Nahjul Balagha Letters (54-64)

IMAM ALI (AS) IBN ABI TALIB (AS)

Letter 54

This is a letter written by Imam Ali (a) to Talha and Zubayr and sent to them through Imran bin Hasin Khuza'i. Imran was a companion of the Holy Prophet (s). He had embraced Islam before the Battleof Khaybar and from then onwards he remained in his company. He was a very pious person and one of the very authentic narrators of the traditions of the Holy Prophet (s). Besides Nahjul Balaagha, this letter has also been narrated by Abu Ja'far Iskaafi in his famous book “Al-Maqamat fi Manaqib Amir al-Mu'minin”.

You may try as much as you like to hide the fact and to draw a curtain over it but both of you know very well that I did not approach the people to get their oath of allegiance but they came to me with their desire to make me their Amir (ruler). I did not extend my hands towards them so that they might swear the oath of allegiance to me but they themselves extended their hands towards me. And you two were among those who had flocked around me to swear the oath.

You all came to me to take the oath not because you were afraid of my power to oppress or tyrannize you, nor did you expect any monetary gain from me. If you two had taken the oath of allegiance of your own free will and without any compulsion, then do not break this oath, come back to it, repent before Allah of your having broken the oath. And if your action of swearing the oath of allegiance was not a sincere act done with pleasure and free-will, then your behaviour of pretending obedience and fidelity in the beginning and revolting against me at a later time does not speak well of your character and which serves as an argument in my favour and against you.

Upon my life you had no more pressing need than other Muhajirs to hide your real intentions from me and to hypocritically pretend fidelity and allegiance. In fact there was more justification then for you not to swear the oath of allegiance and not to offer your fidelity than to go back upon your oath and promise now.

You two were wealthy people and had your clans to support and back you. Those clans were then as they are now, powerful tribes. You were not forced to come and take the oath. Do you know what made you then behave like a hypocrite and now like a freed-slave? They were your ulterior motives.

You are telling people that I am responsible for the murder of Caliph Uthman. To bear witness to the fact as to who is responsible for the murder of the Caliph, you two or I, there are people in Madina, who are impartial. They have never sided you or me and have kept themselves aloof from me from the very beginning. Shall we ask their opinion as to who is responsible for this assassination? Their opinion will settle the question once and for all, will lay the responsibility on proper shoulders and will disclose the part each one of us has played of helping the caliph as much as possible or exciting the people against him and aiding and abetting the murder.

My respected friends! Give up your present attitude though I know that by declaring the falsity of your position today you stand the chance of being ridiculed and disgraced yet by persisting in your wrong and wicked attitude you will tomorrow certainly earn the disgrace in this world as well as the punishment in the next.

Letter 55

A letter to Mu’awiya.

You must know and understand that Allah has made this world a place where one is to stay only to provide for a happy life for himself in the Hereafter by his deeds. People are put to test here so that they may be rewarded according to their merits.

Our life does not end here and we are not created only for this world. Nor are we ordered to concentrate our energies only to acquire pleasures, power and pomp here. We are brought here simply to be tested in accordance to our knowledge, intentions and activities.

You are being tested through me and I am being tested through you. Each one of us is to be an evidence of the demonstration of the intentions and deeds of the other - whether they have been pious or sinful. You began by misinterpreting the Holy Qur'an and on the basis of these misinterpretations you started grasping power and wealth and began oppressing and tyrannizing the people. Your next unholy action was to call me responsible for an action (murder of Caliph Uthman) of which my tongue and hands were both innocent.

You with the Syrians tried your best to bring this deed to my door. The learned from your side persuaded the ignorant and influential people, and drove the commoners to rise against me.

Fear Allah and do let Satan drive you wherever it wants, think of death and the life after death because that is the only resting-place for you and me and for every human being. Be afraid of the Wrath of Almighty Allah which may throw you into such a calamity that it will not only be an end of you but an end of your dynasty.

I swear, and my oath is such that I have no intention of breaking it, that if fate so arranges as to bring us face to face against each other then I shall not leave the battlefield: “Until Allah judges between us, and He is the best Judge” [ Qur’an, 7:87 ].

Letter 56

When Imam Ali (a) appointed Shuray bin Hani as commanding officer of the vanguard of his army, which was marching towards Syria, he gave Hani the following instructions.

Day and night keep the fear of Allah  in your mind. Be afraid of this alluring and vicious world, never trust it. If you do not check yourself from the desire of acquiring inordinate things then your mind will surely drive you towards losses. Therefore, have a complete watch and command over yourself and at the time of anger and annoyance see that you do not lose your temper.

