ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Voice of Human Justice (Sautu'l 'Adalati'l Insaniyah) Two impostors The organized conspiracy which was afoot against the Commander of the Faithful did not come to end even after the defeat of his opponents in the Battle of the Camel, because the aspirations of his opponents and the causes of their enmity against him were still there.

If one group of those who conspired against him was in Hijaz the other was in Syria and both of these groups had many supporters of Ayesha, Talha and Zubayr. The ring-leaders of these people were the governors and other officers who had accumulated large wealth illegally during the period of Uthman and did not expect any such indulgence from Ali. The supporters of Ali in Hijaz were all indigent believers or the pious companions of the Prophet.

His position in Hijaz was similar to that of his cousin, the Prophet and if there was any difference it was only due to the time and circumstances. The similarity is proved by the fact that his enemies were mostly the Quraysh, who had been the enemies of the Prophet earlier. Ali says: “Let the Quraysh involve themselves in deviation and do not bother about the dissensions which they create or the egotism which they display.

They have united to fight against me just as they had united to fight against the Prophet of God”. In Syria Mu`awiya was busy in his nefarious activities against Ali - the lawful caliph. He was spending enormous sums of money and making very attractive promises to win the support of the people. He had also a large army of which he was the despotic head. This army may briefly be described thus: “They were foolish mercenaries.

They were paid by Mu`awiya who took care that as far as possible they should remain devoid of intellect”.

We mention below an incident which explains the nature of the soldiery of Mu`awiya and also shows that he was convinced that his rival Ali was on the right, and it was not difficult for him to achieve success against him because he was to face Ali having with him (Mu`awiya) the soldiers, who did not possess the capability of differentiating between injustice and justice or in other words between Mu`awiya and Ali.

After the army of Ali returned from Siffin, a Kufan came to Damascus mounted on his camel. One of the Syrians claimed that the she-camel belonged to him and had been snatched away from him by the Kufan during the Battle of Siffin.