Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 40559 — The journey of Aishah, Ali, Talhah

Asim bin Kulayb al-Jarmi said: My honored father narrated: We besieged Tawwaj (a city), and the commander of our army was Sayyiduna Mujashi' bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) of the tribe of Banu Sulaym. When we had conquered the city, I was wearing a worn-out shirt, so I went to those Persian dead whom we had put to the sword. I took off the shirt of one of the dead, which had marks of blood on it. I washed it between stones, rubbed it hard until it was thoroughly clean, then put it on and went to the settlement. I took a needle and thread from the spoils and stitched my torn shirt. Mujashi' bin Mas'ud stood up and said: O people, do not embezzle anything. Whoever embezzles will bring it on the Day of Resurrection, even if it is only a needle. So I took off the shirt and began unpicking my own shirt, until, by Allah, my son, I began tearing my own shirt so that the thread (from the spoils) would not break. Then I took the needle and the shirt to the spoils and put these things back. Then I saw people in this world embezzling many wasqs at a time, and when I said to them: What is this? they would answer: Our share of the spoils comes to even more than this. Asim said: My revered father saw a dream when he had gone to the siege of Tawwaj in the time of the caliphate of Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). When my father saw a dream, he saw it very clearly. My father had also lived in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He saw in the dream a sick man, with people quarreling near him, their hands rising toward one another and their voices growing loud. Near them sat a woman dressed in green, and it seemed that if she wished she could reconcile them. Meanwhile a man stands up, turns over the lining of his cloak, and says: O Muslims, has your Islam grown worn out, while this is the shirt of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which has not yet grown old? Meanwhile another man stood up, seized one cover of the Noble Qur'an and shook it, so that the leaves of the Noble Qur'an began to scatter. Asim said: My father related this dream to those who interpret dreams, but no one could tell its interpretation; rather, those who interpret would become alarmed on hearing the dream. Asim said: My father said: I came to Basrah and saw the people preparing an army. I asked: What has happened to them? The people told me: News has reached these people that some people have gone to Sayyiduna Uthman (to stir up trouble against him), and now these (people of Basrah) are going to help Sayyiduna Uthman. Then Ibn Amir stood up and said: The Commander of the Faithful has made peace, and the force that went to him has turned back. (On hearing this) the people of Basrah also returned to their homes. After this, the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Uthman plunged them into severe grief. I have never before seen so many old men weeping so much that their beards were wet with tears. Then only a short time passed before Sayyiduna al-Zubayr and Sayyiduna Talhah (may Allah be pleased with them both) came to Basrah, and then, a little later, Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) came and stopped at Dhu Qar (the name of a place). Two elders of the tribe said to me: Come, let us go to him (Ali, may Allah be pleased with him) and see what he calls to and what position he has come with. So we set out and advanced toward them. When we came near them, their groups came into our view. Suddenly our gaze fell on a strong, sturdy young man who was coming out of the camp (Al-Ala said: I think he said: on a mule). When I saw him, he closely resembled the woman I had seen in the dream sitting by the sick man. I said to my companions: If the woman I saw in the dream sitting at the sick man's head has a brother, then this is her brother. One of the two elders who were with me said: What do you want with this man? And he nudged me with his elbow. The young man heard our talk and said: What are you saying? One of my companions said: He said nothing; go on your way. But the young man insisted: Tell me what you were saying. So I told him my dream. The young man said: You saw this dream? Then he became alarmed, and in his alarm he kept saying: You saw this dream? You saw this dream? He kept saying this until his voice, growing more distant from us, faded away. I asked someone: Who was this person who met us? He answered: Muhammad bin Abi Bakr. Asim's revered father said: Then we recognized that the woman (whom I had seen in the dream) was Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her). He said: When I reached the camp, I came to the shrewdest of the Arabs, meaning Sayyiduna Ali. By Allah, he went into the genealogy of my people until I began to say: By Allah, he knows them better than I do. Then he said: Are not the Banu Rasib in Basrah more numerous than the Banu Qudamah? I said: Yes. He said: Are you the chief of your people? I said: No; I am obeyed among them, but there is another who is a greater chief and more obeyed among them than I am. He said: Who is the chief of the Banu Rasib? I said: So-and-so. He said: And the chief of the Banu Qudamah? I said: So-and-so, another man. He said: Will you deliver two letters from me to them? I said: Yes. He said: Will you not pledge allegiance? So the two elders who were with me pledged allegiance. Some people who were with him raised a clamor. My father gestured with his hand, closing it and moving it, as if to say: There was a lightness in them. They began saying: Pledge allegiance, pledge allegiance! And prostration had eaten away at their faces. Ali said to the people: Leave the man alone. My father said: My people have sent me only as a scout, and I shall report to them what I have seen. If