Chapter Two: The Reforms of Imām Ali (a.s.)
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The Voice of Justice and Its Reverberation
62. Sharh Nahj al-Balāghah –narrating from Abu Ja`far al-Iskāfi: “On the second day of his allegiance, which was Monday 19th of Dhil Hajj, he [Imām Ali (a.s.)] ascended the pulpit, praised and glorified God Almighty and mentioned Muhammad (s.a.w.) and sent blessings to him. He then enumerated the bounties of God Almighty over the Muslims and mentioned this world and called people to be ascetic [adopt a life of asceticism], and he mentioned the Hereafter and encouraged people towards it. He then said:
'Verily when the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) passed away, people elected Abu Bakr as their caliph; and then Abu Bakr appointed `Umar as the caliph [after himself], he followed the way of Abu Bakr. Then he consigned the caliphate to the six person council which led to the election of `Uthmān. He committed things that you disapproved of and you knew so. Then he was besieged and murdered. After that you came to me willingly and asked me to accept your leadership. I am one of you whose benefit and loss are the same as yours; and God has opened up the door between you and the people of the Qibla [the Muslims]. Evils have assailed like the pieces of a dark night; and the weight of the government cannot be borne except by a man of forbearance, insight and aware of the affairs of this matter. If you stay straight by my side, I will carry you on the path of your Prophet (s.a.w.) and will implement among you what I am assigned to provided you remain steadfast, and God is the Helper.
Let it be known that my position in relation to the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) after his death is the same as my position during his lifetime. So be committed to what you are commanded to and stop what you are forbidden to do. Do not make haste in anything until I clarify it for you, for we have reasons to present for whatever you do not like.God from above His heavens and Throne knows that I was reluctant to rule over the nation of Muhammad (s.a.w.) until you all agreed unanimously upon it, because I heard the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) say: “Any ruler who rules the government after me will be stopped at the edge of the Path (sirāt) and the angels will open his book of deeds. If he is a just ruler, God will save him for his justice, and if he was a tyrant the Path will shake him so violently that his joints will break apart and he will fall down to Hellfire. The first thing that will hit the fire will be his nose and then the scorching of his face.” But now that you have agreed upon my rule, I cannot leave you.”
Then he turned his face to his right and left and said:
“Be aware, tomorrow, when your men are enticed by the world, acquire gardens, make rivers gush out, ride on light-footed horses, and take their own fair looking maids, if I prevent them from what they are involved in and make them observe their rights that they know well, no men of yours should disapprove, criticize, take it as shame and disgrace upon himself and say: “The son of Abu Tālib has deprived us of our rights”.
Anyone of the Muhājirin and the Ansār among the companions of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) who thinks that he has merit and virtue more than anyone else because of his companionship must know that the real virtue tomorrow is with God and his reward will be by God. Anyone who responds to the call of God and His Messenger, confirms our doctrine, enters our religion and faces towards our qibla will enjoy the rights of Islam and its laws.
You are the servants of Allah, and wealth belongs to God, and it will be equally divided among you. Nobody has superiority in it over others, and God will reward the virtuous tomorrow with the best of rewards and greatest of blessings. God has not put the world as rewards for the pious, and what is with God is best for the good doers.
By the will of God, when tomorrow comes, you must come to us so that we can divide among you the wealth that is with us, and no Muslim should fail in showing up, Arab or non-Arab, rich or poor. This was what I had to say. I ask God’s forgiveness for myself and you.”
He then descended the pulpit.[Ibn Abi al-Hadid says:] “Our master Abu Ja`far says: “This was the first speech of his (a.s.) that some did not like and they started to hate him and disapproved of distributing the wealth in equal shares.
The next day, Ali (a.s.) came and the people gathered to receive their portion. He then said to his secretary `Ubaydullah ibn Abi Rāfi`: “Begin with the Muhājirin. Call them and give three dinārs to each person, then call the Ansār and give them the same amount. After that, call all the present people, Arabs and non-Arabs and give them their portion.”
Sahl ibn Hunayf said: “O Commander of the Faithful! This man was my servant yesterday and I freed him just today.” Ali said: “We will give him the same portion as yours.” And he gave everyone three dinārs and did not give anyone superiority over another. Talha, Zubair, `Abdullah ibn `Umar, Sa`d ibn al-`As, Marwān ibn Hakam and some men from Quraysh and other tribes refused [to accept] such division.
Abu Ja`far said: “`Ubaydullah ibn Abi Rāfi` heard `Abdullah ibn Zubair say to his father, Talha, Marwān and Sa`id: “We know what Ali meant by his words yesterday.” Sa`id ibn al-`As turned toward Zaid ibn Thābit and quoting the proverb: “It is you I am speaking to, but listen O neighbor!”1 Then `Ubaydullah ibn Abi Rāfi` said to Sa`id and `Abdullah ibn Zubair: “God said in His Book: “But most of you were averse to the truth.”2
Then `Ubaydullah ibn Abi Rāfi` reported the event to Ali (a.s.). He said: “By God, if I remain safe and sound I will take them to the bright path. May God kill ibn al-`As! He found out from the words I said yesterday that I meant him and his companions –the ones who are among the perished.”
