What follows is a part of the book Nahj al-Balagha, the most famous collection of sermons, letters, tafsirs and stories attributed to Imam Ali (A.S). It was collected by Al-Sharif al-Radi, the Shiite scholar of the tenth century. Known for its eloquent content, it is considered as a masterpiece of literature in Shiite Islam, ranked third behind the Qur’an and prophetic narratives. This is the 27th Sermon of this book.
Muawiyah’s soldiers attacking a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim woman and shouting of Imam Ali (A.S.) from this oppression is a famous superstition of the sermon of Nahj al-Balaghah that If you read thousands of times, this is little.
According to Shafaqna, this is a part of this sermon:
…. I have come to know that every one of them entered upon a Muslim woman and other a non-Muslim woman under protection of Islam and took away their ornaments from legs, arms, necks and ears and no woman could resist it except by pronouncing the verse, “We are for Allah and to Him we shall return.” (Qur’an, 2:156) Then they got back laden with wealth without any wound or loss of life.
If any Muslim dies of grief after all this he is not to be blamed but rather there is justification for him before me.
How strange! How strange! By Allah my heart sinks to see the unity of these people on their wrong and your dispersion from your right. Woe and grief befall you. You have become the target at which arrows are shot. You are being killed and you do not kill. You are being attacked but you do not attack. Allah is being disobeyed and you remain agreeable to it. When I ask you to move against them in summer you say it is hot weather. Spare us till heat subsides from us. When I order you to march in winter you say it is severely cold; give us time till cold clears from us. These are just excuses for evading heat and cold because if you run away from heat and cold, you would be, by Allah, running away (in a greater degree) from sword (war).
O’ you semblance of men, not men, your intelligence is that of children and your wit is that of the occupants of the curtained canopies (women kept in seclusion from the outside world). I wish I had not seen you nor known you. By Allah, this acquaintance has brought about shame and resulted in repentance. May Allah fight you! You have filled my heart with pus and loaded my bosom with rage. You made me drink mouthful of grief one after the other.
You shattered my counsel by disobeying and leaving me so much so that Quraysh started saying that the son of Abi Talib is brave but does not know (tactics of) war. Allah bless them! Is any one of them fiercer in war and older in it than I am? I rose for it although yet within twenties, and here I am, have crossed over sixty, but one who is not obeyed can have no opinion.
Source: en.shafaqna.com