they pledge allegiance to you, I will pledge allegiance to you, and if they keep away from you, I will keep away from you. Ali said: What do you think: if your people sent you as a scout and you saw a meadow and a pool, and you said: My people, to the pasture, to the pasture! and they refused, would you not go to the pasture yourself? So I took hold of one of his fingers and said: We pledge allegiance to you on condition that we obey you so long as you obey Allah; and if you disobey Him, you have no right to obedience from us. He said: Yes, drawing out his voice with it. So I struck my hand upon his. Then he turned to Muhammad bin Hatib (may Allah be pleased with him), who was at one side of the people, and said: When you go to your people in Basrah, deliver my letters and my words to them. Muhammad moved over to him and said: When I come to my people, they will say: What does your companion say about Uthman? Those around him reviled Uthman. I saw Ali's forehead sweating out of dislike for what they were saying. Muhammad said: O people, stop; by Allah, it is not you I am asking, nor am I asking about you. Ali said: Tell them that my word about Uthman is the best of words: Uthman was among those who believed and did righteous deeds, then feared Allah and believed, then feared Allah and did good; and Allah loves those who do good. My father said: I had not left when the people of Kufah came to Ali. They began meeting me and saying: Do you think our brothers from among the people of Basrah will fight us? They would laugh and marvel, then say: By Allah, if we meet, we shall give each other what is right. It seemed they thought they would not fight one another. I set out with Ali's letter. As for one of the two men to whom he had written, he accepted the letter and answered it. I was directed to the other, but he hid himself; had they said "Kulayb," he would not have given me permission. I handed him the letter and said: This is Ali's letter. I told him that I had told Ali that he was the chief of his people. But he refused to accept the letter and said: I have no need of chieftainship today. Your chiefs today are only like filth, or the lowly, or the pretenders. And he said: Tell him: I have no need of that today. And he refused to answer him. By Allah, I had not returned to Ali when the two armies had drawn close, and their slaves traded insults, and the Qur'an reciters who were with Ali mounted when the people began thrusting at one another. I did not reach Ali until the people had finished their fighting. I went in to al-Ashtar, who had wounds. (Asim said: There was kinship between us and him through the women.) When he looked at my father, while the house was full of his companions, he said: O Kulayb, you know Basrah better than we do, so go and buy me the finest camel we can find there. So I bought from a headman of Mahrah his camel for five hundred. He said: Take it to Aishah and say: Your son Malik sends you greetings and says: Take this camel and travel on it in place of your camel. She said: May Allah not give him peace! He is no son of mine. And she refused to accept it. I returned to him and told him what she had said. He sat up straight, bared his forearm, and said: Aishah blames me over the death that kills! I came forward among a motley band from Madhhij, and there was Ibn Attab, who had dismounted, and he grappled with me. He said: Kill me and Malik! So I struck him and he fell flat. Then he sprang at Ibn al-Zubayr, who said: Kill me and Malik! And I would not have liked him to have said: Kill me and al-Ashtar, even if every woman of Madhhij had borne a son in return. My father said: I took a jab at that in an unguarded moment; I said: What good would it do you, when you say that every woman of Madhhij should bear a son? Then my father drew near him and said: Commend me to the governor of Basrah, for I shall be staying on after you. He said: If the governor of Basrah saw you, he would honor you. It was as if he thought that he himself was the governor. My father left him, and a man met him and said: The Commander of the Faithful stood up a little while ago to give a sermon; he has appointed Ibn Abbas over the people of Basrah, and he says that he will march to Syria on such-and-such a day. My father went back and told al-Ashtar. He said to my father: Did you hear him say it? My father said: No. So he rebuked him and said: Sit down; this is falsehood. I had not stayed long before a man came and gave him the same report as mine. He said: Did you hear that? He said: No. So he rebuked him, less harshly than he had rebuked me, and he glanced at me while I was at the side of the people, as if to say: This man has brought the same as your report. I had not stayed long before Attab al-Taghlibi came, with his sword swinging or shaking on his neck, and said: This is your Commander of the Faithful! He has appointed his cousin over Basrah, and he says that he will march to Syria on such-and-such a day. Al-Ashtar said to him: Did you hear him, O one-eyed man? He said: Yes, by Allah, I heard it with these two ears of mine. He smiled a smile that bared his teeth and said: Then we do not know why we killed the old man in Madinah! Then he said to his men of Madhhij: Get up and mount. So he mounted, and I think that on that day he had no one in mind except Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). Ali resolved to send cavalry to fight him. Then he wrote to him: What kept me from appointing you was not that you are unfit for it; rather, I wished to meet the people of Syria, who are your people, and I wished to seek support from you against them. And he called out to the people to march. Al-Ashtar stayed until the first of the people caught up with him. He had fixed Monday for them, as far as I think; but when al-Ashtar did what he did, he called out to the people to march before that.