‘Ali (as) address people of Kufa

Amirul Mu’mineen ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, (a.s.), returned from Basrah to al-Kufah on 12th Rajab and proceeded to climb the pulpit. He expressed his gratitude and praise to Allah and said: "All praise be to Allah Who has helped His servant, blessed with authority and forsaken His enemy. He exalted the truthful and just and disgraced the liar and unjust. O people of the town, it is obligatory upon you to be mindful of your duties to Allah and to obey those who, from among the Ahlul Bayt of your Prophet, are obedient to Allah. They are worthier of your submission; for they, in submission to Allah, stood firm against the pretentious and our opponents who despite their dependence upon us for their guidance, fight against us, usurp our rights and deprive us...They have tasted the evil of their action and there awaits them a painful chastisement. Indeed, some of you have held themselves back from helping me and I am indeed, displeased and disappointed with them. So, you disassociate yourselves from them and admonish them, so that, they may realize their misconduct or come to do what we approve." Then Malik ibn Habib al-Tamimi al-Yarbu'i, his police commander, stood up and said: "By Allah, I believe that simply disassociating and admonition is two little. By Allah, should you command us, we would kill them all." Amirul Mu’minin, (a.s.), said: "O Malik, you are crossing the bounds and transgressing the limit, engaging yourself in the extremes." He said: "O Amirul Mu’minin! Sometimes a little bit of tyranny and inequity, while dealing with the matters confronting you, is more suited than being kind to your enemies." Amirul Mu’minin, (a.s.) said: "O Malik, that is not the way Allah has ordained. He Most High, has said: ’A life for a life’ (al-Maidah, 5:45). So where is the room for a bit of inequity and tyranny? And then Allah, Most High, has said: ’And whoever is killed unjustly, We have given power to his avenger of blood, but let him not exceed the just limits in killing. Surely, he will be victorious’(Al-Israa’, 17:33)." Then Abu Burdah ibn Awf al-Azdi stood before him. He was a partisan of Uthman, having fought against ‘Ali in the battle of Jamal, but joined him in Siffin with a very weak intention of helping. He said: "O Amirul Mu’minin! Did you see the fallen bodies around Aisha, Talha and al-Zubair? Why were they killed?" Amirul Mu’minin, (a.s.) said: "Because they had killed my followers and my appointed governors. And (also) because they killed the brother of Rabi'ah al-Abdi - may Allah bless him with mercy, together with a group of Muslims. They had said: ’We will not break our allegiance the way you did and we will not revolt the way you have revolted.’ So, they were unjustly attacked and killed. I asked them to submit to me, the names of those who killed my brethren and there would be the Book of Allah, to decide between me and them. They refused (to give me the names) and (instead) they rose to fight me, while they were still in allegiance to me, and the responsibility of having killed, nearly a thousand of my partisans lay upon their shoulders. That is why I killed them. Do you have any doubt about that?" He said: "I had a doubt but now I have understood and the error of those people has now become evident for me. No doubt, you are the rightly guided one." Then ‘Ali, (a.s.) prepared to climb down, while some people rose to speak. But when they saw him climb down, they sat down and did not utter a word. Then Abul Kanud said: "In spite of his presence (with ‘Ali) at Siffin, Abu Burdah was insincere to ‘Ali, (a.s.) and used to privately correspond with Mu’awiyah. And when Mu’awiyah became the absolute monarch, he gave a piece of land to him at al-Fallujah and was quite generous to him."