27. Martyrdom
When the Seceders were annihilated one of the companions of the Imam said to him: "Ameer Al-Mumineen the Seceders have perished completely." The Imam said: "No by God they are still sperms in the bodies of men and wombs of women. Whenever a "horn" of them appears it will be cut off until their last generation becomes thieves and robbers."
The Imam was not deceived by his victory against the Seceders. He did not believe that their death meant the death of their doctrines or that it represented a drastic solution to their problem. He was fully aware that doctrines and principles do not die by the death of their innovators. His combat of the Seceders was nothing but a temporary measure the purpose of which was to slow their speedy movement and to lighten their growing danger. His combat of the Seceders was only a mission with which the Messenger commissioned him and made clear to him its details descriptions and marks more than two decades before its time.
The Messenger commissioned the Imam ‘Ali with that mission only because it is a sacred duty which represents the defense of the freedom of belief and the defense of the innocent lives and blood which the Seceders went on shedding for no reason except that their victims did not believe in their falsehood.
The Imam himself with all of what the Holy Messenger said about him of being the ally of the truth did not believe that he should force the Muslims to share with him his opinions or to follow the right road.
On the contrary he used to excuse his opponents and acknowledge their righ in the freedom of thinking. He is the one who said: "Kill not the Seceders after me; the one who sought the truth and missed it is not like the one who sought the falsehood and acquired it."
Had the Seceders believed in their wrong doctrines without attempting to impose it by force on the rest of the Muslims the Imam would have left them alone and this was his wish. But they prohibited the Muslims to speak the truth or to believe in it. They forced them to believe in the falsehood and to take it as a religion. They went on killing people because they did not believe in their innovation.
The Battle of Nahrawan succeeded in stopping the speed of the movement and its growing danger against the Muslims. But as the Imam expected it did not succeed in eliminating that danger. Nor did it succeed in restoring the determination of the Imam's army to fight the unjust Umayyad party.
The Imam tried after the Battle of Nahrawan to go directly to the land of Syria to face Muawiya in a decisive battle. But the army and its leaders expressed their desire to camp at Nukhailah near Kufa for a short rest through which they could regain their strength and renew their weapons and rest their animals of transportation.
As they camped at Al-Nukhailah they started to desert their camp gradually and secretly entering into Kufa as groups and individuals and they never came back. The Imam was finally forced to enter Kufa urging them day after day to go and face their enemies but they hated to go and they remained at their homes.
It is not difficult to know the causes of the failures of these people to poerform their duties. The righteous men who were the brains of the revolution such as Ammar Ibn Yasir Malik Al-Ashtar Khuzaimah Ibn Thabit (the man of two testimonies) Abdullah Ibn Badeel and Hashim Al-Mirqal had already died at the battle of Siffin or outside that battle.
These righteous men were highly enlightened. They were concerned with the future of Islam and ready to sacrifice for the sake of the truth their wealth and their lives. They were the links which used to tie the masses of the people with the Imam and inform them of his right and urge them to obey him and show them by their own action the living examples of obedience and sincerity towards his principles.
They were always the first to respond to his call seeing in him the true representative of the Holy Prophet in word and deed. These righteous people had already met their Lord. They were replaced by people such as Ashaath whose hearts were not occupied by faith or by men such as Hijr Ibn Uday and Uday Ibn Hatam who did not lack faith or sincerity but lacked the wide influence and the power of attracting the masses.
The masses of people who fought with the Imam in three wars had already paid with the blood of their sons and brothers. They became tired of fighting and inclined to an easier and peaceful life without having foresight which makes them concerned with the future and worried about Islam.
The crisis of the Seceders brought about division in the camp of the Imam and destroyed the unity of his followers. The Seceders were annihilated at the Battle of Nahrawan but their death was not expected to raise the morale of the army which annihilated them.
They were the sons the brothers and the friends who recently had been the comrades of the soldiers of the Imam and his supporters against his enemy. For a Kufite or a Bassrite to kill another Kufite or Bassrite was not expected to generate in his mind a feeling of victory. It would rather generate only sadness and a feeling of loss.
