Then Abu Hanifah al-Iskafi...

Then Abu Hanifah al-Iskafi, who neither took a penny from him, nor benefited from him, praised him for this and composed the following panegyric: O Ma'mun, the like of whom among the rulers of the State of Islam Has never been seen, by Arab or by simple peasant, Wore a coat of fur for so long That it became old, worn and tatty. His close companions were amazed at this excess And asked him for the reason for this.

He said: "Tales are left behind by kings Among the Arabs and the non-Arabs, not by fine cotton and linen! " And so on, each in his way excelling in the well-tried and oppressive politics of "holding the Qur'an up on spears", and defeating all effort and self-sacrifice, nipping each new resurgence in the bud.

This is nothing but the ignorance and unknowing of people, which does not know how to distinguish between slogans and reality, thus closing the way of resurgence and reformation to themselves, and then realizing that all the preparatory work has been cancelled out and that they must start at the beginning again.

Of all the great points we learn from the life of 'Ali, we see that this kind of struggle is not confined to any special group, but that everywhere that a group of Muslims, or those who are got up in the garb of religion, become a tool for the advance of non-Muslims and the progress of colonialism, and the colonialists, for the protection of their own interests, give them cover, and then use them as their shield, so that it becomes impossible to fight them without doing away with the shields, then it is necessary to begin by fighting with these shields and destroying them so as to remove the obstacle in the way and be able to attack at the heart of the enemy.

Perhaps the machinations of Mu'awiyah had something to do with the Khawarij's sabotage, and therefore even on that day Mu'awiyah, or at least people like al-Ash'ath ibn al-Qays, and other elements in the sabotage and disturbances, gave cover to the Khawarij.