Peak of Eloquence Nahjul Balagha By Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib - English Translation - Sermon 121

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When the Kharijites Persisted in Their Rejecting the Arbitration, Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib (x) Went to Their Camp and Addressed Them Thus:

Were all of you with us in Sifi‰n? they replied that some of them were but some of them were not. Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (x) said the following:

Then you divide yourself into two groups. One of those who were in Siffin and other of those who were not present the re, so that I may address each as I see suitable.

Then the Imam (x) shouted the following to the people:

Stop talking and keep quiet to listen to what I say. Turn your hearts to me. Whomever we ask for testimony, he should give it according to his knowledge about it.

Then he conversed with them in length. During the conversation, he said the following:

When they raised the Holy Quran by way of deceit, craft, artifice and cheating, did you not say that they are our brothers and comrades in accepting Islam? They want us to cease fighting and ask for protection

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through the Book of Allah, the Glorified. Our opinion is to agree with them and to end their troubles. Then I said to you, In this affair, the outer side is Faith but the inner side is enmity. Its beginning is pity and the end is repentance. Consequently you should stick to your status and remain steadfast on your path. You should press your teeth (to put all your might) in jihad and should not pay heed to the shouts of one who shouts.163 If he is answered, he will mislead, but if he is left (answered), he will be disgraced.

But when this thing (arbitration) was done I found that you agreed to it. By Allah, if I had refused it, it will not have been obligatory on me. Nor will Allah have laid its sin on me. And by Allah, not that I have accepted it, I alone am the rightful person who should be followed, for certainly the Holy Quran is with me. I have never forsaken it since I adopted its company. We have been with the Prophet (h) in battles

wherein those killed were fathers, sons, brothers and relations of one another. Nevertheless, every trouble and hardship just increased us in our belief, in our treading on the right path, in submission to (the Divine) command and in endurance of the pain of wounds.

We now had to fight our brethren in Islam because of entry into Islam of misguidance, crookedness, doubts and (wrong) interpretation. However, if we find any way by which Allah may collect us together in our disorder and by which we may come near each other in whatever common remains between us we will accept it and will give up everything else.

Ibn Abul-Hadid writes that this sermon comprises three parts which do not fit together because Sayyid ar-Radi selected some parts of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib’s sermons and did not record other parts as a result of which the continuity of utterance was not maintained. Thus, one part ends at “If he is left unanswered, he will be disgraced”, the other at “And endurance at the pain of wound” and the third runs till the end of the sermon.