Nahjul Balagha Letters (33-43)

IMAM ALI (AS) IBN ABI TALIB (AS)

Letter 33

The following letter was written to Qutham bin Abbas, the brother of Abdullah bin Abbas, who was the Governor of Imam Ali (a) in the provinceof Hijaz.

I have received confidential reports from theWestern State saying that certain people have been sent from Syria and they are pretending that they are at Makkah for Hajj pilgrimage but the duty assigned to them was to carry on propaganda and create disloyalty against me. These people have no eyes for truth and no ears for the Orders of Allah and sayings of the Holy Prophet (s). They are trying to reach the path of religion through wrong ways and to acquire worldly wealth and pleasure under the pretence of religious activities. Not only this but they are also trying in various ways to persuade noble and pious persons to sell their salvation to the possession of pleasures of this life. They are serving their vicious ruler by sinning against Allah and man.

Remember that Divine Reward is for those who earn it with their sincere and good deeds and punishment is the lot of men who deserve it by their evil activities. Therefore, you should carry on your duties like an experienced, wise and faithful officer, like an officer who obeys his ruler, guards his interest and keeps himself well-informed of the affairs of the State. Do not act in a way that you may in future feel sorry for your actions and may have to offer excuses and apologies. Do not get arrogant when times prove favourable to you and do not show weakness when your duties require you to be strong and resolute.

Letter 34

Muhammad, son of Abu Bakr (the First Caliph) was the favourite disciple and companion of Imam Ali (a). Imam Ali (a) had treated and trained him like his own child and had appointed him as the Governor of Egypt. Later on Imam Ali (a) called him back from Egypt and sent Maalik Ashtar as the Governor. Muhammad thought that he was deposed and felt sad about it. When Imam Ali (a) came to know of this he wrote the following letter to him.

I am given to understand that you feel sorry and aggrieved because I called you back and sent Maalik in your place as the Governor of Egypt. The fact of the case is that I did not bring about this change because I found you weak and inefficient and wanted to make you more energetic and strong but because as a change I wanted to send you to a place where the work was easier and which you would find more congenial.

Undoubtedly the man whom I sent as the Governor of Egypt was very faithful to us and very severe against our enemies. May Allah bless him as he finished the days of life assigned to him and left this world. He died in such a state that we were pleased with him. May Allah grant him His highest reward.

You come out of your house, armed with superior intelligence and the best armours, ready to face the enemies. Be ready to fight those who fight against you. Advise the people to obey the orders of the Lord and ask His help as much and as often as you can so that He may grant success to you in your important affairs and may help you in your difficulties.

Letter 35

When Muhammad bin Abi Bakr was killed in Egypt by the guerrillas of Mu’awiya through disloyalty of his (Muhammad's) own companions and officers, Imam Ali (a) felt sad and wrote the following letter to Ibn Abbas.

Ibn Abbas! Muhammad, (may his soul rest in peace), died as a martyr and Egypt has fallen in the hands of the enemies. I beseech the Reward of Allah for the sorrow I feel and the grief I suffer on account of the martyrdom of this young man who was like a son to me. He loved me. He was faithful to me. So far as the defense of the Islamic State is concerned he was like a sharp sword and an impregnable fort.

Long before this deplorable event I had issued orders to the Heads of various provinces and to the people of Kufa to reach him or send help to him when he calls for it. I had repeated these orders. Some went to his help but half-heartedly, others started submitting excuses, while some sent false reports of important engagements and did not co-operate with him.

I feel disgusted and pray to Allah to relieve me of the society of such faithless and worthless people.

I swear by Allah that had I no desire of dying as a martyr, and had I not been ready for my death awaiting night and day, I would not have liked to live amongst them even for a day and I would not have come out with them to fight against the enemies of Allah and Islam.

Letter 36

The following is a letter written by Imam Ali (a) to his brother Aqil. It so happened that Zahaak bin Qays Fahri was sent to Makkah by Mu’awiya with a force of guerrillas to ravage the city. Imam Ali (a) had sent Hujr bin Adi Kindi to defend the city of Makkah. Hujr defeated Zahaak. Aqil at that time was in Makkah. He wrote to Imam Ali (a) offering his voluntary services saying that the Quraysh were not sincerely serving the cause of Islam and were bent upon the enmity of Imam Ali (a). In reply Imam Ali (a) wrote:

I had sent against him (Zahaak) a strong force of Muslim fighters. When he realised this, he wanted to run away, giving up loot and plunder. Before sunset our expeditionary force overtook him and his guerrillas, a skirmish did take place, not worth being mentioned as a battle, and he fled. When he was caught by the throat he thought a cowardly retreat to be the best solution.

