The usurped Caliphate

"After the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr became the caliph instead of me. Every time he saw me, he used to ask for my forgiveness for his oppression against me, and he used. to blame his friend Umar, for having usurped my right, and broken their covenant with me. For all these matters, he always asked for my forgiveness.

I said to myself that one day, his reign would terminate and I would gain my true right, for Allah had chosen me for this position. Another thing was that Islam was in his first days, and I did not want to add another discord to the already existing discords and did not want to fight those who had usurped my true right and position, and start a war among my Muslim brothers.

In those days, my faithful and true companions were those who had a good intention in their hearts and were benevolent for the sake of Allah and his Prophet's satisfaction. They believed in the Holy Quran and they secretly invited me to take back my right from those who had usurped it. They were ready to sacrifice their lives for my right and keep their covenant, but I always invited them to be patient. I used to tell them: may Allah give back my lost right, without any destructive feud between the Muslims.

Others, on that chaotic period, were a group of people who believed strongly in Allah, the Prophet (a.s.), the Holy Qur'an, and Islam, and covertly or openly, invited me to restore my true right. I found them to be true Muslims. They were ready to sacrifice their lives to prove their loyalty to me! But I always tried to make them be more patient. I thought that Allah would soon restore my unfairly usurped right without any fight.

On the other hand, after the death of the Prophet, many people fell into the trap of hesitation and they became greedy for the Caliphate. Each tribe wanted the new caliph to be from their own clan. One thing that was interesting was that they were against each other, but at the same time, they supported each other to keep ME away from the Caliphate! So when the first one (Abu Bakr) died, his friend Umar took over the responsibility of the Caliphate for himself and did exactly like the previous one, and did not give me back my true right.

Once again; the followers of Mohammad (peace be upon him) came to me and, - as you now know, some of them are already dead and some others are still alive – anyway these faithful people asked me to stand up against Umar, but I did not change my mind, and I kept my patience.

We were the family of the Messenger of Allah (a.s.), but we lived in a house that had no roof and the doors were made of palm fronds. There was nothing on our mattress and no blanket to cover us in sleep...During prayers, we often had just one garment which was used by all the members of the family... How many days and nights we spent with hunger ...!

Sometimes after a war, Allah the Almighty set aside some booty for us. Though the Messenger of Allah (a.s.) knew of our hard condition, he gave our shares to affluent and rich men to make their hearts incline to Islam. I myself saw the sufferings of the Prophet (a.s.) when he invited them to Islam, and I knew that I had a heavy responsibility to preserve the circle of Islam and not to break it in no way whatsoever!

On the other hand, if I did some kind of revengeful actions, and gathered some people to support me, I could gather some groups around me with no doubt and they would be ready to fight against our enemies, but that idea had two sides; perhaps some people might stop their support and would then join the opposite side, or some other people might be killed.

I knew that my deep affinity to the Prophet (peace be upon him) was like the kinship of Aaron to Moses, and I was really afraid that the punishment of Allah might befall on my people, like the punishment of Moses' people when they disobeyed Aaron. So I thought it would be better if I drank from the cup of sorrow, held my breath, and kept my patience. so that Allah would achieve His Will. On that occasion, my recompense would be more, and maybe a kind of forbearance would be considered as privilege for my people, and I knew that the Command of Allah is a determined decree.

I had a solid background from the past and was closest to the Prophet (a.s.) in family relationship, and as his successor. Beyond other things, the Prophet (a.s.) on the day of "Ghadir Khom" had expressed his strong wish about my being his successor, according to the Will of Allah. He invited the people to pledge their allegiance to me as the Commander of the believers after his death, and it was impossible for people to have any bad thought against me in their minds.

Aye ... when the Prophet (a.s.) died. the government of the Islamic lands was in his own house, not in the hands of others or in their houses! And his progeny were definitely more deserving for the position of the "Caliphate" or other rights than the others, because Allah the Almighty had created us pure and innocent from the very beginning. Is it not true?"

Everyone said, "Yes, it is true, and you are truly the Commander of the Believers!"

The Jewish man's heart was choked by emotions and was much paler than hefore.

Adapted from: "The Sufferings of Amirol Mo'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib (A.S.); Life and Martyrdom" by: "Majid Massoudi"