He [Abu Ja`far] said: “While people gathered in the mosque after dawn, Talha and Zubair entered and sat in a corner away from Ali (a.s.). Then Marwān, Sa`id and Ibn Zubair arrived and sat next to the two. Later on, a group of Quraysh joined them, and they whispered together for a while.After that, Walid ibn `Aqaba stood up, went close to Ali (a.s.) and said: “O Abu al-Hasan! You cut us from our near of kin (ruined us all). As for me, you killed my father in the battle of Badr so painfully and humiliated my brother in the event of Yawm al-Dār. As for Sa`id, you killed his father in the battle of Badr while he was a warrior of the tribe of Quraysh. As for Marwān, you humiliated his father in front of `Uthmān when `Uthmān called and joined him to himself, even though we are your brothers and peers from among the children of `Abd Manāf. Today, we swear allegiance to you on the condition that you let us keep the possessions left to us from the time of `Uthmān and that you kill the murderers of `Uthmān. In truth, if we fear you, we will abandon you and join the people of Shām.”
Then Ali (a.s.) said: “As for your saying that I have killed your near of kin (ruined you all), the Truth [God] did so to you (you deserved it); as for letting you keep your possessions, it is not permissible for me to dispense to you and others with the rights of God; as for killing the murderers of `Uthmān, if it were incumbent on me to do it, I would kill them yesterday. However, it is your right upon me that if you fear me I will provide you with security, and if I fear you I should send you away.”
Walid stood up and talked to his companions. Then they scattered around with the intention to express their hostility and to spread opposition. Once their hostility became evident, `Ammār ibn Yāsir said to his companions: “Make a move to go to these few brothers of yours, as we heard their opposition and accusations toward their leader. Verily, the tyrants have penetrated among them and Zubair and the left-handed rebel, i.e., Talha.”
Abu Haytham, `Ammār, Abu Ayyub, Sahl ibn Hunaif and another group with them stood up and went to Ali (a.s.) and said: “O Commander of the Faithful! See into your affair and reprimand this group from Quraysh, since they have broken up their allegiance and promise to you and they have secretly called us to abandon you –may God make you successful on your path. The reason is that they do not like leadership and have no longer the spirit of following. When you treated the Arabs and the non-Arabs equally, they turned their back on you, maintained a liaison with your enemy and revered him, bringing up the vengeance for the murder of `Uthmān in order to create disunity among Muslims and coalition among the misguided. Now, whatever you say!”Ali (a.s.) came out [of his house] and ascended the pulpit, wearing a colorless shirt, clad in a Qatari coverlet with a sword fastened on his waist and leaning on a bow. He said: “We praise God, our Lord, our God, our Protector, and our Benefactor; the One who granted us His apparent and unseen blessings as His favor to us without our power and ability, in order to test us [to see] whether we are grateful or ungrateful. He who is grateful will receive more [blessings], and the one who is ungrateful will be punished. [Thus] The best of people in the sight of Allah in status and the closest of them to Him through their deeds are the most submissive to His commands, the most committed to obeying Him, the most obedient to the sunna of His Messenger, and the most active in reviving the Qur'ān. Nobody is superior in our view except by obedience to God and His Messenger. Here is the Book of God among us, and the covenant and the sira [conduct and teachings] of the Messenger of God before us. No one is unaware of this fact but the ignorant defiant and denier of Truth. God Almighty says: “O mankind! Indeed we created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify with one another. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most Godwary among you.”3
He then called out in a loud voice: “Obey Allah and the Apostle, but if they turn away, indeed Allah does not like the faithless.”4
He then said: “O group of Muhājirin and Ansār! Do you count it as a favor to Allah that you have embraced Islam. Say, ‘Do not count it as a favor to me your embracing of Islam. Rather it is Allah who has done you a favor in that He has guided you to faith, should you be truthful.”5
After that he said” “I am Abu al-Hasan!” (He would utter this statement when in a fury.) Then he said: “Let it be known that this world that you desire and seek after and is the cause of your anger and happiness is not your home or your station for which you were created. So let it not deceive you! I have warned you against it. Seek the completion of God’s favor on you by exercising endurance in His obedience and humility before His commands, glorified be His praise.”
“In these assets, there is no superiority for any person over the other. These are the assets of God who has commanded to be divided and you are Muslims the servants of God, and this is the
Book of God to which we have admitted and surrendered. It is the covenant of our Prophet among us. Whoever is not content with it then let him go to wherever he wishes, for there is no fear for him who practices obedience to God and who judges according to God’s commands.”
He then descended from the pulpit and performed two rak`as of prayers. He then sent `Ammār ibn Yāsir and `Abd al-Rahmān ibn Hisl al-Qurashi for Talha and Zubair who were sitting in a corner of the mosque. They went to Talha and Zubair and called them to Ali (a.s.). They rose, went to Ali (a.s.) and sat next to him.