Do not take to heart the behaviour of Quraysh. To talk about their scepticism, their enmity of Islam, their revolt against the cause of Allah and their desire to bring harm to me are a waste of time. They now are as much bent upon doing me injustice and fighting against me, as they were unanimously against the Holy Prophet (s). May Allah punish them for their sins. They have not even paid any consideration to the relationship that existed between them and I. They have deprived me of the estate of my mother's son.

As far as your enquiry about my intention against the enemies of Islam is concerned, my opinion is to combat those who have made up their minds to harm the cause of Islam. I shall keep on combating them to the end of my life.

I am neither emboldened by abundance of followers nor am I disheartened by their scarcity. Do not think that your brother will lose heart if people forsake him and give up their help or he will humiliate himself, bow down against heavy odds, submit to unreasonable demands of others or accept their commands or orders like a beast of burden.

So far as I am concerned I am like a person about whom a poet of Bani Salim says:-

“If you enquire about me, my beloved, Then hear me:
I am very strong to face calamities and reverses;
I cannot tolerate
That signs of sorrows and griefs on my face
Make my enemies happy,
And increase sorrows of my friends”.

Letter 37

A letter to Mu’awiya.

Allahu Akbar! How hopelessly you are engulfed in your inordinate and sinful desires, how mercilessly you are swept by such vicious and unholy cravings which misguide you in this life and will bring you to a sad end. You have forsaken the cause of truth and justice and have arrogantly spurned the arguments which are agreeable to Allah and were unacceptable to man.

What do you mean by creating this faction and revolt with pretence of taking revenge on the murderers of Uthman?

The real facts of the case are that during the life of Caliph Uthman, you only went to his help when this action in the end was profitable to you and you could get something out of him, and you refused to help him when he was really in need of you and your support and for which he had frequently requested you.

Letter 38

A letter to the people of Egypt, telling them about Maalik when Imam Ali (a) appointed him as their Governor.

From the creature of Allah, Ali bin Abi Taalib (a), to people whose anger and enmity was on account of Allah, they got angry when they saw that their land was being run over by people disobedient to Allah, when rights were being crushed and obligations were being ignored and spurned, when tyranny and oppression were the order of the day and every good or bad person and every local resident or outsider had to face them, when goodness and piety were taboos and when nobody cared to keep himself away from vices and sins.

After glorifying Allah and paying homage to the Holy Prophet (s) be it known to you that I am sending towards you a creature of Allah who forsakes rest and sleep during days of danger, who does not fear his enemy in the critical junctures, and who is more severe than burning fire to sinners and vicious people. He is Maalik bin Haarith Mazhiji (Mazhij is a sub-class of Bani Nakha'a). Hear him and obey his commands which you will find to be right and according to true canons of Islam. He is such a sword among the swords of Allah that its sharpness will never get blunt or whose stroke and blow will never be without effect and who will never lose an opportunity. If he orders you to advance against your enemies, then advance; if he commands you to halt then halt because he himself will never advance nor halt and will never give orders to advance, halt or retreat without my consent.

In sending him to you, I have given preference to your needs over those of mine so that he may serve you faithfully and may treat your enemies severely and strongly.

Letter 39

A letter to Amr bin Aas.

Undoubtedly you have subordinated your religion to the worldly power, pomp and wealth provided to you by a person whose apostation and scepticism are not hidden from anybody. He and his ways are known to everybody. He sullies the reputation as well as the character of those who keep company with him. He tries to deceive sober and sedate people. For the sake of remnants and crumbs of bread left over at his table, you have attached yourself to him. You are following him like a dog which follows a tiger, frightfully looks at its paws and waits to live upon the refuse which it leaves of its kill.

In this way you have lost your self-respect and honour in this world and your salvation in the next. You have ruined your present and future. Had you followed the true path, you would have secured success in this world as well as in the Hereafter.

Letter 40

A letter to a commissioner of a province. It could not be ascertained as to whom it was addressed.

I have been given to understand that you have taken possession of State-lands and that you have not only brought them under personal use but you have misappropriated State treasury also. Will you immediately send the detailed accounts (about both the items)? Remember that the reckoning of Allah is far more severe than any audit which man can carry out.

Letter 41

The following is a letter written to a Governor who left Imam Ali (a) and ran away with Public Treasury, this man was a cousin of Imam Ali (a) and was his confidant. Some historians say that he was Abdullah bin Abbas who was Imam's cousin and had once behaved in this way.

