Every fair thinking person can make out from the attitude of `Ali (a.

Every fair thinking person can make out from the attitude of `Ali (a.s) that his purpose in fighting was just to curb the mischief and not to kill men and plunder territories, as was done by some others not very long ago! While `Ali (a.s) was very much against unnecessary bloodletting, he did not permit anyone’s blood going waste without the application of qisas . Therefore, when `Umar was killed, his son `Ubaydullah killed al-Harmuzan and a few other innocent persons.

`Uthman closed his eyes to this and was not willing to punish the guilty. When Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) took reins in his hands, he determined to extract qisas for the life of al-Harmuzan. But the culprit flew and went to the protection of Mu`awiyah in Syria.

Ibn al-Athir writes: “When `Ali (a.s) took reins of office, he decided to get `Ubaydullah executed, but he (the culprit) escaped to Mu`awiyah in Syria.”[1] `Ubaydullah ibn `Umar was finally killed fighting against `Ali (a.s) in the Battle of Siffin. The Right of Thought The second right is the freedom of thought. This means that every individual must be free of extraneous pressures in his thought process so that he is able to independently decide what is good for him and what is bad.

If this freedom of thought is curbed, then he will say a thing is good if the powerful say it is good, and he will accept a thing as bad when the persons in power say that it was bad. He will thus be subservient to the thinking of others and will not have any independent opinion about things. The freedom of thought is the most important aspect of freedom and wherever it is curbed, there the society becomes retrograde.

Islam brought forth this freedom of thought to its followers and broke all the oppressive practices of the Days of Ignorance ( jahiliyyah ). There is no place for coercion in Islam and its beliefs have never been forcefully thrust on anyone. Those who wanted to embrace Islam were invited to freely think about it and decide for themselves if they were willing to embrace the Faith.

[1] Al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh, Vol 3, Page 40 Therefore, the Qur’an tells in very clear terms: لاَ إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنْ الغَيِّ. “There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error. (2/256)” The period of Amir al-Mu’minin’s reign was a period of independence of though for the people.