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What (cause of conflict) is there between me and the Quraysh? By Allah I have fought them when they were unbelievers and I shall fight them when they have been misled. I shall be the same for them today as I was for them yesterday. By Allah the Quraysh only take revenge against us because Allah has given us
(i.e. the Holy Prophet and his progeny) preference over them. So we have allowed
them into our domain whereupon they have become as the former poet says: By my life you continued drinking fresh milk every morning And (continued) eating fine stoned dates with butter; We have given you the nobility which you did not possess before; And surrounded (protected) you with thoroughbred horses and tawny-coloured spears (strong spears) (1).
(1). In fact the aim of the poet here is to say that the
condition of the addressee's life from the moral and material point of view had
been worse in the past and that the poet and his tribe have given him the best
means of leading their lives. But as the result of this improved condition the
addressee has completely lost himself and forgotten his past condition and
thinks that he had had this kind of life previously.
Now Amir al-mu'minin wants to convey the same idea here to the Quraysh as
Fatimah (p.b.u.h.) the holy daughter of the Holy Prophet said in her speech on
Fadak:
(O' People) ... You were on the brink of the pit of Hell Fire (Qur'an 3:103).
You were as worthless as the mouthful of water. You were minority like the
handful greedy and a spark of the hasty. You were as down-trodden as the dust
under feet. You drank dirty water. You ate untanned skin. You were abased and
condemned. But Allah has rescued you through my father Muhammad
(p.b.u.h.a.h.p.). . .
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