After glorifying Allah and praising the Holy Prophet (s) let it be known to you that I trusted you and appointed you on a very responsible post. I did this under the impression that from my own clan nobody will prove more sympathetic, more helpful and more trustworthy to me than you. But when you found that the times have gone against your cousin, his enemies are on the war path, wealth of the country is being recklessly plundered, the nation has lost sight of the true path of religion and it is confused and confounded, then you have also changed colour. You have forsaken your cousin, you left him along with other deserters and by joining the gang of dishonest persons, you have also betrayed the trust I reposed in you.

You have changed so much that you have not only lost the sense of sympathy for your cousin but you have also lost the sense of honesty and virtue. Your present behaviour indicates that you have never been sincere, as if your participating in jihad (the Holy Wars) was not in the cause of Allah and as if the true light of religion had never illuminated the dark recesses of your mind. Along with the majority, you had also participated in jihad to amass wealth under the pretence of serving Allah and religion and awaited opportunities to decamp with wealth of the Islamic State. And when the opportunity presented itself to you to be dishonest to your heart's content and when you found your ruler seriously engaged somewhere else you jumped at the evil chance, you invaded the Public Treasury and looted as much as was possible for you, the money which was reserved for widows, orphans and the poor. In this plunder your action was so quick, so nimble and so effective that it resembled the action of a very active and wary wolf attacking and snatching away a wounded and helpless goat.

You have with pleasure sent this looted wealth to Hijaz.

The sin pleased you and the loot made you happy. The thought that it was an evil deed never stopped you from the act. Did you take it for a heritage which you can take hold of and send home? Allahu Akbar! Do you not believe in the Day of Judgement? Are you not afraid of the reckoning on that Day?

O you whom we took for a wise and intelligent person! How can you happily and with easy conscience eat and drink things purchased by this wealth being aware all the time of its unlawfulness. Do you realise the enormity of your sin? Out of the money which was earmarked for the use of orphans, paupers and the destitute or which was reserved for faithful Muslims and Mujahids or was conserved for the defence of the Muslims State, you provided for yourself means of your enjoyments and pleasures, you purchased slave-girls out of it and you spent it on your marriages.

I advise you to fear Allah and return the money to those whom it rightfully belongs. If you do not do this and if Allah gives me a chance to punish you then I shall act in such a way that Allah will be pleased with me. I shall give you a stroke with that sword of mine which has sent all those whom I struck with it, to Hell. I swear by the Merciful Allah that even if all the wealth which you have so wickedly looted had come into my possession in a lawful way it would not have pleased me to leave it to my heir as a heirloom.

Control your inordinate desires, think well over what you have done and remember that you have reached the mature age, just try to visualize that death has brought an end to your life, you are lying in a grave with so much earth over you and your deeds are placed before you. What would you say and do at such a time and place, a place where tyrants and oppressors could only repent and wish to go back to the world they left behind but there will be no escape from the punishment.

Letter 42

The following is a letter which Imam Ali (a) wrote to Umar bin Abi Salama Mukhzumi when Imam Ali (a) called him back from the Governorship of Bahrain and appointed Nu’man bin Ajlan Zuraqi in his place.

After glorifying Allah and praising the Holy Prophet (s) let it be known to you that I have appointed Nu’man as the Governor of the province of Bahrainand have removed you from the post not because I was dissatisfied with your work or there was any charge against you. Undoubtedly you have discharged your duties satisfactorily and have done full justice to the trust reposed in you. I am quite satisfied with your work and I neither doubt your honesty nor do I consider you to be inefficient and blameworthy.

Come to me immediately. The fact is that I have resolved to face the Syrian tyrants and oppressors and I want you to be with me because you are one of those men whom I can trust to help me in facing the enemies of Allah and in the establishment of the Islamic State.

Letter 43

A letter to Masqala bin Hubayra al-Shaybani who was governor of Ardshir Khurra (Iran).

I have received certain information about you and if you have actually done what is reported against you then you have verily, displeased Allah and have annoyed me.

I am given to understand that you are lavishly distributing State treasury among the bedouins of your clan and among those Arab nomads who are loyal to you. You know this wealth has been gathered by Jihad in which many of them were killed and many more of them were wounded.

I swear by Allah who gave life to plants and animals that if this accusation against you proves correct then you will humiliate yourself in my eyes and will lose the good opinion I have formed about you.

Do not imagine that the trust reposed in you by Allah can be treated lightly, do not ruin your religion otherwise you will be one of those whose deeds are to be punished.

Remember that all the Muslims who are there or here have equal share in this wealth. Believing and acting on this principle, they come to me for their share and receiving it from me they return to their places.