Al Bidayah Page 128 Volume 8 "Prior to the battle of Siffeen...

Al Bidayah Page 128 Volume 8 "Prior to the battle of Siffeen, 'Ali gave Jareer bin Abdullah a letter that said 'Mu'awiya give me bay'a and obey me, do not create fitnah in the Islamic State'. Mu'awiya replied to Jareer, 'If 'Ali makes me Governor over the provinces of Egypt and Syria I will give him bayya, on the condition that after him no one else is given bay'a save me".

Imam of Ahl'ul Sunnah Khawarzmi in his "Manaqib" page 179 Chapter "Dhikr Siffeen" states that: "Mu'awiya wrote a letter to 'Ali which he sent via the hand of 'Abdullah bin Ukbah. In the letter he stated 'I asked you about my ruling Syria, and placed an additional condition that neither I give you bay'a nor do I obey you, but you rejected this. I continue to hold the same view about Syria and my not giving you bay'a".

This and the previous reference from al Bidaya proves he had NO INTEREST in the killing Uthman rather his interest was one - gaining power. Mu'awiya simply used Uthman's murder as an 'excuse' not to give baya to Imam 'Ali (as). If he was indeed sincere perhaps Abu Sulaiman can explain why Mu'awiya did not ask for the killers to be handed following arbitration between the two sides at Sifeen?

After all as Abu Sulaiman states the Syrians loved him and Mu'awiya was so determined to avenge Uthman's death that he deemed it appropriate to go to war. This being the case how is it that he totally abandoned this determination when the two sides were negotiating, if Uthman's death was so important that thousands of lives could be lost, why did he all of a sudden abandon this resolve? If he was sincere would this not have been the very first thing that he demanded?

This was clearly a farce and Deobandi scholar Sayyid Ahmad Raza Bijnori in his commentary of Sahih al Bukhari "Anwar ul Bari" states on Volume 12 page 73: "Mu'awiya fought out of a personal desire for power and was motivated by his pro Umayya bias". Anwar-ul-Bari Sharah Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol.