لطفا منتظر باشید ...
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 who
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.
.Forward to Sermon 197.Back to Sermon 195.
