Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Sermons
Sermon
25

SERMON 25

When Amir al-mu'minin received
successive news that Muawiyah's men were occupying cities(1)
and his own officers in Yemen namely Ubaydullah ibn Abbas and
Said ibn Nimran came to him retreating after being overpowered by
Busr ibn Abi Artat, he was much disturbed by the slackness of his
own men in jihad and their difference with his opinion. Proceeding
on to the pulpit he said:

Nothing (is left to
me) but Kufah which I can hold and extend (which is in my hand to
play with). (O' Kufah) if this is your condition that whirlwinds
continue blowing through you then Allah may destroy you.

Then he illustrated
with the verse of a poet:
O' Amr! By your good
father's life. I have received only a small bit of fat from this
pot (fat that remains sticking to it after it has been emptied).

Then he continued:

I have been informed
that Busr has overpowered Yemen. By Allah, I have begun thinking
about these people that they would shortly snatch away the whole
country through their unity on their wrong and your disunity (from
your own right), and separation, your disobedience of your Imam in
matters of right and their obedience to their leader in matters of
wrong, their fulfilment of the trust in favour of their master and
your betrayal, their good work in their cities and your mischief.
Even if I give you charge of a wooden bowl I fear you would run
away with its handle.

O' my Allah they are
disgusted of me and I am disgusted of them. They are weary of me
and I am weary of them. Change them for me with better ones and
change me for them with worse one. O' my Allah melt their hearts
as salt melts in water. By Allah I wish I had only a thousand
horsemen of Banu Firas ibn Ghanm (as the poet says):
If you call them the
horsemen would come to you like the summer cloud.

(Thereafter Amir
al-mu'minin alighted from the pulpit):

as-Sayyid ar-Radi
says: In this verse the word "armiyah" is plural of
"ramiyy" which means cloud and "hamim" here
means summer. The poet has particularised the cloud of summer
because it moves swiftly. This is because it is devoid of water
while a cloud moves slowly when it is laden with rain. Such clouds
generally appear (in Arabia) in winter. By this verse the poet
intends to convey that when they are called and referred to for
help they approach with rapidity and this is borne by the first
line "if you call them they will reach you."

(1).
When after arbitration Muawiyah's position was stabilised he
began thinking of taking possession of Amir al-mu'minin's cities
and extend his domain. He sent his armies to different areas in
order that they might secure allegiance for Muawiyah by force. In
this connection he sent Busr ibn Abi Artat to Hijaz and he shed
blood of thousands of innocent persons from Hijaz upto Yemen,
burnt alive tribes after tribes in fire and killed even children,
so much so that he butchered two young boys of Ubaydullah ibn
Abbas the Governor of Yemen before their mother Juwayriyah bint
Khalid ibn Qaraz al-Kinaniyyah.

When Amir al-mu'minin
came to know of his slaughtering and blood shed he thought of
sending a contingent to crush him but due to continuous fighting
people had become weary and showed heartlessness instead of zeal.
When Amir al-mu'minin observed their shirking from war he
delivered this sermon wherein he roused them to enthusiasm and
self respect, and prompted them to jihad by describing before them
the enemy's wrongfulness and their own short-comings. At last
Jariyah ibn Qudamah as-Sadi responded to his call and taking an
army of two thousand set off in pursuit of Busr and chased him out
of Amir al-mu'minin's domain.