In response to Muawiya

In reply to Mu‘āwiyah, and it is one of his most elegant writings

Now, your letter [1] has reached me wherein you recall that Allāh chose Muḥammad (S) for His religion and helped him through those companions who helped him. Strange things about you have remained concealed (by the irony…

You think that so-and-so are the most distinguished persons in Islam. You have said such a thing which if it be true, you have nothing to do with it, but if it be not so, then its defect will not affect you. And what are…

O man, why do you not see your own lameness and remain within bounds, and why do not you realize the shortness of your measure and stay back where destiny has placed you. You have no concern with the defeat of the…

Do you not realize it? I am not giving you any news: I am just recounting Allāh’s bounty, namely that a number of people from among the muhājirūn (immigrants from Mecca) and anṣār (helpers) fell as martyrs in the way of…

Do you not know that a number of people lost their hands in the way of Allāh, and that everyone is distinguished (on that account), but when the same thing occurred to one of us he was given the name “the flier in…

If Allāh had not forbidden self-praise, the writer would have mentioned numerous distinctions which the believer knows full well and which the ears of hearers do not wish to forget. Better leave those whose arrows miss…

In spite of our old established honour and our well-known superiority over your people, we did not stay away from mixing with you and married and got married (among you) like equals although you were not so. And how…

Our Islam is well-known and our (greatness in the) pre-Islamic period too cannot be denied. Whatever remains has been mentioned in the words of Allāh the Glorified, the Sublime: And blood relations have the better claim…

Thus, we are superior firstly because of kinship and secondly because of obedience. When at Saqīfah (of Banū Sā‘idah) the muhājirūn contended kinship with the Messenger of Allah (S) against the anṣār, they scored over…

You think that I have been jealous of every caliph and have revolted against them. Even if this be so, it is not an offence against you and therefore no explanation is due to you. “This is a matter for which no blame…

You have said that I was dragged like a camel with a nose string to swear allegiance (to Abū Bakr at Saqīfah). By the Eternal Allāh, you had intended to revile me but you have praised me, and to humiliate me but have…

Then you have recalled my position vis-à-vis ‘Uthmān, and in this matter an answer is due to you because of your kinship with him. So (now tell me), which of us was more inimical towards ‘Uthmān and who did more to bring…

I am not going to offer my excuse for reproving him for (some of) his innovations, for if my good counsel and guidance to him was a sin then very often a person who is blamed has no sin and “sometimes the only reward a…

“I desired naught but reform what I am able to (do); and my guidance is not but with Allāh; On Him (alone) do I rely, and unto Him (alone) do I turn.” (Qur’ān, 11:88)

You have mentioned that for me and for my followers you have only the sword. This makes even a weeping person laugh. Did you ever see the descendants of ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib running away from battle, or being frightened by…