When his men were overpowered by Muawiya''s men

When Amīr al-mu’minīn received successive news that Mu‘āwiyah’s men were occupying cities, [1] and his own officers in Yemen namely ‘Ubaydullāh ibn ‘Abbās and Said ibn Nimrān came to him retreating after being…

Nothing (is left to me) but Kūfah which I can hold and extend (which is in my hand to play with). (O Kūfah) if this is your condition that whirlwinds continue blowing through you then Allah may destroy you.

Then he illustrated with the verse of a poet : O ‘Amr! By your good father’s life. I have received only a small bit of fat from this pot (fat that remains sticking to it after it has been emptied).

Then he continued : I have been informed that Busr has overpowered Yemen. By Allāh, I have begun thinking about these people that they would shortly snatch away the whole country through their unity on their wrong and…

O my Allāh they are disgusted of me and I am disgusted of them. They are weary of me and I am weary of them. Change them for me with better ones and change me for them with worse one. O my Allāh melt their hearts as salt…

By Allāh I wish I had only a thousand horsemen of Banu Firās ibn Ghanm (as the poet says) : If you call them the horsemen would come to you like the summer cloud.

(Thereafter Amīr al-mu’minīn alighted from the pulpit)

as-Sayyid ar-Raḍī says: In this verse the word “armiyah” is plural of “ramiyy” which means cloud and “hamīm” here means summer. The poet has particularised the cloud of summer because it moves swiftly. This is because it…