In response to Muawiya

In reply to Mu‘āwiyah, and it is one of his most elegant writings

You think that so-and-so are the most distinguished persons in Islam. You have said such a thing which if it be true, you have nothing to do with it, but if it be not so, then its defect will not affect you. And what are you to do with the question of who is better and who is worse, or who is the ruler and who is the ruled. What have the freed ones and their sons to do with distinguishing between the first muhājirūn and determining their position or defining their ranks. What a pity! the sound of an arrow is being produced by what is not a real arrow, and he against whom the judgement is to be passed is sitting in judgement.

O man, why do you not see your own lameness and remain within bounds, and why do not you realize the shortness of your measure and stay back where destiny has placed you. You have no concern with the defeat of the defeated or the victory of the victor. You are wandering in bewilderment and straying from the right path.

Do you not realize it? I am not giving you any news: I am just recounting Allāh’s bounty, namely that a number of people from among the muhājirūn (immigrants from Mecca) and anṣār (helpers) fell as martyrs in the way of Allāh the Sublime, and that each of them is distinguished (on that account), but when one of us secured martyrdom he was named the Chief of all martyrs, and the Messenger of Allāh (S) gave him the peculiar honour of saying seventy takbīr (Allāhu akbar) during his funeral prayer.

If Allāh had not forbidden self-praise, the writer would have mentioned numerous distinctions which the believer knows full well and which the ears of hearers do not wish to forget. Better leave those whose arrows miss the mark. We are the direct recipients of our Lord's favours while others receive favours from us after that.

In spite of our old established honour and our well-known superiority over your people, we did not stay away from mixing with you and married and got married (among you) like equals although you were not so. And how could you be so when (the position is that) among us is the Prophet while among you is the opposer, among us is the lion of Allāh while among you is the lion of the opposing groups, among us are the two masters of the youth of Paradise [2] while among you are the children of Hell, among us is the choicest of all the women of the worlds [3] while among you is the bearer of firewood, and many more distinctions on our side and shortcomings on your side.

Our Islam is well-known and our (greatness in the) pre-Islamic period too cannot be denied. Whatever remains has been mentioned in the words of Allāh the Glorified, the Sublime: And blood relations have the better claim in respect of one to the other, according to the Book of Allāh ... (Qur’ān, 33:6) He (Allāh) the Sublime, also says: Verily, of men the nearest to Abraham are surely those who followed him and this (Our) Prophet (Muḥammad) and those who believe; and verily, Allāh, is the Guardian of the faithful. (Qur’ān, 3:68)

Thus, we are superior firstly because of kinship and secondly because of obedience. When at Saqīfah (of Banū Sā‘idah) the muhājirūn contended kinship with the Messenger of Allah (S) against the anṣār, they scored over them. If that success was based on kinship then the right would be ours better than yours. Otherwise, the anṣar’s contention stands.

You think that I have been jealous of every caliph and have revolted against them. Even if this be so, it is not an offence against you and therefore no explanation is due to you. “This is a matter for which no blame comes to you”.

You have said that I was dragged like a camel with a nose string to swear allegiance (to Abū Bakr at Saqīfah). By the Eternal Allāh, you had intended to revile me but you have praised me, and to humiliate me but have yourself been humiliated. What humiliation does it mean for a Muslim to be the victim of oppression so long as he does not entertain any doubt in his religion, nor any misgiving in his firm belief! This argument of mine is intended for others, but I have stated it to you only in so far as it was appropriate.

Then you have recalled my position vis-à-vis ‘Uthmān, and in this matter an answer is due to you because of your kinship with him. So (now tell me), which of us was more inimical towards ‘Uthmān and who did more to bring about his killing; or who offered him his support but he made him sit down and stopped him; or who was he whom he called for help but who turned his face from him and drew his death near him till his fate overtook him? No, no; by Allāh: “Indeed knoweth Allāh those who hinder others among you and those who say unto their brethren ‘Come hither unto us’, and they come not to fight but a little.” (Qur’ān, 33:18)

I am not going to offer my excuse for reproving him for (some of) his innovations, for if my good counsel and guidance to him was a sin then very often a person who is blamed has no sin and “sometimes the only reward a counseller [4] reaps is suspicion (of evil)”.