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SERMON 19Amir al-mu'minin was delivering a lecture from the pulpit of (the mosque of) Kufah when al-Ash`ath ibn Qays (1) objected and said "O' Amir al-mu'minin this thing is not in your favour but against you." (2) Amir al-mu'minin looked at him with anger and said:How do you know what is for me and what is against me? ! Curse of Allah and others be on you. You are a weaver and son of a weaver. You are the son of an unbeliever and yourself a hypocrite. You were arrested once by the Unbelievers and once by the Muslims but your wealth and birth could not save you from either. The man who contrives for his own people to be put to sword and invites death and destruction for them does deserve that the near ones should hate him and the remote ones should not trust him. as-Sayyid ar-Radi says: This man was arrested once when an unbeliever and once in days of Islam. As for Amir al-mu'minin's words that the man contrived for his own people to be put to sword the reference herein is to the incident which occurred to al-Ash`ath ibn Qays in confrontation with Khalid ibn Walid at Yamamah where he deceived his people and contrived a trick till Khalid attacked them. After this incident his people nicknamed him "`Urf an-Nar" which in the parlance stood for traitor. |
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(2). After the battle of Nahrawan Amir al-mu'minin
was delivering a sermon in the mosque of Kufah about ill effects of
"Arbitration" when a man stood up and said "O' Amir al-mu'minin first you
desisted us from this Arbitration but thereafter you allowed it. We cannot
understand which of these two was more correct and proper." On hearing this Amir
al-mu'minin clapped his one hand over the other and said "This is the reward of
one who gives up firm view" that is this is the outcome of your actions as you
had abandoned firmness and caution and insisted on "Arbitration" but al-Ash`ath
mistook it to mean as though Amir al mu'minin implied that "my worry was due to
having accepted Arbitration " so he spoke out "O' Amir al-mu'minin this brings
blame on your own self" whereupon Amir al-mu'minin said harshly:
What do you know what I am saying and what do you understand what is for me or
against me. You are a weaver and the son of a weaver brought up by unbelievers
and a hypocrite. Curse of Allah and all the world be upon you.
Commentators have written several reasons for Amir al-mu'minin calling Ash`ath a
weaver. First reason is because he and his father like most of the people of his
native place pursued the industry of weaving cloth. So in order to refer to the
lowliness of his occupation he has been called 'weaver'. Yamanese had other
occupations also but mostly this profession was followed among them. Describing
their occupations Khalid ibn Safwan has mentioned this one first of all.
What can I say about a people among whom there are only weavers leather dyers
monkey keepers and donkey riders. The hoopoe found them out the mouse flooded
them and a woman ruled over them. (al-Bayan wa't-tabyin vol. 1 p. 130)
The second reason is that "hiyakah" means walking by bending on either side and
since out of pride and conceit this man used to walk shrugging his shoulders and
making bends in his body he has been called "hayik".
The third reason is --- and it is more conspicuous and clear --- that he has
been called a weaver to denote his foolishness and lowliness because every low
person is proverbially known as a weaver. Their wisdom and sagacity can be well
gauged by the fact that their follies had become proverbial
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