أوَ لَیسَ عَجَباً أنَّ مُعاوِیَةَ یَدعُو الجُفاةَ الطَّغامَ فَیَتَّبِعونَهُ عَلی غَیرِ مَعونَةٍ ولا عَطاءٍ، وأَنَا أدعوکُم ـ وأنتُم تَریکَةُ الإسلامِ، وبَقِیَّةُ الناسِ ـ إلَی المَعونَةِ أو طائِفَةٍ مِنَ العَطاءِ، فَتَفَرَّقونَ عَنّي وتَختَلِفونَ عَلـَيَّ؟!Is it not strange that Mu`āwiya calls out to some rude, low people and they follow him without receiving any support or grant, but when I call you, although you are the successors of Islam and the (worthy) survivors of the people, to help and grant you, you scatter away from me and oppose me?¹
Imām (a.s.) knew well that the society was not at a level of understanding to grasp his heart-rending and suspicion-free words. He knew that he could make many, including some dignitaries, obey him through violence and threat and put things in order even though temporarily, but he refused to do so and said:
ألا إنّي کُنتُ أمسِ أمیرُ المُؤمِنینَ، فَأَصبَحتُ الیَومَ مَأموراً وکُنتُ ناهِیاً فَأَصبَحتُ مَنهِیّاً وقَد أحبَبتُمُ البَقاءَ ولَیسَ لي أن أحمِلَکُم عَلی ما تَـکرَهونَ.Indeed, yesterday I was the Commander of the Faithful, but today I am commanded and until yesterday I was dissuading people (from wrong acts), but today I am being dissuaded. You have now shown that you only love to live in this world and it is not for me to force you to what you dislike.²
In the policy of Imām Ali (a.s.), achieving goals is rightful only when people think freely and accept the reform plans and submit to them without any obligation. Imām (a.s.) never deemed it right to make people accept what he viewed as truthful and proper by resorting to the sword, violence and to force them to obey him. At the end, it is people who would finally choose a way which they are attached to.
In other words, if Imām Ali (a.s.) had been asked why people had left him alone, he would have answered: “I was not willing to force them to obedience by the language of the sword. And they were regretfully not in a position to appreciate this path [my rule] and submit to it for some cultural reasons and due to the social structure that has been imposed on them and they have been accustomed to.”

them, extinguish rebellions and rectify abnormalities. However, it is evident that achieving such a stage in human society is very difficult. What was the kind of society that Imām Ali (a.s.) ruled over? What were people’s tendencies at its public level? How were the inclinations and efforts of people basically determined?
The community during those days had been ruled by others for 25 years. Those governments faced, towards the final years, rebellions, criticisms and confrontations, and in return reacted with violence, severe confrontations, punishments, and occasional imprisonments, tortures and atrocities.
The general public was not rightly familiar with the law and its significance so the rulers ruled over people in this milieu. The rulers, whenever encountered with people’s wrongdoing, right from the beginning practiced force, violence and dominance instead of resorting to them as a final solution.
In the Umayyad policy, ends justify the means and the politicians use any tools, even illegitimate ones for implementing their policies, plans and orders. The leader of such policy speaks to some in a language of allurement and to others through threatening and still to some others by means of deception. Mu`āwiya did rule over Shām by means of such policies and perhaps the maintenance of the interests of Shām demanded doing so!!
What should Imām Ali (a.s.) do when in his doctrines, the use of illegitimate means to implement his policies is not permissible and the people’s leader speaks solely by means of explanation, elucidation and instruction, does not use words of allurement deception, threat, or violence; and how should he bring the people who had been accustomed to these methods, back to the right way?
Surprisingly, the public masses of Shām indisputably used to obey Mu`āwiya without receiving anything from him simply and just because he used the means of the policy of imposture, allurement and threat. The public masses of Kufa however, did not obey the Imām, even though they were not deprived of material interests. In this regard Imām said: