FROM THE SECOND HALF OF 658, MUAWIYA, the governor of Syria, had been steadily escalating violence against the dominions of Ali. Some of his inroads reached Ain-at-Tamar and Anbar, only 170 miles north of Kufa. The men of Kufa were so unwilling to fight against the Syrians that Ali found it impossible to take effective punitive action. Muawiya himself led a raid right across the Jazira from Raqqa to Mosul, and met no resistance anywhere. At last, Ali declared in the mosque of Kufa that he would leave the city with the few of his faithful followers in an attempt to halt the Syrian aggression against Iraq, even if it cost him his life. This threat awakened the citizens of Kufa to the specter of being left leaderless if Ali was killed fighting against the Syrians. They were stung into action and they began to mobilize for defense.
The battle of Siffin had been the first trial of strength between Ali and Muawiya. Militarily, the battle had been a near-victory for Ali, but politically, it had become a stalemate. After some time, it began to appear that Ali would take up the challenge of Muawiya. But just then Ali was assassinated in the mosque of Kufa, and the second trial of strength never took place.
According to the historical accounts some of which are quite plausible, three Kharjis met in Kufa (some say in Makkah) to hatch a conspiracy. Each of them volunteered to kill each of the three leading political figures of the Dar-ul-Islam – Ali, Muawiya and Amr bin Aas. By killing them, it is alleged, they hoped to put an end to civil wars in Islam, and to restore peace to the Muslim umma.
One of the three conspirators was a certain Abdur Rahman bin Muljam. He stayed in Kufa to kill Ali, and the other two went to Syria and Egypt to kill Muawiya and Amr bin Aas. The plans of the would-be assassins of Muawiya and Amr bin Aas, according to the stories in circulation, went awry, and they were captured and were executed.
The Kharjis had been defeated at Nehrwan, and most of them had perished in the battle but a few had escaped. Abdur Rahman bin Muljam was one of those who had escaped. He was consumed with the desire to kill Ali, and was in quest of an opportunity to do so. By a coincidence, he met a Kharji woman, one Qattama, whose father and brothers had also been killed in Nehrwan, and she too had nursed an undying hatred of Ali.
Abdur Rahman fell in love with Qattama, and proposed marriage to her. She told him that the price of her hand was the head of Ali ibn Abi Talib. This only strengthened Abdur Rahman in his resolution. He promised his inamorata the moon if she asked for it, but she said that nothing was of interest to her if she could not get the head of Ali ibn Abi Talib!
Abdur Rahman bin Muljam carefully worked out his plans to kill Ali. A few other trusted Kharjis also volunteered their services to him, and together they rehearsed the assassination. Abdur Rahman bin Muljam took one extra precaution – he put his sword in deadly poison, and let it soak in it for three days.
On the morning of the 19th of Ramadan of the year 40 A.H., Ali came into the Great Mosque of Kufa, and called Adhan (the call to prayer). He took his place in the alcove, and moments later, the worshippers began to arrive. They stood behind him in serried ranks, and the prayer began. Standing in the front row, with other worshippers, were Abdur Rahman bin Muljam and his confederates. They were watching Ali's movements. In the folds of their cloaks, they were carrying swords burnished to a high sheen, and soaked in poison.
Just when Ali touched the ground with his forehead for sajda, Abdur Rahman bin Muljam stepped out of his row, and crept into the alcove. And just when Ali lifted his head from the ground, ibn Muljam struck the fatal blow at his forehead with such deadly force that it split open.
Blood squirted from Ali's forehead in several jets, and he exclaimed:
"By the Lord of the Kaaba, I am successful!"
The members of the congregation realized what had happened, and as soon as they concluded the prayer, they surrounded him. His sons, Hasan and Husain, carried him to his house. A physician came, and tried to dress the ghastly wound but could not stop the bleeding. The blow of the sword was fatal anyway, but the poison from its blade was also spreading rapidly in his body. The Arab historians say that it was the second time that Ali was wounded in the forehead, the first time being when, in the battle of the Trench fought in 627, the sword of Amr bin Abd Wudd cut through his shield and helmet, and struck it. His forehead still bore the scar left by the sword of Amr.
