The other rules and leaders pay most eloquent tributes to...

The other rules and leaders pay most eloquent tributes to their own ideals and principles but in practice they give their devotion only to realpolitik; to the philosophy of politics minus ethics; and they put their own self-interest ahead of everything else. If Ali had ever sacrificed principle to policy, then his government would have ceased to be the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. This he could not allow. He had revived the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth which was first established by Muhammad.

Both of them knew that the “Kingdom” was a delicate and a frail structure, and that it was threatened on all sides by hostile forces - both overt and covert. They knew too that if they compromised with principle, then the “Kingdom” would collapse from within. Doing so, therefore, was unthinkable for them. They did not compromise with principle, and if they had to pay a price for upholding it, they cheerfully paid it. Ali was grappling with the moral scourge that war represents.

He believed that war and the preparation for war, were incompatible with the health and well-being of the human race. The conquest of war, therefore, was his grand preoccupation. For Ali, all was not fair in war. He rigidly applied and enforced the commandments of Qur’an to politics and war. If he could win a victory through questionable means, he preferred to forgo victory but he did not take recourse to deceit.

His own principles and his own humanity were, to him, far more important than victory in war. As already noted in an earlier chapter, during the times of the Prophet, whenever Ali met an enemy in battle, he offered him three options. They were: **1.**Accept Islam; or, **2.**Do not fight against Muhammad who is the Apostle of God, and withdraw from the battle; **3.**If the first two options are not acceptable to you, then you be the first one to strike at me.

During his own caliphate, Ali was compelled to fight against those Muslims who had risen in rebellion against the central government. He appealed to them to resolve disputes through negotiation instead of fighting. Fighting, for him was the last option, and the most repugnant one. But if anyone challenged him, then he (the challenger) had to be the first to strike at him. He was never the first to strike at his foe. He insisted on fighting only a defensive action.

In the campaigns of the Prophet, before a general engagement of the forces, the champions of each side fought duels just like the Roman gladiators.