Hadith 334

ple are refusing except that Ali-asws has killed Usman. By Allah-azwj! If you were to pledge allegiance to him, we will throw you out from Syrian or we will kill you’. Muawiya said, ‘I have not opposed you (before), and I am not except a man from the people of Syria’. He said, ‘Return this man to his companions, then’. He (the narrator) said, ‘Muawiya understood that Shirjeel, his insight had been implemented in battling the people of Al-Iraq, and that the people of Syria are with Shirjeel. Shirjeel went out and came to Huseyn Bin Numeyr. He said, ‘Send a message to Jareer’. He sent Huseyn, ‘Visit us for Shirjeel Bin Al-Simt is with us’. They gathered in his presence and Shirjeel spoke. He said, ‘O Jareer! You have come to us with a fabricated matter throwing us in the den of the lion, and you want to mingle Syria with Al-Iraq, and you are complimenting Ali-asws and he-asws is a killer of Usman. By Allah-azwj! You will be Questioned about what you said on the Day of Qiyamah’. Jareer faced towards him and said, ‘O Shirjeel! Is it not your word that I have come with a fabricated matter? Then how can it be a fabricated matter and the Emigrants and the Helpers are united upon it and fought upon fighting against Talha and Al-Zubeyr? And as for your words that I am throwing you into the lion’s den, so you have thrown yourself into the lion’s den. And as for mingling of Al-Iraq with Syria, so their mingling upon the truth is better than their being separate upon falsehood. And as for your words that Ali-asws killed Usman, by Allah-azwj, there is nothing from that in your hands except the slander, and they were slandering with the unseen from a far place [34: 53]. But you inclined towards the world and (for) a thing which was within yourself in the era of Sa’ad Bin Abu Waqas’. The words of the two men reached Muawiya, so he sent for Jareer and rebuked him, and Jareer wrote couplets to Shirjeel advising him in these. Shirjeel was frightened and was thoughtful, and the people lowered him and Muawiya surrounded the people to him and the rebuke of his people did not benefit him, nor others until Muawiya sent to cities of Syrian to seek the blood of Usman. He began with the people of Homs, and they answered him except the monks of the people of Homs, for they stood up to him and they said, ‘Our houses are our graves and our praying places, and you are more knowing with what you see’. And Shirjeel went on to agitate the cities of Syria until they were such that they accepted whatever he came to them with. Jareer despaired from Muawiya during that and from the public of Syria’’. [15]