This is the account left by the Arab historians of the assassination of Ali, and it has been accepted as authentic by the vast majority of the Muslims.
Though this account has the authority of "consensus" of the historians behind it, its authenticity, nevertheless, is suspect on the grounds of "circumstantial evidence." There are too many "coincidences" in it.
No one questions the fact that it was Ibn Muljam who killed Ali. But was it his own idea to kill him? It is quite probable that the idea was planted in his mind by someone else who used subliminal techniques for doing so. Ibn Muljam didn't know that he was only a cat's paw, and he went ahead and killed Ali.
At this time no one in Dar-ul-Islam was more interested in the assassination of Ali than Muawiya. The plot to kill Ali, the skill displayed in its execution, and its success, show the touch of consummate subtlety and a high degree of professionalism which were characteristic of Muawiya alone, whereas Ibn Muljam was nothing more than a bumpkin. Muawiya employed the same "skill" in removing from the scene, real or fancied threats to his own security and power, on numerous other occasions in later times, with the same results.
Muawiya's spies had informed him that Ali was making preparations for the invasion of Syria. In the battle of Siffin, Muawiya had not responded to chivalrous treatment by Ali. This time, therefore, Ali had decided, not to fight a lingering action but a swift one that would quell Muawiya's rebellion, and would restore peace to the embattled empire of the Muslims. Muawiya also knew that Ali had, this time, both the ability and the resolution, to bring the conflict to a speedy and successful conclusion. His only hope, therefore, for his safety in future, as in the past, lay in the succor that he could get from his old and trusted "allies" – treachery and intrigue. He, therefore, mobilized them, and they didn't disappoint him.
Muawiya made the act of the assassination of Ali look absolutely spontaneous and convincing by making himself and his crony, Amr bin Aas, the potential and intended "victims" of the conspiracy and fanaticism of the Kharji anarchists. But both of them "escaped" assassination by a rare "stroke of good luck." One of them "fell ill" on the day he was to be "assassinated," and did not go into the mosque; the other did not fall ill, but went into the mosque wearing his armor under his cloak. He was "attacked" by his "assassin" but was "saved" by his armor. "Falling ill" would have been an indiscreet act, and would have exposed both "victims." In this manner, "illness" and the armor "saved" both Muawiya and Amr bin Aas from the daggers of their Kharji "assassins."
But Ali was not so "lucky." He did not fall ill, and he did not put on his armor when entering the mosque. In the mosque, Ibn Muljam was awaiting him with a sword soaked in poison. When Ali rose from sajda, he struck at his forehead, and cleft it. The blow proved to be fatal.
Most of the Arab historians wrote histories which were "inspired" by Muawiya and his successors. He was of course free to inject any account into those histories. He, therefore, managed to save himself and Amr bin Aas from the indictment of history, and it was Ibn Muljam alone who went down in history books as the real and the only villain of the crime.
By a coincidence, the assassination of Ali took place on the eve of his invasion of Syria.
Though the Kharji anarchists had aimed their daggers at all three of the leading political figures of the Muslim world, viz., Ali, Muawiya and Amr bin Aas, by a coincidence, the latter two escaped the attempts on their lives, and Ali alone was killed.
By still another coincidence, the two men who escaped, i.e., Muawiya and Amr bin Aas, were intimate friends of each other, and both of them were – coincidence again – the mortal enemies of the third, i.e., Ali, who was the only one to be killed.
There are too many mysterious coincidences that saved the lives of Muawiya and Amr bin Aas but took the life of Ali.
Ali spent the time still left to him in prayer and devotions; in dictating his will; in giving instructions to his sons, ministers and generals regarding the conduct of the government; and in urging them all never to forget the old, the sick, the poor, the widows and the orphans at any time.
Ali declared that his elder son, Hasan, would succeed him as the head of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, and as the sovereign of all Muslims.
Though Ali was steadily weakening from the loss of blood and from the action of poison, all his faculties were sharp and clear right to the last moment. To all those people who came to see him, he said that they ought to be aware, at all times, of the presence of their Creator in their lives, to love Him, to serve Him, and to serve His Creation.
The poison had done its work, and on the morning of the 21st of Ramadan of 40 A.H., Ali ibn Abi Talib left this world to go into the presence of his Creator whom he had loved and served all his life. He was "God-intoxicated." His greatest ambition in life was to wait upon his Creator, every moment of his existence, and he realized it, and this is the meaning of his exclamation in the alcove of the mosque when he felt the edge of the sword at his forehead: "By the Lord of the Kaaba, I am successful."
Hasan and Husain washed the body of their father, draped it in a shroud, offered the funeral prayers for it, and then buried it silently at midnight at Najaf Ashraf, at some distance from Kufa. No markings were placed on the grave, and the grave-site was kept a secret, as desired by Ali himself.
Ali, Islam's greatest saint, hero, statesman, philosopher and martyr, had left this world, and the world was not to find a man sublime like him to all eternity.
Many among the Muslims were the mourners of Ali's death but none mourned him more dolorously than the Dhimmis (the Jews, the Christians, and the Magians). They were utterly heart-broken. And when the sick, the disabled, the cripples, the orphans and the widows in the empire heard that he had died, they felt that their world had collapsed. He had been a father to them all. He had taken them all by the hand. He had taken them all into his prayers. Many among them did not know until after his death that it was he who had fed them and had taken care of them. He had taken all mankind into his grasp.
Whereas Ali was accessible at all times to the poor and the weak, his own greatest anxiety and fear were lest any of them be inaccessible to him. It was only in his dominion that the Dhimmis (non-Muslims), the powerless and the defenseless enjoyed complete security. No one could terrorize them or exploit them. With his death, their security was gone forever!
It is a truism that exercise of power cannot be combined with saintly purity, since once a man assumes responsibility for public affairs, the moral simplicities within which it is just possible, with luck, to be able to lead a private life, are soon hideously complicated to an extent that precludes all clear distinctions between right and wrong. This truism, however, has its own exception – in Ali. He upheld principle, in public life as in private, regardless of cost. He invariably put the right thing ahead of the smart thing, regardless of cost. The source of the principles which guided his private and public life, was Al-Qur’an al-Majid as it was also the source of his political philosophy.
Ali has many critics and enemies but they cannot point out a single instance when he deviated from a principle. They cannot point out any conflict between his thought and speech on the one hand, or between his speech and deed on the other. He was consistently consistent in thought, speech and action.
Ali represented the ultimate triumph of character and ideology. He was a rare combination of love of God, devotion to duty, strength tempered with tenderness, symmetry of disposition, and inflexible integrity. His greatest legacy to the world of Islam will remain forever his sublime character.
Events Related to the Martyrdom of Imam Ali (A.S.)
It is the 21st of Ramazan, the day of great difficulty and mourning for the Ahl-e-Bait(a.s.) and their followers. The day when our beloved Imam(a.s.) finally succumbed to the fatal injury that he received on the 19th Ramazan in Masjid-e-Koofa.
Imam Ali(a.s.) was surrounded by his male family members and his faithful followers since the 19th. The tabeebs (doctors) announced that the effect of the poison has reached such a stage that it is not possible
for him to survive now. Hearing this, Imam Ali(a.s.) who already knew of this situation, asked his faithful followers to leave him. His followers were weeping and were deeply saddened by this order but then Imam Ali(a.s.) told them that they cannot stay since his daughters were eager to be with him in these last moments. Hearing this the faithful followers left with tears in their eyes and with a heavy heart. Imam(a.s .) asked his sons to make sure that his followers were so much away from the house that they would not hear the cries and voices of his daughters.
