"Do not accept the witness of Ali's followers or his descendants in courts"...

"Do not accept the witness of Ali's followers or his descendants in courts", another letter stated "If you have evidence that some person likes Ali and his family, then omit his name from the rations of Zakat", another letter continued, "Punish whoever is suspected to follow Ali and bring his house down". Such was the situation of Muawiya's rule.

Historians who were recording the waves of terror described them as unprecedented within history; the people were so frightened that they did not mind even being called atheists or thieves, just not followers of Imam Ali. Another facet of Muawiya's rule was the discrimination between Arabs and non-Arabs. It is an established fact that non-Arabs during Muawiya's reign were treated as third class citizens, although they embraced Islam they still had to pay Kharaj and Jizyah!

Non-Arab soldiers in the state armies used to fight for bare subsistence level. Once a dispute between an Arab and a non-Arab was presented to a court, the Judge was Abdullah ibn Amir, during the procedure the non-Arab sadly remarked to his opponent "May God not multiply people of your kind (meaning Arabs)”, The Arab answered him light heartedly "O God, increase their population among us (meaning non-Arabs)".

The people who were present asked the Arab in a state of bewilderment “How do you pray for their increase while he prays for your decease?" The Arab answered "Yes indeed, they clean our streets, make shoes for our animals, and weave our clothes". Perhaps the most dangerous mischief Muawiya had embarked upon was the fabrication of Hadiths.

When he was facing Imam Ali (as) as an adversary, he found his case to be hopeless, his past was dark and shameful, whilst that of Imam Ali was glorious and shining. In order to sustain his campaign and boast his followers, Muawiya had to attract weak character companions and employ them to fabricate Hadiths. Naturally, his aim was to boast his campaign, challenge adversaries, and legalize his claim to rule.

Muawiya's order was to not narrate any Hadith or incident in favour of Imam Ali but to fabricate a similar one and attribute it to Uthman, Umar and Abu Bakr. The second phase of this psychological warfare was to put Hadiths in Muawiya's favour. The third phase was to silence people and keep them calm at what he did whether in wronging Muslims or his violation of Islamic laws. This trend of fabrication of Hadiths, was constituting a grave danger to the integrity of Islam.