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O' creatures of Allah you should know now that you have to perform (good) acts because (at present) your tongues are free your bodies are healthy your limbs have movement the area of your coming and going is vast and the course of your running is wide; before the loss of opportunity or the approach of death. Take death's approach as an accomplished fact and do not think it will come (hereafter). * * * * *SERMON 197Amir al-mu'minin's attachment to the Holy Prophet. The performance of his funeral rites.Those companions of Muhammad - the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants - who were the custodians (of divine messages) know that I never disobeyed Allah or His Messenger (1) - the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his descendants - at all and by virtue of the courage (2) with which Allah honoured me I supported him with my life on occasions when even the brave turned away and feet remained behind (instead of proceeding forward). When the Prophet - the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his
descendants - died his head was on my chest and his (last) breath blew over my
palms and I passed it over my face. I performed his (funeral) ablution may Allah
bless him and his descendants and the angels helped me. The house and the
courtyard were full of them. One party of them was descending and the other was
ascending. My ears continually caught their humming voice as they invoked
Allah's blessing on him till we buried him in his grave. Thus who can have
greater rights with him than I during his life or after his death? Therefore
depend on your intelligence and make your intentions pure in fighting your
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![]() ![]() enemy because I swear by Him who is such that there is no god but He that I am on the path of truth and that they (the enemy) are on the misleading path of wrong. You hear what I say; and I seek Allah's forgiveness for myself and for you.
(1). Ibn Abi'l-Hadid has written (in Sharh Nahj
al-balaghah vol. 10 pp. 180-183) that Amir al-mu'minin's saying that he never
disobeyed the commands of the Prophet is a sort of taunt to those who felt no
hesitation in rejecting the Prophet's commands and sometimes even checked him.
For example when at the time of the peace of al-Hudaybiyah the Prophet was
agreeable to negotiate peace with the unbelievers among the Quraysh one of the
companions became so enraged that he expressed doubts about the prophethood of
the Prophet whereupon Abu Bakr had to say:
Woe be to you! Keep clinging to him. He is certainly Allah's Messenger and He
will not ruin him.
The introduction to the oath 'inna' and the word of emphasis 'lam' which are
used here to create conviction about the prophethood shows that the addressee
had gone farther than mere doubt because these words of emphasis are employed
only when the stage of denial has been reached. However if belief required
absence of doubt the presence of doubt must imply defect in the belief as Allah
says:
The believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger they doubt
not thereafter ... (Qur'an 49:15)
Similarly when the Prophet intended to say the funeral prayers of Ubayy ibn
Salul the same companion said to him "How do you intend to seek forgiveness for
this Chief of hypocrites?" And he even drew away the Prophet by catching the
skirt (of his shirt). Then the Prophet had to say "No act of mine is beside the
command of Allah". In the same way the Prophet's command to accompany the force
of Usamah ibn Zayd was ignored. The greatest of all these insolences was
displayed in connection with the Prophet's intention to write down his advice as
to when such a blame was laid against the Prophet which proves an absence of
belief in the commands of the shari'ah and creates a doubt about each command as
to whether it is based on divine revelation or (Allah may forbid) just the
result of mental disorder.
(2). Who can deny that the ever-successful lion of
Allah 'Ali ibn Abi
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