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SERMON 44When Masqalah (1) ibn Hubayrah ash-Shaybani fled to Mu'awiyah because he had purchased some prisoners of Banu Najiyah from an executive of Amir al-mu'minin but when he demanded the price the latter avoided and ran to Syria Amir al-mu'minin said:Allah may be bad to Masqalah. He acted like the noble but fled away like a slave. Before his admirer could speak (about him) he silenced him and before his eulogist could testify to his good deeds he closed his mouth. If he had stayed behind we would have taken from him what he could easily pay and waited for the balance till his money increased.
(1). When after Arbitration the Kharijites rose a man of
Bani Najiyah from them named al-Khirrit ibn Rashid an-Naji stood up for
instigating people and set off towards al-Mada'in with a group killing and
marauding. Amir al-mu'minin sent Ziyad ibn Khasafah with three hundred men to
check him. When the two forces met at al-Mada'in they attacked each other with
swords. Only one encounter or so had taken place when the gloom of evening
prevailed and the battle had to be stopped. When morning appeared Ziyad's men
noticed that five dead bodies of the Kharijites were lying and they themselves
had cleared off the battlefield. Seeing this Ziyad set off for Basrah along with
his men. There he came to know that the Kharijites had gone to Ahwaz. Ziyad did
not move onwards for paucity of force and informed Amir al-mu'minin of it. Amir
al-mu'minin called back Ziyad and sent Ma'qil ibn Qays ar-Riyah'i with two
thousand experienced combatants towards Ahwaz and wrote to the governor of
Basrah 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas to send two thousand swordsmen of Basrah for the
help of Ma'qil. Consequently the contingent from Basrah also joined them at
Ahwaz and after proper organisation they got ready for attacking the enemy. But
al-Khirrit marched on along with his men to the hills of Ramhurmuz. These people
also followed him and overtook him near these hills. Both arrayed their forces
and started attacking each other. The result of this encounter was also that
three hundred and seventy Kharijites were killed in the battlefield while the
rest ran away. Ma'qil informed Amir al-mu'minin of his performance and of the
enemy's running away when Amir al-mu'minin directed him to chase them and so to
shatter their power that they should not be able to raise heads again. On
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