On this one senior officer of the police...

On this one senior officer of the police, `Abd al-Rahman ibn Jahsh al-`Asadi got entangled with Malik al-Ashtar saying that what the emir said was right. When the dispute increased, at the instance of Malik al-Ashtar, the important persons of al-Kūfah, roughed him up and rendered him incapable of walking back home. After this event the suppressed flames of hatred rose. Wherever some people gathered they started talking ill of Sa`id and blamed `Uthman who had appointed him.

Sa`id could not do anything more than stopping those people from visiting him and wrote to `Uthman that certain persons were trying to create mischief against the state. `Uthman wrote in his reply that those persons must be exiled to Syria and wrote to Mu`awiyah that some mischief mongers were being sent to Syria who have to be kept in check that they do not conspire against the State. As a result, some persons were forcibly sent to Syria.

The persons who were termed mischievous were the important persons of al-Kūfah, amongst whom were the memorizers of Qur’an, of the Prophet (a.s) and some others who were known for their piety.

Main persons amongst them were Malik ibn al-Harith al-Ashtar, Malik ibn Ka`b al-Arhabi, al-Aswad ibn Yazid al-Nakha`i, `Alqamah ibn Sawhan al-`Abdi, Zayd ibn Sawhan, al-Harith ibn `Abdullah al-A`war, Thabit ibn Qays al-Hamdani, Kumayl ibn Ziyad al-Nakha`i, Jundub ibn Zuhayr al-Ghamidi, Jundub ibn Ka`b al-Azdi, `Urwah ibn al-Ja`d and `Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuza`i.

The crime for which they were being exiled from their homes was that they had asserted their rights and had raised their voices against the tyranny of the ruling class. If, in a state that had claims of democracy, they protested against the tyranny and encroachment of a particular tribe on the lands jointly owned by the people, what wrong did they commit?

If the same persons had adopted the policy of nodding their heads in assent to the deeds of the governor, they would have remained in his good books. But these were the true practitioners of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. If they had adopted an aggressive attitude, it was because of their moral duty to express the truth. When they reached Damascus, they were accommodated at Kunyah-Maryam, and instead of being harsh with them, Mu`awiyah adopted a soft political attitude with them.

He told them that Islam had elevated their status that they [1] Al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh, Vol 3, Page 70 had ascendance over other people.