The Battle of Nahrawan did not bring an end to the propaganda activity of the Seceders; nor did it bring their bloody action to a complete stop. They spread their propaganda among people turning them against the Imam.
Whenever a group of them felt strong enough to challenge the Imam's authority they came out carrying their swords on their shoulders spreading panic horror and death among innocent people.
Ashras Ibn Ouf Al-Shaibani along with a group parted with the Imam. Then he was followed by Hilal Ibn Alqamah then Ash-hab Ibn Bishr then Sa-eed Ibn Nufail Al-Taimi.
After these Khirreet Ibn Rashid from Bani Najeyah and others followed the same method.
Whenever a group of these people defied the Imam he was forced to send a regiment or regiments to fight them.
All that destroyed the morale of the Imam's camp and its unity as it destroyed its determination to fight. By this the military and political initiative moved from the hand of the Imam to the hand of Muawiya.
As Muawiya knew of the destruction of the unity in the camp of the Imam he decided to invade Egypt and occupy it knowing that people of Iraq will not respond to the Imam's call if he calls upon them to send an army for its defense.
Muawiya accomplished what he wanted and the people of Iraq received the news of the invasion of Egypt the death of its governor Muhammad Ibn Abu Bakr and the burning of his body as if the matter did not concern them at all.
Success brings success and failure brings failure. Success made Muawiya more ambitious. He tried to usurp Basra from the Imam because he knew that the majority of its people were still holding grudges against him for what they lost in the Battle of Basra. Muawiya sent Abdullah Al-Hadrami to Basra to try to turn its people against the Imam. He did not succeed in his mission and was killed but only after he generated division among the people of Basra.
Muawiya sent Naaman Ibn Bashir (a companion of the Prophet) with a thousand soldiers then Sufyan Ibn Ouf with six thousand then Al-Dhahak Ibn Quais with three thousand to various areas of Iraq for invasions by which they spread destruction and death. Most of the time these invaders went back without meeting from the people of Iraq more than token resistance. Muawiya sent regiments to Yemen and Hijaz. They did to the Muslims there what non-Muslims would hesitate to do. The invading regiments went back successfully without being hurt.
The Imam used to gather people time after time urging them to defend themselves. Sometimes he spoke to them harshly but the Iraqis had been weakened and lost their will to fight. One time he spoke to them in the following manner: "Which country after your country shall you defend and with which Imam after me shall you fight?
The deceived one is the one you have deceived. And whoever had you in his party certainly had the losing party. I lost my hope in your help and I would not believe your words.
May God separate between me and you..." "You shall meet after me a general humiliation and an annihilating sword along with a discrimination against you which the unjust ruler will make a rule. He will divide your community... and bring poverty to your homes and you will wish soon that you had seen me and helped me.
You shall know the truth of what I say. May God put the unrighteous out of His Mercy." It would not do any good to blame Muawiya for corrupting and dividing people and committing incalculable crimes by killing people and destroying their properties or purchasing their conscience. The Imam knew that Muawiya and his relatives were and continued to be the enemies of truth and its message. Muawiya was a seeker of worldly affairs and a man of falsehood. The Imam did not expect him to do but what he was doing.
Only the followers of the Imam were to be blamed.They were expected to be the means for straightening the crookedness of the nation and re-directing it towards a future in which the light of Islam goes high and spreads throughout the world and leads all nations.
Instead of being the Imam's solution to the problems of the nation the Kufites became an additional problem to him and to the nation. In one of his addresses the Imam told them the following words: "My aim was to medicate the problem of the nation through you but you have become my main problem.
God the fighters of this disease have gotten tired..."
The falsehood certainly acquired victory through the failure of the Kufites their disobedience and divisions.
The Kufites did not only lose their spiritual values but the value of their worldly life and honorable future on the face of this earth as well. Their enemy whom they fought violently at the beginning and wanted to strangulate and worked for his annihilation was not expected to be merciful with them after they cowardly turned their back to him in their retreat.
