Battle of Nahrawan

Imam 'Ali (A.S.) addressing these deviated elements who became popularly known as Khawarij (renegades) because of leaving the ranks of the Commander of the Faithful, says:
I had advised you against this arbitration but you rejected my advice like adversaries and opponents till I turned my ideas in the direction of your wishes. You are a group whose heads are devoid of wit and intelligence. Allah's woe be upon you. I had not put you in any calamity nor wished you harm.72
Ignorance and blind prejudice had however, clouded the brains of the Khawarij. So little was their acquaintance with Islam and so intensely did their hearts burn in the enmity of the Imam that they failed to heed the voice of reason and chose to fight. Imam 'Ali (A.S.) warned them of the consequences of battle'" and the linage they were unwittingly doing to Islam. After victory in the Battle of Nahrawan he still pitied these hapless elements that were immersed in manifest error, and told his followers:
"Do not kill the Khawarij after me, because one who seeks right but does not find it is not like the one who seeks wrong and finds it (Mu'awiyah and his men).'74
This was in brief the trend of enmity with Imam 'Ali (A.S.) and the sinister motives behind them, which manifested on various occasions and in different forms for reasons that totally lack justification.
Notes:
1. Umayyah is said to have been a slave of 'Abd Shams rather than his son. 'Allamah Majlisi has related in Bihar al-Anwar (vol. 8, 383) from Imad al-Din Tabari's Kamil Baha'i that Umayyah was a Byzantine slave of 'Abd Shams and when the latter found him intelligent he freed him and treated him as an adopted child. As was the custom among the pre-Islamic Arabs Umayyah became known as the son of 'Abd Shams similar to the case of Zayd bin Muhammad (S.A.W.), until God revealed the ayah that the Prophet was not the father of any male Arab (33:40).
2. Tarikh-i Ya'qubi, vol. 2, p. 13.
3. Sunan al-Nasa 'i, vol. 4, p. 3.
4. Al-Siyar -wa al-Maghaz'i, p. 210.
5. 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Musawi al-Muqarram. Maqtal al-
Husayn, p. 357, Dar al-Kitab al-Islami, Bayrut; Tadhkirah al-
Khawass, Sibt ibn Jawzi, p. 235, Mu'assasah Ahl al-Bayt, Bayrut.
6. Jami ' al-Bayan, vol. 4, p. 240.
7. Ibn Abi al-Hadid, Sharh Nahj al-Balaghah, Vol. 3, p. 107.
8. Tashayyu ' dar Masir-i Tarikh, part I.
9. Nahj al-Balaghah, Letter no. 17.
10. Imam 'Ali has used the word lathiq which means "one who is attributed to other than one's father". Apart from what I have cited in note no.1, two other instances of doubtful parentage can be pointed out in Mu'awiyah's lineage. The first concerns Harb who was said to be a slave of Umayyah. The Sunni scholar Ibn Abi al-Hadid in his Sharh Nahj al-Balaghah, has quoted from Abi al- Faraj Isfahani's (himself of Umayyad descent) book al-Aghani that Mu'awiyah enquired from the Arab genealogist Di'bil whether he had seen Abd al-Mutallib and he replied in the affirmative. He enquired about his personality and was told that 'Abd al-Mutallib was noble, handsome and a man of broad forehead with his face bearing the brightness of Prophethood. Then he enquired whether he had seen Umayyah and how was his appearance? Di'bil replied that when he saw him he was weak-bodied, bent in stature and blind in the eyes. He was always led by his slave. Mu'awiyah said it was Umayyah's son Harb, to which Di'bil retorted: You say so, but the Quraysh only know that he (Harb) was his slave.
The second doubt concerns Mu'awiyah himself, who to quote Ibn Abi al-Hadid, was the son of Hind, a woman notorious for her loose and immoral life. The Sunni scholar Zamakhshari in Rabi ' al- Abrar does not believe that Mu'awiyah was the son of Abi Sufyan and has attributed his parentage to four persons. God knows best.
11. Al-Bada' wa al-Tarikh, vol. 2, p. 145.
12. Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 131.
13. Ibid, Sermon 37.
14. Ahmad bin Hanbal, Musnad.
15. Hijrat, the Holy Qur'an, al-Baqarah 2:207.
16. Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 104.
17. The Battle of Uhud.
18. The Prophet took the infant 'Ali (a) into his arms when his mother stepped out of the Ka 'bah after his birth.
19. He performed the last rites of the Prophet.
20. Hakim Nayshaburi, Mustadrak-al-Sahihayn, vol. 2, p. 241.
21. Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 3.
22. Ibid.. Sermon 3.
23. Ibid., Sermon 3.
24. Ibid., Sermon 92.
25. Ibid, Sermon 3.
26. Ibid., Letter 64.
27. Ibid., Letter 28.
28. Ibid., Sermon 146.
29. Ibid., Sermon 32.
30. Ibid., Sermon 224.
31 .Ibid., Sermon 175.
32. Al-Tabari, Abu Ja'far, Tarikh al-Muluk wa al-Rusul, vol.
2, p. 580.
33. Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 27.
34. Ibid., Sermon 224.
35. Ibid., Sermon 15.
36. Ibid., Maxim no. 236.
37. Ibid., Maxim no. 77.
38. Najh al-Balaghah, for instance the epistle to Malik al-Ashtar on his appointment as governor o Egypt.
39. Ibid., Letter no. 5, to the governor of Azerbaijan, Ash'ath
bin Qays.
40. Ibid., Maxim no. 289.
41.lbid., Sermon 192.
42. Ibid., Letter no. 10.
43. Many a roughneck infidel of Arabia including the kinsmen of Mu'awiyah fell to his flashing twin-bladed sword (Dhu'l-Fiqar). But the Imam's sword was not naked aggression against anyone who came against him. He did not kill those who sought clemency and repented of their error, neither did he pursue the fugitive, nor those who resorted to indecent acts during combat. An example in this regard is the case of 'Amr ibn 'Abdawad who spat at him after being felled to the ground during the Battle of Khandaq. Imam 'Ali (A.S.) instantly withdrew and allowed his fallen opponent to get to his feet since he did not want his personal feelings to interfere with the course of selfless jihad in the way of Allah. When 'Amr refused to yield and renewed the combat the Imam made short work of him this time in equal combat. Another instance which stands out most vividly is the disrobing of 'Amr ibn 'As during Siffin out of fear of imminent death. The Imam turned his face away and allowed his shameless antagonist to flee the battlefield.
Another noteworthy point of Imam Ali's bravery is his conversation with his general Malik al-Ashtar when the latter after the Battle of Laylah al-Harir during the Siffin War felt proud that he had equalled the Imam's art of swordsmanship. Malik was reminded that he had killed whoever came in his way while the sword of the Imam had spared the life of those in whose seed true believers were to be born even seventy generations later.
44. Nahj al-Balaghah, Maxim no. 147.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., Sermon 189.
47. Ibid., Sermon 185.
48. Ibid., Sermon 200.
49. Ibid., Sermon 169.
50. Sermon 6.
51.Sermon50.
52. Sermon 3.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Sermon 137.
56. Sermon 71.
57. A man fearful of battle would not have won single-handed such crucial encounters in the early days of Islam as the Battles of Badr, Khandaq, Khaybar, Hunayn, etc. And he showed his valour in this combats after the antagonists had spurned his invitation to accept Islam.
58. If Imam 'Ali (A.S.) was scared of death as his opponents
alleged, he would not have risked his life to sleep on the Prophet's bed on the night of Hijrah when would-be assassins had surrounded the abode of divine revelation. Neither would he have stood steadfast beside the Prophet during the Battle of Uhud when most of the companions of the Prophet (including those who became caliphs afterwards) fled the battlefield for their dear lives the moment a detachment of infidel forces under the command of Khalid ibn Walid launched a surprise attack on the Muslims.
59. Sermon 55.
60. Ibid.
61. Sermon 27.
62. Letter no. 28 (In answer to Mu'awiyah's accusation Imam
'Ali (A.S.) says: "Then you have recalled my position vis-à-vis 'Uthman and in this matter an answer is due to you because of your kinship with him. So (now tell me) who of us was more inimical towards 'Uthman and who did more to bring about his killing? Who offered him his support but he made him sit down and stopped him (from helping) or who was that whom he called for help but he turned his face from him and drew his death near him till his fate overtook him...")
63. Sermon 164.
64. Sermon 3.
65. Letter no. 10 (The Imam refuting Mu'awiyah's baseless accusation says: "...You think you have come out seeking to avenge 'Uthman's blood. Certainly you know how 'Uthman's blood was shed. If you want to really avenge it, avenge it there...") 66. Sermon 5, (When Abi Sufyan, hearing that Abi Bakr was chosen caliph, approached Imam 'Ali (A.S.) and offered the military services of his clan in order to make a bid for his usurped right, he was told: "Steer clear through the waves of mischief by boats of deliverance, turn away from the path of dissension...It (the aspiration for the caliphate) is like turbid water or like a morsel that would suffocate the person who swallows it..-If I speak out they would call me greedy towards power but if I keep quiet they would say I was afraid of death...By Allah the son of Abi Talib is more familiar with death than an infant with the breast of its mother. I have hidden knowledge, if I disclose it you will start trembling like ropes in deep wells) can such a person be power-thirsty?
67. Sermon 6.
68. Sermon 169.
69. Sermon 205.
70. Sermon 4.
71. Sermon 122.
72. Sermon 36.
73. Ibid.
74. Sermon 61.
75. It speaks of the radiant nature of Imam 'Ali (A.S.) that he continues to shine as a beacon of guidance for humanity despite the fact that his wretched enemies, particularly Mu'awiyah and the Umayyads, had spared no effort to taint his personality. For decades after his martyrdom the Umayyads ordered the cursing of the Imam from pulpits throughout the Muslim lands, persecuted his followers and massacred his descendants, but it is the Prophet's cousin who continues to rule hearts while eternal shame is the lot of his opponents.

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