In one of his letters to Malik al-Ashtar...

In one of his letters to Malik al-Ashtar, he wrote the following: “First I pulled back my hand until I realized that a group of people converted from Islam and invited the people toward annihilating the religion of Muhammad (s). So I feared that if I did not rush to help Islam and the Muslims, I would see gaps or destruction which calamity would be far worse than the several-day-long demise of caliphate.