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The Imām’s Motives in Accepting the Rulership
12. Imām Ali (a.s.): Behold! By Him who split the grain (to grow) and created living beings, if people had not come to me and the argument had not been furnished through the presence of supporters, and if there had been no pledge taken from the learned to the effect that they should not acquiesce in the gluttony of the oppressor or the hunger of the oppressed, I would have cast its rope [of caliphate] on its own shoulders, and would have given the drink to the last one with the same cup as to the first one [have treated the last one the same treatment as the first one i.e. abandon it. And you would have seen that this world of yours for me is no better than the sneezing of a goat.1
13. Imām Ali (a.s.) –explaining the reasons for his acceptance of the ruling: “O differing souls and divided hearts whose bodies are present but whose intellects are absent. I am leading you towards the truth, but you run away from it like sheep running away from the roaring of a lion. How hard it is for me to establish with you the foundations of justice or to correct the curves created in truthfulness.
O God! You know that what we did was neither to seek power nor to acquire anything from the vanities of the world. We rather wanted to restore the foundations of Your religion and to bring reform in Your land so that the oppressed among Your servants may be safe and Your forsaken commands might be established.2
1.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon ۳, `Ilal al-Sharā'i`, h. ۱۲, p. ۱۵۱, Ma`āni al-Akhbār, vol.۱, p. ۳۶۲, al-Irshād, vol. ۱, p. ۲۸۹.
2.. Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon ۱۳۱, Tuhaf al-`Uqul, p. ۲۳۹, al-Mi`yār wa al-Mawāzin, p.۲۷۷.