Then I wish I saw them and then meet Allah with complete knowledge and surety and I would be at peace from your problems and your exercises. You are like those camels whose shepherd is lost, so when they are gathered from one side they run away from the other side. By God, your example is like, I can see that if the ground of war is hot and the market of death is set up you will separate from of death is set up, you will separate from Ali ibn Abi Talib like (like the head is separated) a woman gets away from her child (at child birth) and cannot stop anyone’s hand touching.”
Ash’ath ibn Qayse-Kandhi said: “Why don’t you do what ibn Affan did?”
Ali (a.s) said “O Urfunnar (the one who pretends to be good but creates discord) do you think I would do what ibn Affan did? I seek refuge in Allah from what you are saying O ibn Qays. By God, what ibn Affan did is such that it belittles even a person who has no religion, and has no truth in his hands. Why should I do it when I have from Allah the evidence and authority in my hands and truth is with me.
By God, whoever strengthens his enemy over himself, until the enemy cuts his flesh, tears his skin, breaks his bones, sheds his blood, when he was able to stop the enemy, then his sin is very great (kabira) and on what his ribs are (i.e. heart) is very weak. O ibn Qays, you become like that, but By God, what I will do is, with my hand raise Mashrifi swords with which skulls will fly and hands and wrists will be cut and then Allah does what He likes.
O ibn Qays, may evil befall you, a Mumin can die of anything except that he kills himself. So whoever has strength to save his blood and then after that he leaves the opportunity between him and his killer, then he would be seen as one who killed his own self. May evil befall you, O ibn Qays, this Ummah will be divided into 73 sects. One sect of these will go to Heaven and 72 in Hell. Out of these the worst one and the biggest enemy in the eyes of Allah and farthest from Him are those useless people who say there should not be a war and are liars. Allah, has commanded that there should be a war against the oppressors in His Book and the Tradition of His Prophet, and in similar way against those who left the Deen”.
Ash’ath ibn Qays said, when he had been angered by what Ali (a.s) said: “Who stopped you, O ibn Abi Talib, when allegiance was paid to brother of Taim ibn Murra and the brother of the children of Adi ibn Ka’ab and after these two, the brother of Bani Umayyah, that you fight and raise swords. Since you have come to Iraq, whenever you gave sermon, before coming down from the pulpit you always said this: (“By God, I have more authority on all people than they themselves have. And since the death of the Holy Prophet (SAW) I have remained oppressed.”)”
All (a s) told him: “O Ibn Qays, you have said, so now listen to the answer. Neither did cowardice nor not wanting the pleasure of Allah stopped me. Also not that I did not know what better things are there with Allah for me, better than what is in this world and remaining in this world. But what stopped me was the order of the Messenger of Allah and what he told me in his will for me.
The Holy Prophet (S.A.W) informed me about how the Ummah will behave towards me after his death, so I saw how it behaved towards me. I knew it from beginning and I had surety about it. But according to the saying of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) I absolutely believed in those things that happened in front of my eyes. I asked (“O Messenger of Allah, when that happens what is your will for me?”] He replied {“If you find helpers then ignore them and fight against them, and if you do not find helpers then restrain your hand and save your blood until you find helpers to establish Deen, the Book of Allah and my Tradition.”}
And Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Alihi (pbuhaf) also informed me that the Ummah would soon leave me and pay allegiance to someone else and follow him.
And Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Alihi (pbuhaf) informed me that I had the same status with him that Haroon had to Musa, and the Ummah after him, will soon become like Haroon and those who followed him, and the cow and those who followed it. When Musa had said to him ‘Evil is it that you have done after me; did you turn away from the bidding of your Lord? “Haroon said: Son of my mother surely the people reckoned me weak and had well-nigh slain me.” (Surah Aref:50)
The meaning of this is when Musa ordered Haroon when he made him his caliph, that if the people deviate and if he (Haroon) finds helpers then he should fight against them and if he does not find helpers then he should restrain his hand and save his blood and does not create separation among them. And I am afraid lest my brother, the Messenger of Allah, says to me “Why did you create disunity in the Ummah and did not pay attention to my saying, although I had made a will to you that if you do not find helpers then restrain your hand, save your blood and save the blood of your Shias.”