It was at this time that Imam Ali(a.s.) gave his detailed last will and instructions to his family. He pronounced Imam Hasan(a.s.) as his
successor in Imamate and the head of the family. Then he called all his
children and started giving their hands one by one in the hands of Imam
Hasan(a.s.) saying: "I give you in the protection of my son Hasan(a.s.)"
When all the children were handed in the protection of Imam
Hasan(a.s.), only Hazrat Abbas(a.s.) was left and he was standing in a corner. At this stage, his holy mother - Bibi Umm-ul-Bannen(a.s.) - with
permission of Imam Ali(a.s.) asked : "why have you spared my son Abbas from being given in the protection of Imam Hasan(a.s.)?". Imam Ali( a.s.) called Hazrat Abbas(a.s.) and said: "I have saved him for a very special occassion" and then he called Imam Hussain(a.s.) and giving the Imam's hand in the hand of Hazrat Abbas(a.s.), addressed him saying: "Abbas, I give Hussain in your protection. Take good care of him and don't leave him until he wishes so, and remember this is a great responsiblity which you would realize when you will be in Karbala and all the companions of Hussain will be martyred and his little children will be crying and asking for water from a thirst of three days of intense heat".
He then called Imam Hussain(a.s.) and said: "My son when you will be left alone in Karbala and the time of your martyrdom will arrive, I ask you to fulfill one wish of mine - Ask your sister Zainab to raise her
sleeves and then kiss her arms." . Imam Hussain(a.s.) asked in
astonishment as to why did you wish for this. Imam Ali(a.s.) said : "My son after you are martyred, the army of Yazid(mal'oon) will enter the tents and will snatch away the hijabs of my daughters and will make Zainab( s.a.) and other ladies prisoners and her hands will be tied with a tight rope." Hearing this Imam Hussain(a.s.) burst into tears and that was the time when Imam Ali(a.s.) breathed his last leaving his family and
followers mourning for him.
ala l'anat ullahe ala qaum-za-zalimeen. May allah(swt) curse the cruel
tribe which committed atrocities on the Ahl-e-Bait(a.s.) and their
followers.
Inna Lillah-e-wa Inna ilehe Rajeoon - We have come from HIM and we have to return to HIM.
Burial of Imam Ali (A.S.)
Imam Ali(a.s.) instructed his children that when he is martyred, they
should lift his coffin from behind only since the front will be lifted
by his most faithful angels and they will guide you to my burial place
which will be ready when you reach there. That is exactly what
happened. The funeral was arranged in the night time and was attended only by the family members and closed and trusted companions of Imam Ali(a.s.).
The front of his coffin was lifted by unseen creatures and they guided
his coffin to the place in Najaf-e-Ashraf where a grave was ready and
Imam Ali(s.a) was buried there. Imam Hasan(a.s.) recited his
namaz-e-janaza.
Due to the situation in those days, only the closest and trusted
companions of Imam Ali(a.s.) and his family members knew about the funeral and the exact burial place. The next day, there were lots of speculations among the Koofans about the place of burial of Imam Ali(a.s.) but no one knew the exact place. After the Ummayad rule came to an end, during the reign of Abul Abbas al-Saffah, Imam Jafer Sadiq(a.s.) arrived in Najaf and identified the grave of Imam Ali(a.s.) for the first time to his companions such as Abu Basser, Abdullah ibn-e-Talha, Mualli ibn-e-Khanis, Yunis ibn-e-Tibyan and Zarara. Likewise, other Imams(a.s.) during their imamate identified the same place to their followers and that is how it came to be know to general masses. Famous Ulema of Ahlul Sunnah such as ibn-e-Aseer and ibn-e-Abil Hadeed also recognize the same place in Najaf as the burial place of Imam Ali(a.s.).
The Character of Imam Ali (A.S.)
In the personality and character of Ali Bin Abi Tâlib (A.S.), we find a combination of all the good aspects of human personalities.