The Imam told them: "You shall experience after me a comprehensive humiliation a destructive sword and a constant discrimination against you. Your enemy shall be your ruler. He shall divide you bereave you and impoverish you." These words which may arouse a coward and awaken a comatose did not move the Kufites nor did it succeed in awakening them.
He told them again: "How amazing your attitude is. It paralyzes the heart puzzles the mind and defies the human understanding to see the determination of Muawiya's party supporting their falsehood and your failure to support your right. Thus you have become a target constantly being hit and never hitting and invaded but never invading. God is disobeyed and you are satisfied. If I tell you to invade them in the winter you say: The weather is too cold! If I tell you to invade them in the summer you say: This is the heat of the summer; give us respite until the heat ends. If you are afraid of hot and cold weather you will be more afraid of the sword.
"O you who look like men but never truly are... by God you have ruined my strategies through your disobedience. You have filled my heart with anger." Thus the Qureshites said: "Ibn Abu Talib is a brave man but he does not have the know-how to run a war... Who knows about war more than I? Who had experienced war more than I did? By God I entered war before I was twenty years old. And now I have passed sixty. But a disobeyed man cannot substantiate the wisdom of his opinion."
With all the setbacks and problems accumulated in his path the Imam did not lose his determination. His camp caused him to lose the military initiative and imposed upon him an unsuccessful defensive position.
Yet he continued to believe in the possibility of regaining the military initiative and destroying all his enemy's gains by dealing with him decisively. Should the Imam's camp regain its unity Muawiya will not benefit from the occupation of Egypt or winning several skirmishes prior to that decisive battle.
Finally the Imam decided to force those evasive followers of his to take a firm attitude after he despaired of their voluntary co-operation. He tried to put them on the spot and put all of what they had of honor and religion at stake. They either defend all that or they will have a shame which will never be washed.
The Imam wanted to open their eyes to the fact that he has already made a very dangerous decision which he has the power to fulfill because it belongs to his own person. They knew certainly that when he says something he will do it. He is the hero who was never afraid of any sacrifice regardless of its magnitude. He gathered them and told them the following:
"O people you have called upon me by your election to serve and I did not turn you down. You pledged your allegiance to me and I did not ask you to do that. Some challengers confronted me and God took care of them.
They fell on the battlefield in humiliation. There is still a community which is disobedient to God following their selfish interest deviating from truth. They claim what they are not qualified for. If they are told to advance they advance and when they advance they do not know the truth as they know the falsehood. Nor do they fight the wrong as they fight the right."
"I have become tired of talking to you and blaming you. I would like you to make your intention clear to me.
If you are determined to go to our enemy this is what I ask and love. If you are reluctant to do that be frank with me. Let me know your intention so I will form my opinion.
"By God if you do not go with me to your enemy in order to fight them until God judges between us and them (and He is the Best of the Judges) I shall pray God to punish you then I will go to our enemy even if I am not accompanied with more than ten men. Do the riffraff of Damascus and its ignorants have more patience and stronger co-operation for helping the falsehood and assisting the wrong than you have for your truth and right? What happened to you? What is your medicine? Your enemies are like you. If they are killed they will not be resurrected before the Day of Judgment."
By this important declaration the Imam put them face to face with their responsibilities. They believed that he was going to fulfill his decision and he will go to his enemy even if he does not have more than ten persons and they know that he will find more than ten.
They know that if he does that he will meet his death and they will have a shame which they were not ready to accept. Probably some of them feared if the Imam prays to God to punish them God will answer his prayer.
The listeners stood up and spoke well and left him after they showed him that they have decided to help him.
They went to their tribes urging them to fight their enemies. They gained some unity and seemed to be ready to leave ready to confront their enemy after they prepared manpower and supplies to face the forces of heresy anarchy and evil in a decisive battle.
Was that task force really as healthy as it appeared? Did the hearts of the leaders of the army rally behind the truth? Were Ashaath and others like him cured of the disease of hypocrisy? Would some of the leaders of the newly mobilized army conspire with the enemy to deliberately defeat themselves at the battle for bribes necessitating the Imam to enter into a desperate battle in which he will meet his death? Did the Imam believe in their sincerity? History does not give us any clear answer for these questions because the army did not go through that trial.
