ومن كلام له (عليه السلام)
قاله لمّا اضطرب عليه أصحابه في أمر الحكومة
أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَزَلْ أَمْري مَعَكُمْ عَلَى مَا
أُحِبُّ، حَتَّى نَهَكَتْكُمُ الْحَرْبُ، وَقَدْ، وَاللهِ
أَخَذَتْ مِنْكُمْ وَتَرَكَتْ، وَهِيَ لِعَدُوِّكُمْ أَنْهَكُ.
لَقَدْ كُنْتُ أَمْسِ أَمِيراً، فَأَصْبَحْتُ الْيَوْمَ مَأْمُوراً!
وَكُنْتُ أَمْسِ نَاهِياً، فَأَصْبَحْتُ الْيَوْمَ مَنْهِيّاً! وَقَدْ أَحْبَبْتُمُ
الْبَقَاءَ، وَلَيْسَ لِي أَنْ أَحْمِلَكُمْ عَلَى مَا تَكْرَهُونَ!
SERMON 207
When Amir al-mu'minin's companions
expressed displeasure about his attitude concerning Arbitration, (1)
he said:
O' people, matters between me and you went as I
wished till war exhausted you. By Allah, it has overtaken some of you and left others, and
has completely weakened your enemy.
Till yesterday I was giving orders but today I am
being given orders, and till yesterday I was dissuading people (from wrong acts) but today
I am being dissuaded. You have now shown liking to live in this world, and it is not for
me to bring you to what you dislike.
(1).
When the surviving forces of the Syrians lost ground and were ready to run away from the
field Mu`awiyah changed the whole phase of the battle by using the Qur'an as his
instrument of strategy, and succeeded in creating such a division among the Iraqis that,
despite Amir al-mu'minin's efforts at counselling, they were not prepared to take any
forward step, but insisted on stopping the war, whereupon Amir al-mu'minin too had to
agree to arbitration. Among these people some had actually been duped and believed that
they were being asked to abide by the Qur'an but there were others who had become weary of
the long period of war and had lost courage. Then people got a good opportunity to stop
the war, and so they cried hoarse for its postponement. There were others who had
accompanied Amir al-mu'minin because of his temporal authority but did not support him by
heart, nor did they aim at victory for him. There were some people who had expectations
with Mu`awiyah, and had started attaching hopes to him for this, while there were some who
were, from the very beginning, in league with him. In these circumstances and with this
type of the army it was really due to Amir al-mu'minin's political ability and competence
of military control and administration that he carried the war up to this stage, and if
Mu`awiyah had not adopted this trick there could have been no doubt in Amir al-mu'minin's
victory because the military power of the Syrian forces had been exhausted and defeat was
hovering over its head. In this connection, Ibn Abi'l-Hadid writes:
Malik al-Ashtar had reached
Mu`awiyah and grabbed him by the neck. The entire might of the Syrians had been smashed.
Only so much movement was discernible in them as remains in the tail of a lizard which is
killed, but the tail continues hopping right and left. (Sharh Nahj al-balaghah, vol. 11,
pp.30-31)
Forward to Sermon 208.
Back to Sermon 206.