لطفا منتظر باشید ...
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.
Return to Table of
Contents.Forward to Sermon 26.Back to Sermon 24.
