with his reformative planning, did not tolerate the government and sovereignty based on the Prophetic path (sira) and tradition (sunna) and did not support his policies. Then Imām began his insightful speech with the following words of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.):
ألا إنَّ أخوَفَ ما أخافُ عَلَیکُم خَلَّتانِ: إتِّباعُ الهَوی، وطولُ الأَمَلِ.What I fear most for you are two things: the following of vain desires and extending of hopes.¹
He (a.s.) then explicitly stated that the political disturbances that had caused disunity in the Muslim community and created factions and division are rooted in moral corruptions, egoism and desires:
إنَّما بَدءُ وُقوعِ الفِتَنِ مِن أهواءٍ تُتَّبَعُ وأحکامٌ تُبتَدَعُ، یُخالَفُ فیها حُکمُ الله ویَتَوَلّی فیها رِجالٌ رِجالاً.Surely the causes of seditions (and conspiracies) in which the Divine Law is disobeyed and men rule over other men are the following of desires and laws that are innovated.²
Imām (a.s.) indicates that egoism, desire and self-centrism bring baseless and anti-religious innovations under the cover of religion; and it is through this approach that blind factionalism is founded, moral disturbances grow into cultural turmoil, and eventually wind up in political and social seditions and rebellions. It is in such cases that the perpetrators in order to justify their goals and to spread the seditions, misuse the truth and pretend to support it. Imām Ali (a.s.) warns:
ألا إنَّ الحَـقَّ لَو خَلَص لَم یَکُنِ اختَلافٌ ولَو أَنَّ الباطِلَ خَلَصَ لَم یُخفَ عَلی ذي حِجیً لِکنَّه یُؤُخَذُ مِن هذا ضِغثٌ ومِن هذا ضِغثٌ.Verily, if the truth becomes purified and manifest, there will be no differences and if falsehood becomes manifest, it will not be hidden from the wise. However, (what is done) is that some from this and some from that are taken (and mixed).³

able to stand steady on one position. Without knowing who their leader is and whether he speaks the truth or not, they highly respect him with their body and soul, and follow him only because he has some reputation, or holds a lofty position and bears on his forehead the title of chief of the tribe or the leader of a party or for any other reasons, just like a swarm of flies which are blown to every direction without knowing why and where they are heading.
It was so painful for Ali (a.s.) to see that such a great number of people of his time were among the third group. He (a.s.) was faced with large masses who were neither ‘people of knowledge’ nor on the path of understanding.
More heart-rending and distressing was the lack of a sympathetic person who would listen to these social problems and calamities, and the lack of some intelligent ones with whom Imām Ali (a.s.) would share all of these. In other words, he (a.s.) could not unveil the pains and reveal the nature of the people whom he ruled upon and accompanied him. When he intended to share what he was involved in, to one of his close companions, Kumayl, he took his hand, led him to the desert and asserted the bitter reality with much sorrow and pity. What he told him was not conveyable to anyone since many were not able to tolerate listening to all these problems. According to him, every person who enjoyed a larger intellectual and spiritual capacity would become a more valuable and helpful person to listen.
Imām then revealed the reasons for not being supported by people. He announced that the root of all problems and failures concerning his reforms and reformative plans was hidden in the people’s ignorance and their blind following of the treacherous elite.

More Explanation on the Roots of the Problem

On one occasion Imām Ali (a.s.) spoke in front of his relatives and a group of the elite about his problems, stating more openly than before the reasons of the disturbance (in Kufa), elucidating its origins and revealing the reasons for disunity in the Islamic community of that time. He explained why people were not consistent