Ali's magnanimity towards the enemy

:Yousuf N. Lalljee

2013/05/21

1272

"Ayesha might have looked for cruel treatment at the hands of Ali, having been his vindictive and persevering enemy, but he was too magnanimous to triumph over a fallen foe." W. Irving's Succ. of Mohd. p. 197. When all the confusion of the battle was over, Ali came to her and asked her how she fared. Finding that she was all right and had escaped without injury, he reproachfully said to her, 'Had the Prophet directed thee to behave in this way ?'

She replied, 'You are victorious, be good to your fallen foe.' Ali reproached her no more and gave instructions to her brother Mohammed, to take her to the house of Adballah b. Khalaf a Khozaite, who was a leading citizen of Busra and was killed fighting for Ayesha. She asked her brother to trace Abdallah, the son of Zubeir, who was subsequently found lying wounded on the battlefield among the dead and wounded. As desired by Ayesha, he was brought before Ali for pardon and forgiveness. The generous-hearted conqueror magnanimously announced general amnesty to all the rebels and their confederates along with Adballah b. Zubeir. In spite of all this, Marwan and the Umayyads fled to Moawiya in Syria and to Mecca.

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