This is because we are reminded of his personality whenever and wherever we find ourselves face to face with any hero or genius. In his character, we find a mixture of all such noble emotions and sentiments as may create in us feelings of compassion and admiration. This is because he himself was a martyr and the father of a line of martyrs. His biography as well as the biographies of his sons and descendants present to us a series of struggle and strife as well as of defeats and frustrations. They show to a distant observer, sometimes old men, revered by time and old age and then by the swords which never have compassion for any one; and on other occasions, young men in the prime of their youth, being deprived of their lives, not only lives but sometimes before even of food and drink too, walking towards their death, bathed in their blood, hungry and thirsty.
In the character of Ali Bin Abi Tâlib (A.S.), we find a mixture of such ideas and images as may lead the poetical imagination of man either to soar high in the skies or dive below into the deepest cavern of thought. He was a brave man who helped human sensibility reach the core of reality and heights of imagination, and, in whose praise and glorification, both the eyewitnesses as well as the lovers of the romance have participated.
His character meets the world of thought on one hand and borders at the world of imagination and pathos on the other. This is because of his being a man of opinions in the fields of Islamic philosophy, mysticism and ethics, which surpass all other ideas in these fields.
As we find his personality as confluence of thought, imagination, and pathos, so do we find a mixture of literary or artistic taste, because he was a stylist himself and had a special manner both in the field of literature as well as rhetoric, which is followed by many. A part of this taste which has reached is praised, not too exaggeratedly, by the people who have a taste for literature, although there is a distance of hundreds of years between him and them. He was a man of letter full of wisdom, an orator of great skill and a writer of such a maturity which is found only in the masterpieces of Arabic poetry and prose.
But Human conscience has many aspects other than those of pathos, imagination, thought, good taste and beautiful expression. One of these aspects, which has never disappeared in any era, is that of differences in various natures and intellects, or in other words, it is aspect of opposition, which results always from any opinion, or question of right and country.
It is possible that intelligence, reason and taste may degenerate or Imagination and pathos may cease to function, but what never gets disrupted and degenerated is the opposition between different minds, controversies and differences of opinions and prejudices and biases.
And here lies the most strange and unique trait of the Imam's character and personality, which he himself has very precisely expressed when he said, "People will love me to such an extent that they will land into the Hell, while others will hate and despise me to such an extent that they too will go to the Hell," or when he said,"Two types of men will meet their destruction in their relations with me one who loves me exaggeratedly for that which is not in me, and the one who hates me so much that he concocts accusations against me."
The Imam(A.S.) has told the truth about the exaggeration in which his friends and enemies involve themselves. Some of his devotees, out of sheer love and devotion for him, have deified him while some of those who hated him reached to such an extent as led them to declare that he was an heretic. There are, on one hand, the Ghulât who worship him, and despite his orders not to do so. He asks them to repent, but they do not obey him and persist in their heresy. And on the other hand, there are the Khârjites who declare him to be an apostate and an heretic, and demand from him that he expresses his repentance for violating God's orders. They curse him right upon the pulpits, as did the Umayyids, who opposed them in their beliefs and doctrines but supported them in respect of cursing Ali(A.S.).
Such a vast field of controversy is the personality of Ali (A.S.) as may not be found in the lives of other heroes who have been subjected to love as well as hatred ; some say that he is God, while others pronounce him to be an apostate and an heretic thrown out of the limits of God's mercy.
Another aspect of human conscience found in the personality of Ali(A.S.) in different ways is that of complaint and revolt or that of a zeal for reconstruction and reform.
