Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

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Sermon
196

SERMON 196

Amir al-mu'minin's attachment
to the Holy Prophet. The performance of his funeral rites.

Those companions of Muhammad -
the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants - who were
the custodians (of divine messages) know that I never disobeyed Allah or
His Messenger (1) - the peace and blessing of
Allah be upon him and his descendants - at all, and by virtue of the
courage (2) with which Allah honoured me I
supported him with my life on occasions when even the brave turned away
and feet remained behind (instead of proceeding forward).

When the Prophet - the peace
and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants - died his head was
on my chest, and his (last) breath blew over my palms and I passed it over
my face. I performed his (funeral) ablution, may Allah bless him and his
descendants, and the angels helped me. The house and the courtyard were
full of them. One party of them was descending and the other was
ascending. My ears continually caught their humming voice, as they invoked
Allah's blessing on him, till we buried him in his grave. Thus, who can
have greater rights with him than I during his life or after his death?
Therefore depend on your intelligence and make your intentions pure in
fighting your enemy, because I swear by Him who is such that there is no
god but He, that I am on the path of truth and that they (the enemy) are
on the misleading path of wrong. You hear what I say; and I seek Allah's
forgiveness for myself and for you.

(1).
Ibn Abi'l-Hadid has written (in Sharh Nahj al-balaghah, vol. 10, pp.
180-183) that Amir al-mu'minin's saying that he never disobeyed the
commands of the Prophet is a sort of taunt to those who felt no hesitation
in rejecting the Prophet's commands and sometimes even checked him. For
example, when, at the time of the peace of al-Hudaybiyah, the Prophet was
agreeable to negotiate peace with the unbelievers among the Quraysh, one
of the companions became so enraged that he expressed doubts about the
prophethood of the Prophet whereupon Abu Bakr had to say:

Woe be to you! Keep clinging to
him. He is certainly Allah's Messenger and He will not ruin him.

The introduction to the oath,
'inna', and the word of emphasis 'lam' which are used here to create
conviction about the prophethood shows that the addressee had gone farther
than mere doubt, because these words of emphasis are employed only when
the stage of denial has been reached. However, if belief required absence
of doubt, the presence of doubt must imply defect in the belief, as Allah
says:

The believers are only those
ho believe in Allah and His Messenger, they doubt not thereafter,...
(Qur'an, 49:15)

Similarly, when the Prophet
intended to say the funeral prayers of Ubayy ibn Salul the same companion
said to him, "How do you intend to seek forgiveness for this Chief of
hypocrites?" And he even drew away the Prophet by catching the skirt
(of his shirt). Then the Prophet had to say, "No act of mine is
beside the command of Allah". In the same way the Prophet's command
to accompany the force of Usamah ibn Zayd was ignored. The greatest of all
these insolences was displayed in connection with the Prophet's intention
to write down his advice as to when such a blame was laid against the
Prophet which proves an absence of belief in the commands of the shariah,
and creates a doubt about each command as to whether it is based on divine
revelation or (Allah may forbid) just the result of mental disorder.

(2).
Who can deny that the ever-successful lion of Allah, Ali ibn Abi Talib
(p.b.u.h.) shielded the Prophet on every critical occasion and performed
the duty of protecting him by dint of the courage and valour gifted to him
by Allah. The first occasion of risking his life was when the unbelievers
from the Quraysh decided finally to kill the Prophet and Ali slept on his
bed surrounded by enemies and under the direct peril of swords, whereby
the enemies were not able to succeed in their aims. Then, in those battles
where the enemies used to attack the Prophet together and where the feet
of even the reputed heroes could not stand firm, Amir al-mu'minin remained
steadfast with the banner (of Islam) in his hand. Abd al-Barr and
al-Hakim writes about it:

Ibn Abbas says that Ali had
four qualities which no one else possessed. Firstly, he was the first
among Arabs and non-Arabs to have said prayers with the Messenger of
Allah. Secondly, he always had the banner of Islam in his hand in every
battle. Thirdly, when people ran away from the Prophet, Ali remained
with him; and fourthly it was he who gave the Prophet his funeral
ablution and laid him in his grave. (al-Istiab, vol. 3, p. 1090;
al-Mustadrak ala as-sahihayn vol. 3, p. 111)

A study of the holy wars of
Islam fought in the Prophet's days leaves no doubt that, except for the
battle of Tabuk in which Amir al-mu'minin did not partake, all other
battles bear testimony to his fine performance and all the successes are
due to his valour. Thus, in the battle of Badr seventy unbelievers were
killed, half of whom were killed by Ali's sword. In the battle of Uhud,
when victory changed into defeat as a result of the Muslims engaging
themselves in the collection of booty, and they fled away under the sudden
attack of the enemy, Amir al-mu'minin remained steadfast, taking jihad to
be a religious obligation, and displayed such conspicuous performance in
support and defence of the Prophet that the Prophet too acknowledged it
and also the Angel. Again, in the battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq), the
Prophet was accompanied by three thousand combatants, but none dared face
Amr ibn Abdawadd. At last, Amir al-mu'minin killed him and saved the
Muslims from ignominy. In the battle of Hunayn, the Muslims were proud of
their number because they were ten thousand while the unbelievers were
only four thousand, but here too they leapt onto the booty, as a
consequence of which the unbelievers gained the opportunity, and pounced
upon them. Bewildered with this sudden attack the Muslims fled away as the
Holy Qur'an says:

Most certainly did Allah help
you in many (battle) fields, and on the day of Hunayn, when made you
vain your great number, but they availed you nothing, and was straitened
the earth against you with all its extensiveness, then ye turned back in
retreat. (9:25)

On this occasion also, Amir
al-mu'minin was steady like a rock, and eventually, with Allah's support,
victory was achieved.