Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Sermons
Sermon
44

SERMON 44

When Masqalah(1)
ibn Hubayrah ash-Shaybani fled to Muawiyah because he had
purchased some prisoners of Banu Najiyah from an executive of Amir
al-mu'minin, but when he demanded the price the latter avoided and
ran to Syria, Amir al-mu'minin said:

Allah may be bad to
Masqalah. He acted like the noble but fled away like a slave.
Before his admirer could speak (about him) he silenced him and
before his eulogist could testify to his good deeds he closed his
mouth. If he had stayed behind we would have taken from him what
he could easily pay and waited for the balance till his money
increased.

(1).
When after Arbitration the Kharijites rose, a man of Bani Najiyah
from them named al-Khirrit ibn Rashid an-Naji stood up for
instigating people and set off towards al-Mada'in with a group
killing and marauding. Amir al-mu'minin sent Ziyad ibn Khasafah
with three hundred men to check him. When the two forces met at
al-Mada'in they attacked each other with swords. Only one
encounter or so had taken place when the gloom of evening
prevailed and the battle had to be stopped. When morning appeared
Ziyad's men noticed that five dead bodies of the Kharijites were
lying and they themselves had cleared off the battlefield. Seeing
this Ziyad set off for Basrah along with his men. There he came to
know that the Kharijites had gone to Ahwaz. Ziyad did not move
onwards for paucity of force and informed Amir al-mu'minin of it.
Amir al-mu'minin called back Ziyad and sent Maqil ibn Qays
ar-Riyah'i with two thousand experienced combatants towards Ahwaz
and wrote to the governor of Basrah Abdullah ibn Abbas to send
two thousand swordsmen of Basrah for the help of Maqil.
Consequently, the contingent from Basrah also joined them at Ahwaz
and after proper organisation they got ready for attacking the
enemy. But al-Khirrit marched on along with his men to the hills
of Ramhurmuz. These people also followed him and overtook him near
these hills. Both arrayed their forces and started attacking each
other. The result of this encounter was also that three hundred
and seventy Kharijites were killed in the battlefield while the
rest ran away. Maqil informed Amir al-mu'minin of his performance
and of the enemy's running away when Amir al-mu'minin directed him
to chase them and so to shatter their power that they should not
be able to raise heads again. On receipt of this order he moved on
and overtook him on the coast of the Persian gulf where al-Khirrit
had by persuasion secured the co-operation of the people and
enlisting men from here and there, had collected a considerable
force. When Maqil reached there, he raised the flag of peace and
announced that those who had collected from here and there should
get away. They would not be molested. The effect of this
announcement was that save for his own community all others
deserted him. He organised those very men and commenced the battle
but valorous combatants of Basrah and Kufah displayed such
excellent use of swords that in a short time one hundred and
seventy men of the insurgents were killed while an-Numan ibn
Suhban ar-Rasib'i encountered al-Khirrit (ibn Rashid an-Naji) and
eventually felled him and killed him. Soon upon his fall the enemy
lost ground and they fled away from the battlefield. Thereafter
Maqil collected all the men, women and children from their camps
at one place. From among them those who were Muslims were released
after swearing of allegiance. Those who had turned heretics were
called upon to resume Islam. Consequently except one old Christian
all others secured release by accepting Islam and this old man was
killed. Then he took with him those Christians of Bani Najiyah who
had taken part in this revolt together with their families. When
Maqil reached Ardashir Khurrah (a city of Iran) these prisoners
wailed and cried, before its governor Masqalah ibn Hubayrah
ash-Shaybani and beseeched humiliatively to do something for their
release. Masqalah sent word to Maqil through Dhuhl ibn al-Harith
to sell these prisoners to him. Maqil agreed and sold those
prisoners to him for five hundred thousand Dirhams and told him to
dispatch the price immediately to Amir al-mu'minin. He said that
he was sending the first instalment at once and the remaining
instalments would also be sent soon. When Maqil met Amir
al-mu'minin he related the whole event before him. Amir
al-mu'minin ratified this action and waited for the price for some
time, but Masqalah observed such deep silence as if nothing was
due from him. At last Amir al-mu'minin sent a messenger to him and
sent him word to either send the price or to come himself. On Amir
al-mu'minin's order he came to Kufah and on demand of the price
paid two hundred thousand Dirhams but to evade the balance went
away to Muawiyah's who made him the governor of Tabarastan. When
Amir al-mu'minin came to know all this he spoke these words (as in
this sermon). Its sum total is that, "If he had stayed we
would have been considerate to him in demanding the price and
would have waited for improvement of his financial condition, but
he fled away like slaves after displaying a showy act. Talk about
his high perseverance had just started when people began to
discuss his baseless and lowliness."