Ali (a.s.) told them: “I swear you by God, did you not come to me obediently for allegiance and asked me for it, whereas I was reluctant towards it?”
They said: “Yes.”
He said: “Wasn’t it that you swore your allegiance to me and entrusted your covenant to me without force and compulsion?”
They said: “Yes.”
He said: “So what has made you to do such things?”
They said: “We swore allegiance to you on the condition that you do not do anything without our view, consult with us in all affairs and do not rule over us arbitrarily. Our superiority over others is evident to you. Then why do you divide properties, make decisions and do all these without consulting and informing us?”
Ali (a.s.) said: “You protested against minor things but left out many other things. Seek God’s forgiveness and He will forgive you. Tell me whether I prevented you from a right that was yours and wronged you thereby?”
They said: “God forbid!”
He said: “Did I choose anything for myself from these assets?”
They said: “God forbid!”
He said: “Has anything happened concerning the rights of any of the Muslims or a precept [of the Faith] that I am unaware of or failed in?”
They said: “God forbid!”
He said: “So what work of mine do you dislike that made you decide to oppose me?”
They said: “You divide the property in a different way from that of `Umar ibn Khattāb; you allotted the same portion to us as others, treating us and those who are not like us as equal in the spoils that God granted to us under the protection of our swords and our lances, and we laid our hand on them, on foot and on horseback and took them back by force and compulsion from those who did not surrender to Islam except by force.”
Ali (a.s.) said: “As regards what you said about consulting with you, I swear by God that I was not inclined to rule. You called me to it and appointed me therein. I feared that if I would refuse your proposal, disunity would arise among the nation. So when the government came to me, I looked through the Book of God and the traditions of his Messenger and did what they guided me to do. I followed that [guidance] and I did not need your opinions or any other’s. If something happens that is not stated in the Book of God and whose proof is not present in the traditions and requires consultation, I will of course consult you.”
“As for dividing [property] and not acting according to the way of the caliphs, verily, it is not something I have initially passed a ruling about; but you and I saw that the Messenger of God did so and the Book of God to which falsehood has no access from neither front (now) nor back (in future) and is sent by God the Most Wise and the Most Praised also orders such.”
“As for my dividing the spoils gained by swords and lances among you and others equally, in the past there were also a group who were precedent over others in Islam who contributed to it by their swords and lances, but the Messenger of God did not give them priority in dividing the spoils and did not grant them any advantages for their precedence in faith. Of course, God Almighty will reward the pioneers and the fighters on the Day of Resurrection. By God, you and others do not have anything beyond this with me. May God guide our hearts and yours toward the Truth and inspire patience and forbearance in all of us!”
Then he said, “May God have mercy on the person who sees the truth and supports it, and when he sees the wrong, rejects it and he who helps the truth against who is on the wrong.”
[Ibn Abi al-Hadid says,] Our master Abu Ja`far said: “It is reported that Talha and Zubair have said at the time of allegiance: “We swear allegiance to you on the condition that we participate in the government with you.” But Ali (a.s.) replied to them: “No, but you will share the spoils with me. I shall not prefer anyone of you over the others or over a slave for a dirham or anything less than that. Neither I nor these two children of mine will do that. If you insist on participation, you will be my companions at the time of [my] weakness and need, not at the time of strength and resistance.”
Abu Ja`far says: “They put conditions that were not legitimate in the ‘agreement of trusteeship’ (`aqd al-Amāna)6, and he set conditions that were necessary in religion and law.
It is reported that Zubair shouted from among the crowd: “This is our reward from Ali! In the event of `Uthmān, we rose up in his favor until he was killed and when he attained his goal with our help, he placed our inferiors above us.”
Talha said: “We deserve reproach. We were in a council of three people; one of us, being Sa`d, disagreed, but we two swore allegiance to him. What we had we left at his disposal and he withheld from us what he had in his possession. Today, we see yesterday’s hopes gone with the wind and hold out no hope of tomorrow because of today’s faults.”
[Ibn Abi al-Hadid goes on to say] “If you say: “Abu Bakr also made divisions equally but nobody objected to him as they did in the time of the Commander of the Faithful, then what is the difference between these two eras?” I would answer: “Abu Bakr divided the assets equally following the Messenger of God (s.a.w.). When `Umar became a caliph and preferred one group to another, this turned into a habit and previous manners were forgotten, and `Umar’s government lasted too long. Avarice and extravagance overwhelmed people’s hearts and the oppressed began to practice contentedness and they got used to it. There was no assumption for any of the two classes that this situation would change. When `Uthmān took over the caliphate, he followed the footsteps of `Umar in running the state. Thus people’s trust in this way of ruling increased and it is hard to change what people are accustomed to.
So, when the Commander of the Faithful took up the government, he was determined to bring the way of government back to the way it was during the time of the Messenger of God and Abu Bakr, a way which had remained forgotten and unpracticed
for twenty two years. Therefore this change was intolerable for people. They disliked it and saw it too heavy for them to bear, to the extent that it was followed by the breaking of allegiance and disobedience, and God has His own decrees and He carries them out.”7