So when the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) passed away, people turned to Abu Bakr and paid him allegiance and I was busy with the ritual bathing and burial of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W). Then I got busy with Quran. At that time I took an oath for myself that except for prayer (salah) I will not wear the cloak until I compile the Quran, so I did that. Then I took Fatimah and held hands of my two sons Hasan and Husayn and did not leave anyone from the people of Badr and anyone from those who came forward in Islam from Muhajireen and Ansar and reminded them of my rights for the sake of Allah and called them to help me. Except four, from all the people, nobody accepted what I said – Salman, Abu Dhar, Miqdad and Zubayr. And there was no one in my ahlulbayt through whom I could attack and get the strength. The one who remained was Hamzah – and he got martyred in Ohad, and Ja’afer got martyred in Mutta. I remained between such people who were not prepared to listen to me with pleasure and were both dry and weak and were both disreputable and desperate – Abbas and Aqeel, and both were near to the times of kufr. They all made me helpless and overpowered me so I said what Haroon told his brother. He said: “Son of my mother! surely the people reckoned me weak and had well-nigh slain me,” (Surah Araf: 50).
So Haroon’s footsteps were present for me and the will the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) is a very strong argument.”
Sulaym continued: Ash’ath said: “So that is what Uthman did – and he called them to help him but he did not find helpers so he restrained his hand until the oppressed got killed.”
Alayhissalam (pbuh) said: “O ibn Qays – may evil befall you – when the whole community overpowered me and made me weak and were near to kill me, if they said to me “surely we will kill you” then I would stop them from killing me even if I did not get anyone except myself. But they said “If you pay allegiance then we will stop and will respect you and make you near and give priority to you. If you do not pay allegiance then we will kill you.” So when I did not find anyone I paid allegiance to him, and my paying allegiance to him does not make his falsehood truth and make any of his rights compulsory. So when people told Uthman: “Leave it, we will stop”. If he had left it, people would have stopped and not killed him but he said: “I will not leave it.” People said: ‘We will definitely kill you”. So he restrained his hand until they killed him. And by my life, it was better for him to leave it because he took it without any rights and there was no share in it for him. He wanted what was not his and he took away the right of the other.
Evil befall you, O ibn Qays, surely Uthman can be like one of two people – either he called people to help him or it is possible that the community called on him to help him and he stopped them from helping him. So it was not possible for him to stop Muslims from the help of such an Imam who is a guide and is guided, who had not done any innovations (bidat) and had not given shelter to anyone who had done any innovations. How wrong was he when he stopped them!, and how bad did they do when they obeyed him. It can also be that his oppression and arrogance forced people to think him undeserving of help, because he oppressed and ordered contrary to the Book and the Tradition.
And Uthman had with him his ahlulbayt, his friends, and his companions – more than 4000 people. If he wanted he could have stopped them through these people so why did he stop them to help him”? And when allegiance was paid to Akhu Taym (Abu Bakr) if I had 40 people who were obedient to me then I would have fought but when allegiance was paid to Umar and Uthman at that time NO. Because I had paid allegiance at that time and a person like me cannot break the allegiance.
May evil befall you. O ibn Qays, how did you find me when Uthman got killed and I did find helpers? Did you find me lazy or moving back or coward or negligent on the incident of Basra when people were surrounding the camel and those that were with them were all cursed? And those that got killed were cursed too and those that returned without repentance and penance were also cursed because they killed my helpers, broke my allegiance, cut my governor into pieces and cheated me. I went towards them with 2,000 people and they were more than 2000. Allah gave us victory over them and got them killed through our hands and cured the hearts of the faithfuls.
O ibn Qays, how did you find the incident of our Siffin and through our hands Allah got their 50000 men killed at the same place who went to Hell?
And how did you find us on the day of Nehrwan when I confronted those of you who had separated from Deen, when they, on that day, were holding firmly to the religion of those people whose actions in the life of this world became useless and they thought what they were doing was very good? So Allah, through our hands, got them killed at the same place and made them reach Hell. Not even 0 of them remained and from faithfuls not even 0 got killed.
Evil befall you – O ibn Qays, what – did you see me return or return the standard (flag)? O ibn Qays, are you taunting me when I was with the Holy Prophet (SAW) in his every place and, in all wars and in all his difficulties, was in the forefront of him? I never ran away nor moved my steps, nor got tired, nor stayed away nor showed my back to the enemies because it is not appropriate for the Prophet or his successors that when they dress up for war and face enemy, they return or turn their faces away, until either they get killed or Allah gives them victory.
