It may be said in this connection that Mu'awiya’s ignorance...

It may be said in this connection that Mu'awiya’s ignorance of the problem was more baseless then his original claim, because he wanted to provide for a rule on the subject on the basis of exceptions and to make it prevail over the general orders and forge a sanctity for himself so that by this action he might show the Islamic society to be false and depraved. And relying on this he claimed that the vote of the people of Syria and not of those of the Hijaz was worthy of obedience.

Anyhow I do not know, if this claim of Mu'awiya was not domineering and coercion, what else domineering and coercion are! All the reasoning and arguments of Mu'awiya were feeble and baseless like the vegetables which grow on the surface of water and he himself knew that they were even feebler than that. He relied on this pretext only for the reason that he knew that the power of understanding and assessment of the people was weaker and more baseless than even the strength of such vegetables.

Apart from this the decision taken by Mu'awiya in those days was not something new. It was a deep and comprehensive decision which had traversed many stages with care and solidity. This fact has already been referred to in this book and the readers have not perhaps forgotten Abu Sufyan's having been turned away by ‘Ali after the meeting at Saqifa.

Anyhow these stages were the outcome of some historical factors which proved to be more beneficial for the Umayyad party-spirit as compared with the Hashimite justice. Furthermore, the historical events which manifested themselves during the period of the third Caliph were the most effective factors which according to the exigencies of the time proved harmful to ‘Ali.

‘Ali had all these matters in view and none knew better than he that during this interval, as demanded by the circumstances, the only way of over coming the difficulties and the last means to arrive at a final solution was soothing covetousness and returning to the revival of party spirit and purchase of consciences!

But Imam ‘Ali was a man who said: "I am not going to seek help from the deviated seducers or to make them the means of success.” He made this position clearly known to Mughira who contacted him and suggested that Mu'awiya might be allowed to retain Damascus. Imam ‘Ali gave the same reply to Mu'awiya when he asked him to entrust the government of Damascus and Cairo to him so that he (Mu'awiya) might take oath of allegiance to him. ‘Ali rejected his request.