The Imam met his Lord before the newly mobilized army moved from its camp. History however accuses Ashaath who was among the leaders of that army with being an accomplice in the Imam's assassination.
I am inclined to believe that the events which took place before the mobilization of this army had made the Imam lose his confidence in his followers. He told them on one occasion: "By God I visualize that when the future battle takes place and the fight progresses you will leave Ibn Abu Talib alone and run away"...
The Imam was not a man who threw his words vainly.
His words always conveyed realities which he used to foresee through the light of God. The Imam would not be deceived by the new mobilization. He knew that the gathering included men who subscribe to the Seceders' opinion and others believed for their short-sightedness that victory against Muawiya had become impossible and that the regime of the Imam was coming to its end. People of this kind were always ready to co-operate with the enemies of the Imam.
Of course there were men who were truly sincere but these people were few and their presence would not make the Imam reach his goal and prevent the defeatists from bringing his army to a catastrophe.
the trial of the Imam and his tragedy in this nation were great. He was looking at the truth and seeing it clearly in front of him. He knew that the election which he received reluctantly had put on his shoulders the huge responsibility of trying to bring the Muslim World back to the road of righteousness validating what the Holy Qur'an validates and invalidating what the Holy Qur'an invalidates.
He believed and he was right in what he believed that he was the most entitled to be obeyed after the Holy Prophet. He was to him as Aaron to Moses.
On the other hand he knew the tragic fact: The nation had ignored his right and was divided while it walked in unity and obedience under the banner of men below him in endeavoring for the religion of God and in knowledge and relation to the Holy Prophet.
Then he looked around and found that a portion of those who went along with him have turned against him fighting him and offering all of what they had of power to thwart his efforts. The other portion who stayed with him did not give him obedience except untrue promises and cheap excuses.
The enemy who was about to be defeated and whose falsehood was nearing its end until he resorted to hoisting the Qur'an in order to avoid the danger of annihilation became the man of the hour. He became capable of attacking without being attacked and usurping provinces which were under the Imam's authority.
The enemy does all that not because his followers are more numerous or powerful but because the numerous followers of the Imam had lost their determination and their unity had been destroyed.
The Imam was right when he considered his followers worse to him than his enemies because they were the ones who enabled his enemy by their defeatist attitude to have the upper hand and to become the victorious party.
Thus it was not surprising to see the Imam wishing to part with his followers by death or assassination. On more than one occasion he asked God to separate him from them and make him join people better than them knowing that God will not make him join better than them while he was living on this earth. He knew that this wish would never be realized unless he departed from this world to join his beloved the Messenger of God and his party.
It is amazing that he asked God to do that for him when he saw the Messenger of God in his dream shortly before he was assassinated and after the newly mobilized army was formed for the decisive battle. This was evidence that the Imam believed that his new army will not be able to fulfill its mission because a portion of that army does not have good intentions and that they were with his enemy and not with him.
Ibn Saad in his Tabaqat
Ibn Abdul Barr in his Istee-ab
lbn Al-Athir in Osd Al-Ghab
recorded that Al- Hassan and Al-Hussein reported that Ameer Al-Mumineen (the Imam) told them that he complained to the Messenger of God in his dream saying to him: "O Messenger of God the crookedness and hostility which I have experienced from your nation are amazingly terrible.
The Messenger said to him: Pray to God to punish them." The Imam prayed saying: "My Lord make me join better than these people and give them a leader worse than I."And the prayer of the Imam was answered.
The Fulfilled Promise
Had the Imam expected any good out of the newly mobilized army confident of its reliability and the intention of its leaders he would not have asked the Almighty to make him join better people by expediting his departure from this world.
There was nothing more desirable to the Imam than to reform what was corrupt of the affairs of the Muslims and to avoid the Muslim World what was threatening it at the hands of the future tyrant rulers in order to illuminate the road to the future generations.
Had the Imam been confident of what had been available of force he would have found in it his wish and he would have prayed to the Almighty to prolong his life in order to realize his goal.