O ibn Qays, have you ever heard that I have ever run away or delayed?
O ibn Qays, beware, By Him, Who separated the seed and created human being, when allegiance was paid to Akhu Taym, that Akhu Taym, in entrance of whose allegiance, you have taunted, if I had got even 40 people who had the Iman of those 4 people whom I found then I would not have restrained my hand and I would have confronted the community but I did not get a fifth one so I stopped.’
Ash’ath asked: “Who were those four O Amirul Mumineen?”
Alayhissalam (pbuh) said: “Salman, Abu Dhar, Miqdad and Zubayr ibn Safiya before he broke his allegiance to me, because he paid me allegiance twice. His first allegiance was that in which he was loyal because when allegiance was paid to Abu Bakr, 40 people from Muhajireen and Ansar came to me and paid allegiance to me and Zubayr was in them. So I ordered them that they come to my door in the morning in such a way that their heads are shaved off and they are armed so out of them, except for four, no one stayed loyal to me or obeyed me – Salman, Abu Dhar, Miqdad and Zubayr.
And the second allegiance that he paid to me – he and his companion Taihah came to me when Uthman had been killed. They both paid allegiance to me willingly, without any force and after that both became apostates of Deen. Both broke the allegiance, thought themselves to be high, both bore enmity, both faced damages. Allah got them killed and made them reach Hell. Three – Salman, Abu Dhar and Miqdad stayed firm on the Dean of Muhammad (SAW) and the Deen of Ibrahim (a.s) until they met Allah – May Allan bless them.
O ibn Qays, By Him who separated the seed and created Insan (mankind), if those 40, who had paid allegiance to me, had been loyal and come to my door in the morning with their heads shaved off, before the allegiance of Atiq was forced on to me, I would have confronted him and would have wanted its outcome from Allah. If I had found helpers before the allegiance to Uthman, then I would- have confronted him too and wanted the outcome from Allah because ibn Awf declared it for Uthman and agreed with him that after his death it is returned to him but when I had paid allegiance to him there was no way to confront him.”
Ash’ath said: “By God, if the matter was like what you are saying then the whole Ummah of Muhammad (SAW) except you and your Shias is destroyed.”
So All (a.s) said to him: “Surely, truth, By God, is with me. O ibn Qays, like I said and nobody from the Ummah will be destroyed except those people who are Nasby, those who break the allegiance and those who talk without any argument and deny truth and who are enemies. But those who accepted Tawheed and accept Muhammad (S.A.W) and Islam and have not left the Deen, and have not helped oppressors against us and have not borne enmity towards us, had doubt in caliphate, did not recognise its owners, guardians, governors and did not also recognise our Wilayat and did not bear enmity towards us. So surely these people are Muslims who are weak in faith and there is hope for Allah’s Mercy for such a person and there is fear of sins concerning him.”
Aban says that Sulaym ibn Qays said: “On that day no one from Shias of Ali (a.s) remained whose face did not smile with his talk, because Amirul Mumineen (a.s) explained the correct matter and made it known and lifted the curtain and left Taqayah. And no one from all the reciters of Quran remained, who had doubts about people in the past and stopped from them, and did not keep away from them due to fear of Allah, thinking it to be sin, became sure and understood the correct matter.
Their opinion became correct and on that day they stopped doubting and refraining. And there was no one from those around him who had refused his allegiance but they all understood his allegiance, like allegiance was paid to Uthman and those before him. And this was evident on their faces and their world became narrow. They felt bad about the matter and after that generally people understood the true matter and their doubts were removed.”
Aban narrates from Sulaym: “I did not see any other day usually that gave peace to my eyes in comparison to that day, because Amirul Mumineen (a.s) lifted the curtain and made truth known and explained the matter and the result and removed Taqayah. After that gatherings of Shias became many in numbers and started talking freely although there were very few in his army and generally, not knowing his status with Allah and the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) used to argue with him. After this gathering Shias became of those respectable and great people.
And this incident happened after people of Nehrwan when he was given the order to prepare for confrontation with Muawiyah. Not long time had passed when he (Salwatullah Alayhi) was martyred, ibn Muljim (May Allah curse him) killed him by cheating when his sword was poisoned and he had poisoned it before it (killing). May Allah bless our leader Amirul Mumineen and many salutations be upon him.