6- The battle of Siffeen
The sixth stage was the battle against Mo'awiyya, the son of Hind who was called "the eater of livers", and finally to accept unwillingly the vote of the arbitrators. It was a battle with the one who was the enemy of Allah and His Prophet from the time of the Prophetic Mission until our victory in Mecca.
On that day of our triumph in Mecca against the polytheists, the Prophet (a.s.) told me that Mo'awiyya and his father Abu Sofian had pledged allegiance to him three times.
In addition, the father of Mo'awiyya, Abu Sofian, at the beginning of the reign of Abu Bakr was the first one who saluted me with the epithet of "the Commander of the Believers", and he used to tell me that I should go and ask for my usurped right. He also used to say he was always at my command.
So it was very strange to Mo'awiyya, when he saw that Allah had finally restored to me my usurped right. He was so very angry that he was not going to be the fourth caliph! He went to Amr ibn Aas and told him that he would make him the governor of Egypt if he supported him. By the way, even one dirham more than his own measure was unlawful, and it was illegal for the one who had the
responsibility of the Treasury of Muslims to give him more than his share.
Anyway, Mo'awiyya, with his followers, went to different cities and killed all the people who were against him and freed the others, who accepted his rule. So Mo'awiyya, with his broken oath, was trying to set off rebellions in different places in our region. One day, the one-eyed man of Thaqif (Moghira ibn Sho'bah) came to me and said that we should appoint Mo'awiyya as the governor of the cities that Mo'awiyya had under his authority.
If I could have found a right excuse about that idea before our God, it would have been an interesting idea for my government and earthly wishes. But when I talked about that proposal with my closest companions and true followers, they also had the same opinion as mine, and they believed that I should not give him any authority whatsoever.
I truly hoped that a day would not come that Allah would see me in cooperation with the heretics and polytheists! Therefore, I sent a man from the tribe of Bajalah and at another time, another man from the tribe of Asha'irah to Mo'awiyya to complete my warnings to him. However, those two men preferred the earthly comfort that Mo'awiyya had offered to them and began serving him most humbly.
When I saw that Mo'awiyya had not respected the rights and commands of Allah, I went and consulted with those who had participated in the battle of Badr and in the Redhwan Homage whom Allah has been pleased with their deeds. I also consulted with true Muslims and all of them believed that we should fight Mo'awiyya and cut his hand from the authority of the Islamic State.
As you know my brother, after our final decision that was to war against Mo'awiyya, I once again sent some letters with many amhassadors to him. I thought that he might accept to walk in the right path and accept my Caliphate. However, on the other hand, he sent me many insulting letters, where he asked me to accept his insolent, offensive conditions that were against the commands of Allah, the Prophet (a.s.), and the welfare of the Muslims nation (Umma).
One of his ridiculous conditions was that I should send him many of the closest companions of the Prophet (a.s.), like Ammar ibn Yasir! I ask you: where can we find a man better than Ammar?! I swear by Allah the Almighty, that Ammar had always been close to the Messenger of Allah (a.s.) and had always been beside Him.
Yes, Mo'awiyya in his foolish condition, wanted me to send many true companions of the Prophet (a.s.) to him as a revengeful ransom for the blood of Uthman. And I swear by Allah, that none of these godly, faithful men had killed Uthman! Mo'awiyya and his tribe (the Bani Omayya) that Allah, in the holy Quran, has called them as "the cursed tree", had in fact committed that crime ...
So when he finally understood that I would never accept his conditions, he gathered many cruel, people around him; brutal companions and bad company, and gave them a lot of money and precious gifts so as to obey his commands with closed eyes.
in contrast with that, we invited them all to Islam and asked them to obey the directions of the Holy Quran! We talked about the severe punishment of Allah, but all that did not affect them whatsoever. So we fought against them and prayed Allah to grant us the final victory.
During that battle, we had the banner of the Prophet (a.s.) with which Allah had always demolished the oppressive forces with it, whereas Mo'awiyya had the banner which had belonged to his father and which, in all wars, had been raised against the Messenger of Allah (a.s.) and Islam.
Yes! Death was so near to Mo'awiyya, and he really did not know what to do to save his life. He just sat on his horse so as to run away from the battle, but at the last moment, his wicked friend, Amr ibn Aas, proposed to their soldiers that each one should raise a copy of the Holy Qur'an on their spears and claimed falsely that it should be done as the Qur'an had commanded!