Ali's name has become a standard round which every one whose rights have usurped, gathers; it has become a slogan raised by every one demanding for justice. All those who bear anger against a revolting society and unjust government, take refuge in the Alawides call as if it were synonymous with reform, or as if Imam Ali(A.S.) was the only way out for every persecuted person. Persons suffering from internal conflicts find their remedy in the name of Ali (A.S.), and those who rebel against oppression find in the name of Ali(A.S.) a drive for their rebellion and a satisfaction for their anger. The one who goes through the history of Islam with reason, or with taste, or with imagination, or with sentiment, finds in the personality of Ali(A.S.) a point of intersection with his own temperament, in many ways and in many circumstances. This is the idiosyncratic trait of Ali's personality which distinguishes him from others in the panels of history. Thus, there exist links between Ali(A.S.) and people's hearts which are created by human nature, though the history or the historians might have failed to find them.
His Character-traits
Ali(A.S.) was the first Hashimite whose father and mother both were from the Hashimite. Thus in him were combined all those character- traits on account of which this noble family had become famous. These traits had already appeared in old well-known members of this tribe. These traits, briefly enumerated, are nobility, strength, bravery, affection, devotion, chivalry, intelligence etc., in addition to physical and bodily qualities found in many of these members.
Perhaps, it is true of Ali's characteristics that he was a fast-growing child which was a preliminary step to his fame for intelligence and capability. Thus, he had the quality of rapid growth as he had the results of this rapid growth in the form of difficulties and problems which such persons have to bear in view of the old age of their parents.
He grew up as a man of strong body both in his young age as well as the old. He maintained this stoutness, strength and physical fitness right up to his end, reaching around sixty.
His life-story as well as his characteristics indicate that he had an immense bodily strength and ability to resist illness and disease. He could easily raise a rider from his horse and throw him down on the ground without any effort. He would hold the arms of a person as if he had held his soul that would not let him breathe. He would move a huge stone from its place which needed many persons to move it. He would carry a large gate which many strong men found difficult to be turned.
Side by side with this immense strength, he was so brave that none would dare face him in the battlefield. He was so courageous in the face of death that for centuries none could reach his fame and glory in this respect. He was just a raw youth when he dared face Amr Bin Abd Wudd, known as the Knight of the Arabian Peninsula, who was considered a match for a thousand, both by his friends and enemies. His bravery, however, was decorated with the best of qualities which are found in the brave. No one knows bravery personified in a better way than was presented by Ali(A.S.) without any effort or conflict of mind. And these qualities are refraining from any kind of aggression, benevolence shown to the opponent, irrespective of his being weak or strong, and being free from ill-will against the enemy after the conclusion of the battle.
One sign of his refraining from aggression is that he never took the initiative in fighting unless he had no other alternative. He used to say to his son, Imam Hasan(A.S.), "Never call for fighting, and if you are called to it, then reply. The one who calls for fighting is an aggressor and an aggressor finally get killed."
It was discovered that the Kharjites' were leaving his camp with the intention of fighting against him. He was told that the Kaharjites were rebelling against him and therefore he should take the initiative and fight them first. But he replied, "I shall not fight them unless they come to fight me. And this they shall do."
He took the same step before the Battle of the Camel and that of Siffin, and all other encounters whether big or small, or whether the enmity of the opponents was open or hidden. He always invited them to peace and forbade his men to begin fighting. He never put his hand on the sword unless he had earlier folded it for peace talks.
Once he was preaching before some people and his sermon affected some of the Kharjites who had declared him as an heretic. So one of the admirers exclaimed in a fierce manner like a person who neither controls his hatred nor admiration, and said, "May God kill this heretic, how understanding and reasonable he is!" When his friends heard these words, they wanted to rebuke the Kharjite, but he said to them, "Either you should curse as he did or excuse him."
We quite well know that he said to Amr Bin Abd Wudd, "I do not hate to shed your blood."But these words he uttered only after becoming disappointed that Amr would not embrace Islam or give up fighting against the Muslims. First he offered to him that he should leave the battle-field, but Amr refused and said, "So that the Arabs should talk about my escape." Then he called out to him, "O Amr! You gave a promise to your people that no one from the Quraish would ask you two things but you would accept one." Amr replied in affirmative. Ali (A.S.) then said to him, "I then invite you either to become a Muslim or to fight." Amr asked him, "But why, O my nephew? I do not like to kill you ..." He then had no alternative but to kill or get killed.
