SERMON 179


Condemning his disobedient men

I praise Allah for whatever matter He ordained and whatever action He destines and for my trial with you, O' group of people who do not obey when I order and do not respond when I call you. If you are at ease you engage in (conceited) conversation, but if you are faced with battle you show weakness. If people agree on one Imam you taunt each other. If you are faced with an arduous matter you turn away from it. May others have no father (woe to your enemy!) what are you waiting for in the matter of your assistance and for fighting for your rights? For you there is either death or disgrace. By Allah, if my day (of death) comes. and it is sure to come, it will cause separation between me and you although I am sick of your company and feel lonely with you.

May Allah deal with you! Is there no religion which may unite you nor sense of shamefulness that may sharpen you? Is it not strange that Mu`awiyah calls out to some rude low people and they follow him without any support or grant, but when I call you, although you are the successors of Islam and the (worthy) survivors of the people, with support and distributed grants you scatter away from me and oppose me? Truly, there is nothing between me to you which I like and you also like it, or with which I am angry and you may also unite against it. What I love most is death. I have taught you the Qur'an, clarified to you arguments, apprised you of what you were ignorant and made you swallow what you were spitting out. Even a blind man would have been able to see, and he who was sleeping would have been awakened. How ignorant of Allah is their leader Mu`awiyah and their instructor Ibn an-Nabighah. (1)

(1). "an-Nabighah" is the surname of Layla bint Harmalah al-`Anaziyyah, mother of `Amr ibn al-`As. The reason for attributing him to his mother is her common reputation in the matter. When Arwa bint al-Harith ibn `Abd al-Muttalib went to Mu`awiyah, during the conversation, when `Amr ibn al-`As intervened, she said to him: "O' son of an-Nabighah, you too dare speak, although your mother was known publicly and was a singer of Mecca. That is why five persons claimed you (as a son), and when she was asked she admitted that five people had visited her and that you should be regarded as the son of him you resembled most. You must have resembled al-`As ibn Wa'il and therefore you came to be known as his son." These five persons were (1) al-`As ibn Wa'il, (2) Abu Lahab, (3) Umayyah ibn Khalaf, (4) Hisham ibn al-Mughirah, and (5) Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. (Ibn `Abd Rabbih, al-`lqd al-farid, vol. 2, p. 120; Ibn Tayfur, Balaghat an-nisa', p. 27; Ibn Hijjah, Thamarat al-awraq, vol. 1, p. 132; Safwat, Jamharat khutab al-`Arab, vol. 2, p.363; Ibn Abi'l-Hadid, vol. 6, pp. 283-285, 291; al-Halabi, as-Sirah vol. 1, p. 46).

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