Letter 57

While leaving Madina for Basra, Imam Ali (a) wrote the following letter to the people of Kufa. It is a wonderful epistle.  It invites people to judge his intentions and actions.

After glorifying Allah  and praising the Holy Prophet (s) let it be known to you that I am leaving this city either as an oppressor or oppressed, either I am revolting against the people or some of them have conspired to revolt against the people or against me. Whatever the case may be I invite in the Name of Allah  those to whom this letter reaches, to come and see for themselves whether I am in the right or on the wrong. If they find me on the path of truth and justice they may help me and if they find that I am on the wrong then they can reason me out of it.

Letter 58

A letter sent by Imam Ali (a) to the people of various provinces, giving them the causes of the Battle of Siffin.

The thing began in this way: We and the Syrians were facing each other while we had common faith in one Allah, in the same Prophet (s) and on the same principles and canons of religion. So far as faith in Allah and the Holy Prophet (s) was concerned we never wanted them (the Syrians) to believe in anything over and above or other than what they were believing in and they did not want us to change our faith. Both of us were united on these principles. The point of contention between us was the question of the murder of Uthman. It had created the split. They wanted to lay the murder at my door while I am actually innocent of it.

I advised them that this problem cannot be solved by excitement. Let the excitement subside, let us cool down; let us do away with sedition and revolt; let the country settle down into a peaceful atmosphere and when once a stable regime is formed and the right authority is accepted, then let this question be dealt with on the principles of equity and justice because only then the authority will have power enough to find the criminals and to bring them to justice. They refused to accept my advice and said that they wanted to decide the issue on the point of the sword.

When they thus rejected my proposal of peace and kept on sabre rattling threats, then naturally the battle, which was furious and bloody, started. When they saw defeat facing them across the battlefield, when many of them were killed, and many more wounded, then they went down on their knees and proposed the same thing, which I had proposed before the bloodshed had begun.

I accepted their proposal so that their desire might be fulfilled, my intentions of accepting the principles of truth and justice and acting according to these principles might become clear and they might have no cause to complain against me.

Now whoever adheres firmly to the promises made will be the one whose salvation will be saved by Allah and one who will try to go back upon the promises made, will fall deeper and deeper into heresy, error and loss. His eyes will be closed to realities and truth in this world and he will be punished in the next world.

Letter 59

To Aswad bin Qatiba, the Governor of Hulwan.

After glorifying Allah and praising the Holy Prophet (s) let it be known to you that if a ruler develops different inclinations and favours about different people over whom he rules, then his treatment with them will not be on the basis of equity and impartiality. And this will not allow him to be just and fair to all. But so far as justice and equity are concerned your treatment of all should be fair and unprejudiced. Remember that nothing can compensate for tyranny and oppression.

Keep yourself away from what you consider bad and evil in others. Try your best to fulfill the obligations laid down by Allah upon you and keep on hoping for His Reward and fear His Wrath because this world is a place for trials and tests and whoever wastes his time here will repent in the Hereafter.

Remember that nothing will ever make you independent of the Blessings of Allah and He has made it incumbent upon you to have complete control over your own self, that you, to the best of your ability, protect and guard the people over whom you rule. In this way you will be benefited more than others whom you benefit.

Letter 60

The following is a circular-letter sent to those governors and State officers, through whose territory the armies of Imam Ali (a) were to pass.

From the creature of Allah Ali bin Abi Taalib (a) to the governors and the collectors of those provinces through which his armies are to pass.

After glorifying Allah and praising the Holy Prophet (s), be it known to you that I am sending some detachments of army which will, Allah willing shortly pass through your cities and provinces. I have issued them the orders which Allah wants them to obey: They should not molest anybody or harm any person or anything. I want to inform you and your subjects that if the soldiers misbehave themselves or if they take anything, their action is against my orders.

Except for the condition that they accidentally fall short of the ration and can find no way to appease their appetite, if they take anything from anybody they are to be punished. You may punish them. But take care and do not allow the foolish and insolent people of your place to quarrel with them or insult them or interfere with or obstruct the things that I have permitted them. I shall also be following the army. You may report to me of any excess or violence committed within your jurisdiction, of any awkward and difficult position in which you find yourself, or of any harshness or atrocity which was perpetrated in your province and which you cannot redeem without the help of Allah and your Imam. If you report all such affairs to me, Allah willing I shall attend to them and settle them to the satisfaction of all.

