The Sermon of ‘Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali, ‘Alayhi al-Salam

Amir al-Mu'minin (as) gave a sermon, so he praised Allah and extolled him, then saluted the Prophet (sw) and said: "Indeed, from the fears that I fear for you are of two categories: Following desires and long hopes. As for following desires, so it will sway you away from the truth. As for long hopes, they will make you forget the hereafter. Indeed, this world has moved backwards (away from you) and the hereafter has moved forwards (towards you), and for each of these are sons. So become from the sons of the hereafter and do not become from the sons of this world, for today is the day of the deeds and there is no Reckoning, but tomorrow is the (day of) Reckoning and no (room to perform) deeds. However, the commencement of the fitna occurs from following desires, and (the man made) rules are followed in opposition to the Commands of Allah (swt), so that a man would rule over a man (using these rules). Indeed, the truth, had it been pure, would have had no differing, and had the falsehood been pure, there would have been no fear about the one with the proof, but they take a fistful from this and a fistful from that, so they are mixed together. So that is where Satan rules over his friends, and the ones for whom goodness has preceded from Allah (swt) escape from this. I heard Rasulallah (saww) saying: ‘How will your condition be when you are clothed in fitna, in which the young ones will grow older while the adults would become elderly. The people will flow towards it (fitna) and take it as a Sunnah. So if something is altered therein, they will say, ‘The Sunnah has been altered’, and the people would have become deniers. Then the affliction would intensify, and the offspring would become captivated and the fitna would consume them just as the fire consumes the firewood, or just as the millstone grinds upon its lower base. And they would learn the Laws for the sake of other than Allah, and they would learn for the sake of other than doing good deeds, and they will be coveting the world instead of working for the hereafter." Then he turned his face towards those from his family and his special ones and his Shi'a who were around him. So he said: "The rulers before me acted in opposition to Rasulallah (sw) deliberately breaching the covenant with him and altering his Sunnah. And if I had burdened the people on avoiding it, and turned it back to its place and to what is used to be in the era of Rasulallah, my army would disperse from me to the extent that there would remain only myself or a few from my Shi'a who recognise my status. And my Imamate has been obligated from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Consider (what would happen) if I were to order for Maqam Ibrahim to be returned to its place, where it was put by Rasulallah, and returned Fadak to the inheritors of Fatima (sa), and returned to the ‘Sa’a’ (unit of measurement) to just as it was before, and execute the treaties which were made by Rasulallah for the people, which were never executed nor were those ever established, and returned the house of Ja’far (as) to his inheritors, and demolish it from the Masjid, and rescind the inequitable Judgements which were judged and remove the women who are under (married to) certain men without right and return them back to their husbands, and issue the order regarding the matrimony, and the orders regarding the captives of the Clan of Taghlib, and return what was distributed from the land of Khaybar, and erase the register of gifts and give it out as Rasulallah used to give it out in an equitable manner and not make it to be distributed between the rich, and drop Al-Musahaat (currency), and equalise between the marriages, and enforce the Khums of the Prophet just as it had been Commanded by Allah (swt) and make it to be obligatory, and return the Masjid of Rasulallah to what it used to be, and shut what was in it from the doors, and open what has been closed in it, and prohibit the wiping upon the socks, and enforce the punishment upon the partaking of al-Nabidh (intoxicant), and make the two Mu’tah’s to be permissible, and order for the takbir over the dead body as five, and necessitate the people to recite ‘Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim' aloud (in the prayer), and throw out the one who has been included with Rasulallah in his Masjid the one whom Rasulallah had thrown out, and enter the one who had been thrown out after he had included him, and burden the people to the Commands of the Quran and upon the divorce to be in accordance with the Sunnah, and take the charities upon its types and its limits, and return the ablution and the (major) ablution and the Prayer to its prescribed times, and its laws and its places, and return the people of Najraan to their own places, and return the Persian captives, and the rest of the community to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of its Prophet. By Allah, they would disperse from me if I were to order the people not to gather in the Month of Ramadhan except for the obligatory (Prayers) and make it known to them that their gathering for the optional Prayers (Nawaafil) is an innovation (i.e. tawareeh). So some of the people in my army would call out to the ones who are fighting alongside me, ‘O people of Al-Islam! The Sunnah of Umar has been changed. He is preventing us from the optional Prayer in the Month of Ramadhan, and I had feared that there would be a revolt in a section of my army. What will be meted out from this community from the sectarianism and the obedience to the imams of the misguidance and their calling to the Fire if I were to give out from that the share of the near relatives about which Allah has Said: {if you believe in Allah and in that which We revealed to Our servant, on the day of distinction, the day on which the two parties met} (8:41) So we are the ones meant by the near relatives whom Allah has Joined with Himself and with His Messenger. So the All-High Said: {it is for Allah and for the Messenger, and for the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, so that it may not be a thing taken by turns among the rich of you, and whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it, and from whatever he forbids you, keep back and be careful of Allah; surely Allah is severe in retributing (evil) to the one who is unjust to them.} (59:7) (This is) a Mercy from Him to us and a self-sufficiency by which Allah has Made us to be self-sufficient with. And He Bequeathed for it to His Prophet and did not Make for us a share in the charity. Allah Honoured His Messenger and Honoured us the People of the Household, that He should Feed us from the dirt of the people (charity). They belied Allah, and belied His Messenger and fought against the Book of Allah which Speaks of our rights, and prevented from us the obligation which Allah has Obligated for us. What has been meted out to us after our Prophet, and Allah is the Helper against the one who is unjust to us, and there is no Might and no Power except by Allah the High, the Magnificent."