Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

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Sermon
39

SERMON 39

In disparagement of those who
shrink from fighting

I am faced with men
who do not obey when I order and do not respond when I call them.
May you have no father! (Woe to you!) What are you waiting for to
rise for the cause of Allah? Does not faith join you together, or
sense of shame rouse you? I stand among you shouting and I am
calling you for help, but you do not listen to my word, and do not
obey my orders, till circumstances show out their bad
consequences. No blood can be avenged through you and no purpose
can be achieved with you. I called you for help of your brethren
but made noises like the camel having pain in stomach, and became
loose like the camel of thin back. Then a wavering weak contingent
came to me from amongst you: "as if they are being led to
death and they are only watching." (1)
(Qur'an, 8:6)

as-Sayyid ar-Radi
says: Amir al-mu'minin's word "mutadha'ib" means
"mudtarib" (i.e. moved or troubled), as they say
"tadha'abat ar-rih" (i.e. the winds blow in troubled
manner). Similarly the wolf is called "dhi'b" because of
its troubled movement.

(1).
Muawiyah sent a contingent of two thousand soldiers under
an-Numan ibn Bashir to assault Aynu't-Tamr. This place was a
defence base of Amir al-mu'minin near Kufah whose incharge was
Malik ibn Kab al-Arhabi. Although there were a thousand
combatants under him, but at the moment only hundred men were
present there. When Malik noticed the offensive force advancing he
wrote to Amir al-mu'minin for help. When Amir al-mu'minin received
the message he asked the people for his help but only three
hundred men got ready as a result of which Amir al-mu'minin was
much disgusted and delivered this sermon in their admonition. When
Amir al-mu'minin reached his house after delivering the sermon
Adi ibn Hatim at-Ta'i came and said, "O' Amir al-mu'minin a
thousand men of Banu Tayyi' are under me. If you say I shall send
them off." Amir al-mu'minin said, "It does not look nice
that people of one tribe only should meet the enemy. You prepare
your force in the Valley of an-Nukhaylah." Accordingly he
went there and called people to jihad, when besides Banu Tayyi'
one thousand other combatants also assembled. They were still
preparing to set off when word reached from Malik ibn Kab that
there was no need for help as he had repulsed the enemy.

The reason of this was
that Malik had sent off Abdullah ibn Hawalah al-Azdi hastily to
Qarazah ibn Kab al-Ansari and Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym al-Azdi so that
if there was delay in the arrival of support from Kufah he could
get help from here in time. Abdullah went to both, but got no
help from Qarazah. However, Mikhnaf ibn Sulaym got ready fifty
persons under Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mikhnaf and they reached there
near evening. Upto that time the two thousand men (of the enemy)
had not been able to subdue the hundred men of Malik. When
an-Numan saw these fifty men he thought that their forces had
started coming in so he fled away from the battlefield. Even in
their retreat Malik attacked them from rear and killed three of
their men.