Despite such a bitter enmity between him and Mu'âwiyah and his armies, he never fought against them nor did he take revenge upon them and avenge his friends except what they deserved on the occasion. It happened during the Battle of Siffin that one of Mu'âwiyah's friends, named Kuraiz bin As-Sabâh Al-Himyari, came out of his rank and challenged Ali's side for a duel. In reply to this challenge, one of the companions of Ali(A.S.) went out but was killed by Kuraiz. He again challenged, and another went out from Ali's side but was again killed. He repeated it four times and killed four men from Ali's side. Then he attacked the army as a whole, with the result that the men who were in the first rank, tried to withdraw to the second and so on. Ali(A.S.) apprehended that the awe of this person might create panic in his army. He therefore himself went out to meet this man who had just established his skill and bravery, and finally killed him. Now Ali(A.S.) challenged in the same manner and killed three more persons one after the other, and then returned to his position.
As to his kindliness and culture, it was rare among the brave men. He refused to allow his army to take revenge, to kill an escaping person, to murder a wounded man, to strip the dead bodies in the battlefield or take money from his person. He came out to be victorious after the Battle of the Camel against Abdullah bin Zubair, Marwân bin al-Hakam, Sa'id Bin al-Aas, who were his sworn enemies, but he pardoned them and did not harm them at all. Similarly, he overcame Amr bin al-'Aas, who was more dangerous than a fully equipped army, but, when Amr stripped himself naked on the ground, he left him and let him save his life. Similarly, Mu'âwiyah's army interposed itself between Ali's forces and water during the Battle of Sif fin, and called out, "You will not get a single drop of water until you die of thirst. But when he defeated them and drove them from their positions on the river, he permitted them to drink water from the river as his soldiers did.
When he paid a visit to Aa'ishah after the Battle of Camel, Talhah's mother Saffiyah shouted at him, saying, "May God make your children orphans as you have done to my children!" He did not make any reply to her. When he returned from the visit, Safiyyah repeated what she had said earlier. Again he kept quiet and did not reply. A man, who got offended by the curses of Talhah's mother, said to him, Amir-ul Mu'minin ! You keep quiet at what this woman says?" Ali(A.S.) ignored him and said, "We have been ordered to refrain from harming or punishing women even though they are pagans; should we not refrain from doing so to Muslim women ?" He was on his way when some of his followers told him that two men were cursing Aa'ishah. He ordered them to be flogged one hundred strokes each. Then he saw a woman off with utmost honour, walked along with her camel for a long distance, and then sent persons to accompany her in her journey, to serve her and protect her. It is said that he sent twenty women from Abdul Qais family, who were asked to put on turbans and carry swords. When one woman was on the way, she used bad words against him, then sighed and said, "My privacy has been disclosed by his men under whose care he has sent me!" When she reached Madinah, these women threw down their turbans and said to her, "We are nothing else but only women.
This is his kindliness with his enemies, those who deserved honour or those who did not; those who had sanctity like Aa'ishah or those who did not enjoy such a position. This is a kind of treatment which is hardly found in a fighter and warrior during the heat of the battle.
His purity of heart and his being free from any kind of hatred comes at par with his nobility and uniqueness. He would not show any kind of hatred even against his sworn enemy or a person well known for having the bitterest feelings against him. He forbade his family and friends not to mutilate the body of his assassin, or kill any other person (after his death). Similarly, he mourned the death of Talhah, who had withdrawn his allegiance to him and had gathered armies to fight against him. In this elegy, he expressed the sentiments of extreme pain and grief. He also recommended to his followers not to fight with the Kharjites, who had disrupted his ranks and were more dangerous and vicious than Muâwiyah and his forces. This is because he found them sincere though mistaken and insistent on their mistakes.