Evidently he believed that those who were around him had lost their determination and will for sacrifice. It seems that he felt that a number of the leaders of his army were ready to let him down at the decisive hour and leave him on the battlefield facing thousands of Muawiya's soldiers alone to be killed while his army deserted him.
They had done what is uglier than that at the war of Siffin when they were in a better situation and a bigger determination.
Had this happened the life of the Imam would have ended in a battle in which he would be defeated and deserted. But the Almighty wanted for His beloved servant ‘Ali Ibn Abu Talib not to taste the bitterness of defeat and humility.
He is the sword of God who never was defeated in any battle before. God wanted to move His servant from this world while he is in a dignified state apparently with a powerful state. Thus a huge army was gathered at his command before he met his martyrdom so that he would depart from this world while in power and dignity.
It became clear to the Imam after he went through the most cruel experience that those who wanted evil for the nation were serious in their work and dedicated for reaching their ends while those who used to seek good justice prevalence of truth and the heavenly law were weakened and deteriorated.
The Imam lost all hope in achieving his goals. Seeing all evidence indicating that falsehood is on the rise and that the truth will meet its death the Imam wished that he himself will meet his death before witnessing the death of the truth.
The Imam longed for a long time to meet his martyrdom. It was his greatest wish in life. He was saddened when he did not receive his martyrdom at the Battle of Uhud. He informed the Prophet of his sadness because he was deprived of martyrdom.
The Holy Prophet said to him: "Be cheerful; martyrdom is coming to you." When the following verse was revealed:
"Do people think that they will be left to say that we have believed and they will not be tested? We have tested those who were before them and God surely knows those who were true and those who were liars " The Holy Quran, 29:2-3
The Imam reminded the Prophet of his prophecy concerning his martyrdom. The Prophet re-affirmed his prophecy saying: "It shall be so. How shall your patience be?" The Imam replied: "Messenger of God that is not a place of patience! It is rather a place for cheerfulness and thanks."
The Holy Prophet told him once: "The nation will betray you after me. You shall live according to my precept. Whoever loves you loves me and whoever hates you hates me and this (pointing to the beard of the Imam) shall be reddened from this (pointing to the head of the Imam)."
He told him also along with Ammar Ibn Yasir: "Shall I inform you of the most wicked among mankind?" ‘Ali and Ammar said: "Yes Messenger of God." The Prophet said: "The Red of Thamoud who hamstrung the female camel (of the Prophet Saleh) and the one who hits you on this (pointing to the head of ‘Ali) and makes this (pointing to the beard of ‘Ali) moistened by its blood."
The prophecy was realized on a morning of a day from the month of Ramadan forty years after the Hijrah. The wickedness which does not recognize any boundary motivated a Seceder (called Abdul-Rahman Ibn Muljam an obscure person from a lowly family) to assassinate the Imam ‘Ali the brother minister and successor of the Prophet Muhammad while praying to his Lord in a house of God. Yet the assassin testified by his tongue that there is no God but the Almighty and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
A man with a spark of faith in his heart cannot pass this point from the history without shedding a tear on a martyr who obtained from every virtue its highest degree.
That is the martyr who offered for the sake of his religion and his nation what no other man after the Holy Prophet ever offered of sacrifice. Then the nation for which he offered so much formed an attitude towards him which it may feel ashamed to take towards its worst enemy.
It is difficult for any Muslim that is concerned with the future of the faith of Islam to pass this point of our history without shedding a tear. It is impossible to measure the losses which beset the Muslims and the faith of Islam through the death of this unique leader before he was able to fulfill his goal and his message to a world which was and is still in a great need of that message.
The loss which the Muslims suffered when they missed the Brother and Successor of their Prophet was great and unique in its magnitude. The Muslims never experienced similar to it after the death of the Holy Prophet.
Unequalled Loss
The Muslims who were living at the time of the death of the Imam were unable to measure its magnitude and dimensions and its great consequences. It is worthy to mention two important consequences that took place immediately after the death of the Imam:
Firstly, by the death of the Imam the Muslims lost the clear and pure source of religious information from which they used to obtain the true interpretation of the Holy Qur'an and the authentically reported instructions of the Holy Prophet.
