Nor did it succeed in restoring the determination of the...

Nor did it succeed in restoring the determination of the Imam's army to fight the unjust Umayyad party. The Imam tried after the Battle of Nahrawan to go directly to the land of Syria to face Muawiya in a decisive battle. But the army and its leaders expressed their desire to camp at Nukhailah near Kufa for a short rest through which they could regain their strength and renew their weapons and rest their animals of transportation.

As they camped at Al-Nukhailah they started to desert their camp gradually and secretly entering into Kufa as groups and individuals and they never came back. The Imam was finally forced to enter Kufa urging them day after day to go and face their enemies but they hated to go and they remained at their homes.[^3] It is not difficult to know the causes of the failures of these people to poerform their duties.

The righteous men who were the brains of the revolution such as Ammar Ibn Yasir Malik Al-Ashtar Khuzaimah Ibn Thabit (the man of two testimonies) Abdullah Ibn Badeel and Hashim Al-Mirqal had already died at the battle of Siffin or outside that battle. These righteous men were highly enlightened. They were concerned with the future of Islam and ready to sacrifice for the sake of the truth their wealth and their lives.

They were the links which used to tie the masses of the people with the Imam and inform them of his right and urge them to obey him and show them by their own action the living examples of obedience and sincerity towards his principles. They were always the first to respond to his call seeing in him the true representative of the Holy Prophet in word and deed. These righteous people had already met their Lord.

They were replaced by people such as Ashaath whose hearts were not occupied by faith or by men such as Hijr Ibn Uday and Uday Ibn Hatam who did not lack faith or sincerity but lacked the wide influence and the power of attracting the masses. The masses of people who fought with the Imam in three wars had already paid with the blood of their sons and brothers.

They became tired of fighting and inclined to an easier and peaceful life without having foresight which makes them concerned with the future and worried about Islam. The crisis of the Seceders brought about division in the camp of the Imam and destroyed the unity of his followers. The Seceders were annihilated at the Battle of Nahrawan but their death was not expected to raise the morale of the army which annihilated them.