It is the love under whose shadow the people walk about and...

It is the love under whose shadow the people walk about and in whose lap they seek refuge. This love is an invaluable blessing because it is dearer than whatever price is fixed for it, and is greater than every great thing”. Ali says that every person should establish friendship and love with others so that peace may prevail, because during peace time the atmosphere of a city remains tranquil and the people do not feel any fear.

One should avoid warfare, because war is oppression and it is highly indecent and improper to oppress God's creatures. Whether the result of war is victory or retreat it is harmful in both cases. War is ruination and destruction for the victor as well as for the vanquished. War destroys human honour.

The victor is considered to be an opponent of intellect and conscience, an enemy of love, who treats human life to be valueless, and one who is defeated is humiliated and his life and property are also destroyed. Ali says: “One who gains victory by evil means is in fact defeated”. “Nothing is worse than fighting and bloodshed”. Ali has considered looting and plundering which were the preliminaries of war between the tribes during the age of ignorance to be one of the most horrible acts.

According to Ali looting and plundering, idol-worshipping, and burying the girls alive, were sins of the same kind and their origin is also one and the same. That origin is that man is not aware of his own value or that of life and there can be no greater ignorance than this. He says: “They had reached the abyss of ignorance. They buried their girls alive, worshipped the idols and robbed and plundered one another”.

He detested fighting so much that he forbade it even during the most difficult circumstances and did not permit that one should challenge another to combat. He says: “Never challenge another person to combat”. When we study the life and conduct of Ali it becomes abundantly clear that he condemned many characteristics of the people and considered many things in the world to be abominable.

As regards the characteristics of the people he first of all condemned inclination towards mischief and bloodshed. As regards the abominable things there was nothing more hateful in his eyes than warfare. This sentence of his deserves to be kept in mind: “This world is the abode of war, plundering and bloodshed”. Fighting is as much injurious for truth as it is the source of refuge for falsehood.