Letter 61

A letter from Imam Ali (a) to Kumayl bin Ziyad Nakha'i, expressing his displeasure and rebuking him in leaving his province unguarded and allowing the army of the enemy to enter and carry on loot. He was the Governor of Hayit and had not properly defended the province against the Syrian guerrillas. After their attack and loot he wanted permission of Imam Ali (a) to take revenge upon the Syrianprovince of Kirkisiya. Imam Ali (a) replied to him in the following letter.

It is wrong to a person to disregard and neglect the duty entrusted to him and try to take up the work entrusted to somebody else and at a time when he is not required to do it. Such an attitude indicates a weak and harmful mentality. Your desire to invade Kirkisiya and to leave your province undefended and unattended shows the confusion of your mind. By such an action you will convert yourself into a kind of bridge which your enemy can cross conveniently to reach your friends.

Thus you will be a useless auxiliary who has neither power nor prestige nor dignity, who cannot stop his enemy's in-roads, nor can crush him, and who cannot defend his subject nor can he be of any use or help to his ruler.

Letter 62

A letter to the Egyptians which Imam Ali (a) handed over to Maalik bin Haarith Ashtar to take with him when he was appointed as the Governor of that province.

The Almighty Allah, Glory be to Him, entrusted our Holy Prophet (s) with the mission of warning the people of the evil effects of their vicious actions and of bearing testimony to the truth actually taught and preached by other prophets. When the Holy Prophet (s) passed away, the Muslims started a tug-of-war for the caliphate. I swear by Allah that at that juncture it could not even be imagined that the Arabs would snatch the seat of the caliphate from the family and descendants of the Holy Prophet (s) and that they would be swearing the oath of allegiance for the caliphate to a different person.

At every stage I kept myself aloof from that struggle of supremacy and power-politics till I found the heretics had openly taken to heresy and schism and were trying to undermine and ruin the religion preached by our Holy Prophet (s). I felt afraid that, even after seeing and recognizing the evil, if I did not stand up to help Islam and the Muslims it would be a worse calamity to me than my losing authority and power over you, which was only a transient and short-lived affair. Therefore, when I stood up amidst the sweeping surge of innovations and schism the dark clouds of heresy dispersed, falsehood and schism were crushed and the religion was saved.

I swear by Allah that if I alone come out to face them and if all the world joins them, I shall neither feel nervous nor will I attach any care to their following. By the Grace of Allah, I know fully well what kind of reprobates they are and how they persist in vice and sin.

I am very anxious to reach the Realm of Allah and I earnestly hope and pray for His Blessings and Favours. But it grieves me to see that this nation and country is being ruled by uneducated, unwise and vicious rulers. They grasp the wealth of the country and drive its people into slavery. They hate pious and good people and quarrel or fight with them. They gather heretics and sinners around them and are happy in such company. You have had experience of some of them. One of them was punished for drinking wine. Among this crowd there is a man who did not embrace Islam until he found Islam to be not a faith or religion but a powerful State offering enormous possibility of gaining power and wealth.

If I had no desire of saving Islam and Islamic society from the influence and sway of such people, I would not have called you for Jihad, I would not have tried to make you see the reality of the situation, I would not have exerted myself to assemble you and I would not have persuaded you to defend the cause of Allah and finding you so indifferent towards the good of Islam and observing your reluctance to help its cause, I would have left you to your condition.

Do you not see and realize that the boundaries of your State are getting shorter and shorter daily and parts of your kingdom are being snatched and usurped, your properties are being confiscated and your cities are being invaded. May Allah have Mercy upon you. Come out to defend your country, your property and your religion from the in-roads of your enemies. Do not be lazy, careless and cowardly, otherwise your lot will be only disgrace.

Remember, a warrior is always wary and vigilant and never careless and negligent. Whoever is careless about his cause, his enemy will not sleep over this advantage.

Letter 63

Abdullah bin Qays, better known in history as Abu Musa Ash'ari, was a man with weak faith, more inclined to look after his worldly interest than the cause of religion. At the beginning of the Caliphate of Imam Ali (a) he was in Kufa. When he learnt that Talha and Zubayr along with Ummul Mu'minin, Aisha, had revolted against the Caliphate of Imam Ali (a) and had declared a war against him and had made Basra as their Headquarters and Imam Ali (a) had also started mobilising an army against them and had invited the people of Kufa to join that army, after realizing that the party of Talha and Zubayr was also a very rich and influential group and that it would be a wise action to be friendly with both the parties, he started saying, “Though Ali was the lawful caliph of Muslims, yet it was not correct for him to fight against other Muslims”. Imam Ali (a) came to know that Abu Musa though professing his faith in him, was yet persuading people not to help him (Imam Ali (a)). Thereupon, he sent the following letter to Abu Musa through Imam Hasan (a).

From the creature of Allah, Ali bin Abi Taalib to Abdullah bin Qays (Abu Musa Ash'ari).

After glorifying Allah and praising the Holy Prophet (s) let it be known to you that I have received reports which may be considered favourable to you, and yet at the same time may be deemed against you (that you on one hand declare me to be a lawful caliph and in the same breath you persuade others not to come to my help). As soon as my messenger reaches you, get ready, come out of your retreat, invite your people to join me and come yourself. If you are convinced that I am on the right side, then you must come to my help and if you feel uncertain, nervous or timid, then get you gone.

I swear by Allah that I shall not let you waver or adopt a double-cross policy. I shall not allow you to sit peacefully at home with a double face, one for each party and I shall expose you to the people. You will find yourself under suspicion from either group and you will be forced to declare your true inclinations.

This revolt which has made Basra as its Headquarters is not an easy joke as you have imagined it to be. It is a great tragedy and it shall have very far-reaching effects. It has to be faced with the calamities which accompany it or which will follow it. It will have to be fought and to get the better of. Therefore, I advise you to think carefully, control your weak and wavering mind and face your lot bravely. And if you are not satisfied with me or have no faith in me then you can with complete freedom go to the other side. You have my unreserved permission. But I am sure you will not be welcomed there.

And if you remain in my camp I shall not allow you to enjoy a restful sleep when Islam itself is in troubles and at war with the rebels. I swear by Allah that this decision of mine is the right step of a faithful Muslim in the right direction.

Letter 64

 A reply to Mu’awiya's letter.

It is correct as you say that in pre-Islamic days we were united and at peace with each other. But have you realized that dissensions and disunity between us started with the dawn of Islam. The reason was that we accepted and preached Islam and you remained heathen. The condition now is that we are faithful and staunch followers of Islam and you have revolted against it. Even your original acceptance was not sincere, it was simple hypocrisy. When you saw that all the big people of Arabia had embraced Islam and had gathered under the banner of the Holy Prophet (s) you also walked in (after the Fall of Makkah.)

In your letter you have falsely accused me of killing Talha and Zubayr, driving Ummul Mu'minin Aisha from her home at Madina and choosing Kufa andBasra as my residence. Even if all that you say against me is correct you have nothing to do with them, you are not harmed by these incidents and I have not to apologize to you for any of them.

You have threatened that you are coming out to fight against me with a large horde of Muhajirs and Ansar. Do tell me who these Muhajirs are? The door of Hegira (Migration of Muslims to save their lives from the hands of unbelievers of Quraysh) was already closed on the day your elder brother, Yazid bin Abi Sufyan was taken prisoner and Makkah was surrendered by your father and the process of migration had ceased as soon as your paganism ceased. (The Holy Prophet (s) had said that there would be no Hegira after the victory of Makkah).

Are you so anxious for a battle? Wait! You may get it to your heart's content. I may come out myself to meet you which will be a correct gesture on my part because Allah may have destined me to punish you for your inequities. And if you take the initiative to come out to fight, then it would mean, as a poet of Bani Asad has said “They are facing those furious summer winds which shower sand, rubble and gravel-stones”. Remember that I still hold the sword which has sent your maternal grandfather, maternal uncle and your brother to the same resting-place, the Hell.

By Allah, I know you too well to argue with you or to advise you. Apostasy and avariciousness have taken a firm hold of your mind, your intelligence is of inferior order and you cannot differentiate what in the end is good for you and what is not.

It is correct to say about you that you have risen to such dangerous and sinful heights that your fall which is inevitable will lead to an eternal damnation because you are coveting a thing which morally does not belong to you and for which you are religiously most unsuitable and with which you have neither sincere affection nor any affinity or propensity. It had been once usurped from the right person and you now want to retain it for yourself.

How great is the difference between your words and deeds? How much you resemble your maternal and paternal uncles, whose ill-luck persuaded them to deny and repudiate the Holy Prophet (s) and to fight against him and everyone of whom was at last doomed to die. You know very well that they could not protect themselves or protect the cause they were challenging to men who were energetic and brave and were present in every battlefield to defend the cause of Islam.

You have also written so much about the murderers of Caliph Uthman. The correct thing for you to do is to take the oath of allegiance to me as others have done and present the case in my court of justice and then I shall pass my judgement according to the tenets of the Holy Qur’an. But what you are desiring now is a deceit usually played upon babies when they are to be checked from breast feeding.

May the Peace of Allah be upon those who deserve it.