When they heard this nomad's ideological question...

When they heard this nomad's ideological question, which apparently had nothing to do with the war and could be discussed and answered at a more appropriate time. They vented their spleen on this man for failing to appreciate situation they were in.

A Valuable Lesson Imam 'Ali, however, when he saw the Bedouin coming under attack from all sides, rose to his defense, and delivered these historic words, which may serve as a clear indication of the importance and role of ideological discussion, and of the value of ideological indoctrination: "Let him ask his question and refrain from scolding him.

For what this man of the desert wants to know is the very question over which we are in dispute with our enemies!" These words of Imam 'Ali, uttered in such circumstances are of extraordinary importance and deserve close study. If we consider the Imam's situation at that critical time, when any moment could be decisive, we may well agree that he really did not have the time to reply to this question: be might have asked someone else to deal with it or proposed that it be left till later.

But he neither referred it to someone else, nor postponed answering it, because he wanted to teach the Muslims an important lesson. He wanted to teach them the philosophy of jihad , or holy war. He wanted to show them the importance of ideological questions, discussions and indoctrination.

He wanted to say that if today Ali is fighting internal counter revolutionaries, and if tomorrow a descendant of 'Ali and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran is fighting internal and external counter revolutionaries and insists on continuing the war until the final victory, and if one-day the eleventh successor of 'Ali and Fatima, the promised Mahdi, is fighting world arrogance and atheism and all the Satanic forces of the age, and paints the earth red with their blood and cleanses the world from their pollution, all these wars are for Islam, all this fighting is to destroy the Satanic regimes that have prevented the blossoming of society's talents to free man from slavery a bondage, and to set him on the path towards absolute perfection and sublimity, as his creator intend.

It was for this reason that Imam 'Ali defended the Bedouin’s question at a critical and decisive moment, and used that brief opportunity to explain the philosophy of jihad and war.