Hadith 1612
۞
Now, I have come to know that certain persons from your side are stealthily going over to Mu‘āwiyah. Do not feel sorry for their numbers so lost to you or for their help of which you are deprived. It is enough that they have gone into misguidance and you have been relieved of them. They are running away from guidance and truth and advancing towards blindness and ignorance.
أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَقَدْ بَلَغَنِي أَنَّ رِجَالًا مِمَّنْ قِبَلَكَ يَتَسَلَّلُونَ إِلَى مُعَاوِيَةَ، فَلَا تَأْسَفْ عَلَى مَا يَفُوتُكَ مِنْ عَدَدِهِمْ، وَيَذْهَبُ عَنْكَ مِنْ مَدَدِهِمْ، فَكَفَى لَهُمْ غَيّاً، وَلَكَ مِنْهُمْ شَافِياً، فِرَارُهُمْ مِنَ الْهُدَى والْحَقِّ، وَإِيضَاعُهُمْ إِلَى الْعَمَى وَالْجَهْلِ.
Similar narrations
- Nahj al-Balāgha #1371 My spy in the West has written [1] to me telling me that some people of Syria have been sent for ḥajj who are blind of heart, deaf of ears...
- Nahj al-Balāgha #1611 To Sahl ibn Ḥunayf al-Anṣārī, his Governor of Medina about certain persons in Medina who had gone over to Mu‘āwiyah.