Amr told Mo'awiyya that the son of Abu Taleb and his followers were very wise and strong. He said, "Before the war, they wanted you to do according to the Holy Quran, but they did not receive any response from you. But if you do it now, they will accept your offer." When Mo'awiyya saw that he had no any way out, either in the war or for any escape, he ordered his army to raise the copies of the Qur'an on their spears, and he thought that the best thing was to claim that all should do exactly as the Holy Quran had said!
On that day, which was full of various incidents, all my soldiers accepted alas, the false invitation of Mo'awiyya and were deceived by his trick, except a small group of my true followers, who remained with me.
In fact, I insisted and told them repeatedly that it was only a trick by Mo'awiyya and Amr ibn Aas, and that they should not listen to their tricky claims. However, it was very odd that my own soldiers insisted on accepting their deception!
I myself heard that some of them said, "If Ali does not accept Mo'awiyya's offer, we shall have a bad end, just like Uthman. So we are forced to make Ali submit to Allah be my Witness that I tried my best to persuade them to listen to my orders and let me do what was the best, but they continually rejected my orders. They did not even give me a short break to think ...
I swear by Allah that I did not fear anything, but I was afraid for the lives of my two sons Hassan and Hussein. I was afraid that no one from the Prophet's progeny would remain alive, for they were the real treasures of his blood!
I was also afraid for the lives of Abdullah ibn Ja'far and Mohammad ibn Hanafiyya, for both of them were there because of me and they wanted to be always beside me.
Once again, I used my patience before their wrong choice. However, after we had put aside our arms, all of them began blaming me. They put aside the Holy Qur'an and suggested to choose either Mo'awiyya or me.
I myself never believed that such a thing would happen, and I did not want people to be against the Will of Allah. It was a very wicked action, but what did I have to do then ? From among my foolish men and Mo'awiyya, neither of them accepted anything else.
When I wanted to choose one of my relatives such as (Abdullah) ibn Abbas or a man who had enough knowledge of Allah, the religion, the Prophet (a.s.), and me to negotiate, someone that I could trust in, someone like Malik Ashtar, the son of Hind (Mo'awiyya) did not accept it ... alas!
Mo'awiyya was full of arrogance, so he did not accept my words. The reason behind his pride was the help that my foolish soldiers had given him unknowingly. Anyway, when I saw that it was an awful judgment against me and against Islam, I prayed to Allah and let them go away with their wrongdoings.
They chose Abu Musa Ash'ari, who had been lured with many gifts by Amr himself, and when every one heard about it, the man did not know how to hide his disgraceful actions. Is it not true?"
Every one said, "Yes, it is true, 0 Commander of the Believers!"
The moaning of the Jewish man made the people around look at him strangely. He had read in the Holy Books of Moses (a.s.) about the Martyrdom of the last successor of the last Prophet, so he knew that according to the prophesies, that day was near ...
7- The battle of Nahrawan
The Prophet (a.s.) in the twenty-three years of his Mission, often told me that a day would come, when some of my companions, who fasted in the day and recited the Qur'an in the night Holy, would stand against me, and I would be in a war with them, because they would go out of the religion as an arrow penetrates and goes out of a game.
The Prophet (a.s.) also told me that Thul Thodayyah would be with them, and that when I would defeat and kill them, I would fly to Paradise. We returned to Kufa and all of them, who had insisted on arbitration, then snubbed me and used to say, 'Very well, we were wrong, but why you Imam Ali? Why an Emir and great commander should listen to his soldiers and assistances? An Emir like you
should have done whatever he thought was right. He should not have feared death! Now that you listened to our ideas, so you are a heretic and the killing of a heretic is lawful and permissible!'
All of them united and left my army. They cried out loudly that there was no command but the command of Allah! Some of them went to Nokhaylah, and some others went to Haroura. A third group went to the riverside of Tigris. They wanted to go to the east as quickly as possible. Whenever they saw a Muslim before them, first they put him to trial, and if that Muslim had opinions like theirs, they would do nothing to him, but if he had an opposite thought, they would kill him with all his family right away.
At first, I started to invite the two first groups toward Allah and the Holy Qur'an, but they did not accept my invitation, and they just wanted to fight against me and nothing else mattered to them.
When I understood that their problem would never be solved except by the sword, I did what Allah willed. If I did not do that, they would have caused a great problem to Islam, but Allah had prepared a different destiny for them.
Then, I wrote a letter to the third group, and I sent many messengers who were all great and wise men from among my companions. However, that group like the two previous ones, ignored me and my messengers, and insisted on fighting us.