The Holy Prophet was the city of knowledge and ‘Ali was the gate of that city. When the Prophet departed from this world ‘Ali remained the gate of his knowledge and the treasure of his secrets and the heir of his wisdom. Through him the Muslims were able to hear the voice of the Messenger informing them of the genuine Islamic rules in the areas of their disputes.
It is true that a number of the Imam's children and grandchildren had acquired his knowledge and they were capable of providing the Muslims with the interpretation of the Book of God and conveying to them the actual instructions of the Holy Prophet. However the Muslims who refused to follow the Imam himself with all his acknowledged superiority in knowledge were not expected to follow the Imam's offspring.
The Muslims did not try to acquire from the Imam's knowledge what could spare them the problems of difference and divisions; nor did they give him the time or the true opportunity to provide them with what they needed of knowledge.
Therefore the Muslim World was not expected to enable the Imams from his descendants to realize what the Imam himself could not realize. On the contrary these Imams from ‘Ali's children and grandchildren were killed and exiled.
Thus the Muslim World with the lack of clear source of knowledge was forced to adopt various schools in the details of the Islamic Law. Had the Imam been given sufficient time to write and publicize what the Muslim generations needed of knowledge in the Book of God and the instructions of the Holy Prophet the Muslims would not have adopted various schools of jurisprudence.
The End of the Righteous Caliphate
The other immediate consequence which inflicted the Muslims by the death of the Imam was the end of the period of the Righteous Caliphate forever.
Abu Bakr died and ‘Umar was assassinated; then Uthman was assassinated and the righteous caliphate did not end by the death of any of these three Caliphs. But the death of the Imam ‘Ali immediately transferred the Muslim World from a rule led by the Book of God and the precepts of the Holy Prophet to a despotic rule which did not respect the sacred rights and founded itself on shedding the sacred blood spreading falsehood and silencing the voice of truth.
The presence of the Imam was the only barrier between the Umayyads and the establishment of their despotic rule over the provinces of the Muslim World. When he was assassinated their rule became inevitable.
Had the Muslim World given the Imam the opportunity to erect the pillars of his regime for a sufficient time the Righteous Caliphate could have lasted generation after generation. The Muslim generations could have lived under the protection of its enlightened just and generous rule which the human generations so far could not reach.
The Imam among the followers of the Messenger was their most knowledgeable in the Book of Cod and the teachings of the Holy Prophet. He was the wisest among them their closest to the Holy Prophet the most similar to him and most adherent to the Law of God and the instructions of the Holy Prophet. He was also the highest magistrate in the nation the greatest endeavorer in the Way of God and the most determined in enforcing the Divine Law.
Yet the nation in spite of all of the Imam's magnanimity did not obey him. Thus he could not establish the pillars of his regime nor could he fulfill his goals. People were and are still looking at the outcome regardless of the circumstances which may have led to those results. The absence of these achievements was a source of a continuous controversy around his policy.
Most of the students of history believed that the Imam adopted an idealistic policy which could not succeed in a non-ideal society. Had he been less idealistic and more realistic he could have achieved his goal.
Some scholars blame the Imam for his policy in administering the public funds. He insisted on taking the Muslims back to the days of the Holy Prophet when the public funds were distributed among the Muslims equally.
But people at the time he came to power had already been accustomed to the policy of unequal distribution which ‘Umar and Uthman had adopted.
Some scholars blame the Imam for his insistence on dismissing Muawiya. They believe that he could have gained the support of Muawiya if he did not try to dismiss him. Had he done that the war of Siffin would not have taken place and Muawiya would not have challenged his authority.
Others blame him for being too lenient with his opponents. He did not punish them when they declared their opposition to him. Some of these critics accuse the Imam of attempting to rule the nation as a preacher rather than a ruler.
Therefore it would be appropriate to discuss these aspects then list the true factors which led to the absence of what the Imam endeavored for.Therefore it would be appropriate to discuss these aspects then list the true factors which led to the absence of what the Imam endeavored for.
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Author: Mohamad Jawad Chirri
