Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Sermons
Sermon
171

SERMON 171

About the Consultative
Committee and the Battle of Jamal

Praise be to Allah
from whose view one sky does not conceal another sky nor one earth
another earth.

A part of the same
sermon

About the Consultative
Committee after the death of Umar ibn al-Khattab

Someone (1)
said to me, "O' son of Abi Talib, you are eager for the
caliphate." Then I told him:

"Rather, you are,
by Allah, more greedy, although more remote, while I am more
suited as well as nearer. I have demanded it as my right, while
you are intervening between me and it, and you are turning my face
from it." When I knocked at his ears with arguments among the
crowd of those present he was startled as if he was stunned not
knowing what reply to give me about it.

O' my Allah! I seek
Thy succour against the Quraysh and those who are assisting them,
because they are denying me (the rights of) kinship, have lowered
my high position, and are united in opposing me in the matter (of
the caliphate) which is my right, and then they said, "Know
that the rightful thing is that you have it and also that you may
leave it." (2)

A part of the same
sermon

Describing the people
of Jamal

They (Talhah,
az-Zubayr and their supporters) came out dragging the wife of the
Messenger of Allah (the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him
and his descendants) just as a maidslave is dragged for sale. They
took her to Basrah where those two (Talhah and az-Zubayr) put
their own women in their houses but exposed the wife of the
Messenger of Allah to themselves and to others in the army in
which there was not a single individual who had not offered me his
obedience and sworn to me allegiance quite obediently, without any
compulsion.

Here in Basrah they
approached my governor and treasurers of the public treasury and
its other inhabitants. They killed some of them in captivity and
others by treachery. By Allah, even if they had wilfully killed
only one individual from among the Muslims without any fault, it
would have been lawful for me to kill the whole of this army
because they were present in it but did not disagree with it nor
prevented it by tongue or hand, not to say that they killed from
among the Muslims a number equal to that with which they had
marched on them.

(1).
On the occasion of the Consultative Committee Sad ibn Abi Waqqas
repeated to Amir al-mu'minin what Caliph Umar had said in his
last hours namely that "O' Ali, you are very greedy for the
position of caliphate," and Ali replied that, "He who
demands his own right cannot be called greedy; rather greedy is he
who prevents the securing of the right and tries to grab it
despite being unfit for it."

There is no doubt that
Amir al-mu'minin considered the Caliphate to be his right, and
demanded his right. The demand for a right does not dispel a right
so that it may be put forth as an excuse for not assigning him the
caliphate, and the demand may be held as a mark of greed. Even if
it was greed, who was not involved in this greed? Was not the pull
between the muhajirun and the ansar the mutual struggle between
the members of the Consultative Committee and the mischief
mongering of Talhah and az-Zubayr the product of this very greed.
If Amir al-mu'minin had been greedy for this position, he would
have stood for it, closing his eyes to the consequences and
results, when Abbas (uncle of the Prophet) and Abu Sufyan pressed
him for (accepting) allegiance, and when, after the third Caliph
people thronged to him for (swearing) allegiance, he should have
accepted their offer without paying any attention to the
deteriorated conditions. But at no time did Amir al-mu'minin take
any step which could prove that he wanted the Caliphate for the
sake of caliphate, but rather his demand for the caliphate was
only with the object that its features should not be altered and
the religion should not become the victim of others' desires, not
that he should enjoy the pleasures of life which could be
attributed to greed.

(2).
Explaining the meaning, Ibn Abi'l-Hadid writes that Amir
al-mu'minin's intention was to say:

They (the Quraysh and
those who are assisting them) were not only content to keep me
away from my right over the caliphate which they have usurped
(from me), but rather claimed that it was their right whether to
give it to me or prevent me from the same; and that I have no
right to argue with them.

Furthermore, the
intention (of Amir al-mu'minin) is that:

If they had not said
that it is right to keep away from the caliphate, it would have
been easy to endure it because this would have, at least, showed
their admitting my right although they were not prepared to
concede it. (Sharh Nahj al-balaghah, vol. 9, p. 306)