They continued to kill innocent Muslims who were against them. Therefore, I closed the way to the Tigris and once again, I sent many messengers to invite them to us. One day, I sent this man, and another day that man, but I had no way except to kill them.
Thus, 0 my Jewish brother, I killed all of their four thousand men, but only ten men from them remained alive. I searched among the dead and found the body of Thul Thodayyah, about whom the Prophet (a.s.) had told me before. I showed his body to everyone. Is it not true?"
They all said, "Yes, it is true, 0 Commander of the Believers."
At that moment, Imam Ali (a.s.) looked at the Jewish man's face and said, "I talked about the fourteen instances, and now there remains just another event that will happen in the near future."
When Imam Ali finished his words, all of his companions began crying. The Jewish man, while crying, said, "Please, tell us about the last one!" With the great sorrow that he felt inside him, he was not able to move from his place. Imam Ali (a.s.) touched his beard and said, "In the last event, this beard will be dyed by my own blood ..."
When the masses of people heard Imam Ali's word, they began to moan and cry, and their cries of sorrow spread everywhere in the mosque of Kufa.
It was the turn of the Jew to do as his promise and complete a allegiance and to realize his wish that was inside him for so many years. Yes! After the Imam finished his talk, the Jew went and kissed the holy hand of Imam Ali (a.s.) and embraced Islam. He lived in Kufa until the day when Imam Ali (a.s.) was killed by Abdurrahman ibn Moljam (Allah's curse be on him) in the year 40 AH.
When the people arrested ibn Moljam, they delivered him to Imam Hassan ibn Ali (a.s.), where there were masses of people around him. The Jew came to that place, and while crying, he thought to himself that It was the
hardest day in his life. He said to Imam Hassan(a.s.), "0 son of Mohammad! Kill this man, and I hope that Allah will curse him with a terrible Punishment! In the Holy Books of Moses, I had read that the crime of this man is much greater than the sin of the son of Adam (Cain) who had murdered his brother Abel, and his sin is greater than the crime of the people of Aad who had killed the Camel of the Prophet Salih (a.s.) ...!".
So what a lucky man the Jew was! He lived with his good. deeds, while there were many Muslims who were Muslim only by name, but in their lives, they lived and behaved just like infidels and unlike what Allah and His Messenger (a.s.) had wanted.
It has been mentioned in a tradition, that once a man from Bassora came to Imam Sajjad (a.s.) and asked him, "Why your grandfather (Imam Ali) killed the Muslims?" Imam Sajjad (a.s.) began to cry painfully, and then he wiped his tears with his hand and said, "0, you my Basri brother! I swear by Allah that Ali (a.s.) never killed a true Muslim or an innocent one! He fought against some people, who had the name of "Muslims" only upon themselves, but in their hearts, they were the enemies of Allah and the Muslims. When they found people like themselves, they united with them against true Muslims. The true companions and followers of the progeny of Muhammad know that the people of (the battle of) Jamal, Siffeen, and Nahrawan were cursed by the Messenger of Allah (a.s.). So curse be on one who fabricates lies against Allah, and His Messenger!"
In Imam Ali's speech to the Jew, he addressed as "Jewish brother". The statement in Arabic is "Akhal Yahud" which means: "brother of the Jews" which may mean "0 Jew!"
An old man stood up and said, "but your grandfather Ali ibn Abi Talib had said about them, "our "brothers" oppressed us!"
Imam Sajjad (a.s.) replied, "Did you not read this verse in the Qur'an where Allah says, (and to (the people of) Aad (we sent) their brother Hud)? 1 In this situation, the people of Aad are like the brothers that Imam Ali (a.s.) had talked about. We saw that Allah the Almighty had assisted the Prophet Hud (a.s.) and his followers, but demolished the people of Aad with a furious storm."
Thus, it is not true to think that when Imam Ali (a.s.) said to the Jew: "my Jewish brother", he meant that he was his brother in religion.
However, there is a point of view more reliable. It is that: Imam Ali (a.s.) had knowledge of every thing about the past, present, and the future. Thus, he knew very well that this Jewish man, later on, would embrace the religion of Islam. The interesting fact is that Imam Ali (a.s.) since the beginning of his discourse with the Jew, considered him his "brother in religion", because he well knew that the Jew would soon become Muslim.
Alhamdolillahe Rabbel Alamin
Farid Mohammadi
Tehran
Ramadan 19th, 1428 October 15th, 2007
Mehr 9th 1386
Tehran
Ramadan 19th, 1428 October 15th, 2007
Mehr 9th 1386
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1 Qur'an, 7:65.
