Hadith 434

greetings’. Amro answered him, ‘As for after, he has been fair, one who makes the Quran to be an Imam and calls the people to its judgments, Abu Hassan-asws, for surely you cannot get except what the Quran gives you-asws. And the greetings’. Nasr (the reporter) said, ‘And Al-Ash’as came to Ali-asws and said, ‘O Amir Al-Momineen-asws! I do not see the people except as being pleased and happy that they are answering the people to what they are calling them to, from a judgment of the Quran. So, if you-asws so desire, I can go to Muawiya and asked him what he wants, and you-asws consider what is that which he should be asked’. He-asws said: ‘Go to him and ask him, ‘O Muawiya! For which thing (reason) did you raise these Qurans? ’
He (Muawiya) said, ‘For us and you to return to what Allah-azwj has Commanded with in it, so send men from you who are pleased with it and we shall send men from us, and we shall take upon them that they should act with what is in the Book of Allah-azwj and not turn back from it. Then we shall follow whatever they are both concordant upon’. Al-Ash’as said, ‘This, it is the truth’, and he left to from the side of Ali-asws and informed him. Ali-asws sent readers from the people of Al-Iraq, and Muawiya sent readers from the people of Syria. They gathered between the two rows and with them were the Qurans, and they looked into it and learned it, and they united upon that they would revive what the Quran revives and kill of what the Quran kills off, and each group returned to its counterpart. The people of Syria said, ‘We are pleased and have chosen Amro Bin Al-Aas’. And Al-Ash’as and the readers, who afterwards became Khawarijites said, ‘And we are pleased and choose Abu Musa Al-Ashary’. But, I-asws am not pleased with Abu Musa, nor do I-asws see that he should be in-charge of it’. Al-Ash’as, and Zayd Bin Husayn, and Mis’ar Bin Fadaky said in a group, ‘We are not pleased except with him, for he used to caution us of what we have fallen into’. He-asws said: ‘It is not with agreement for me-asws. He had separated from me-asws and got the people to forsake me-asws and he fled from me-asws until I-asws granted him amnesty after months. But this, Ibn Abbas would be in-charge of that’. They said, ‘By Allah-azwj! We do not mind whether it is you-asws or Ibn Abbas, and we do not want except a man who is equal from you-asws and from Muawiya, not being towards one of you, closer than the other’. Ali-asws said: ‘So, I-asws hereby make Al-Ashtar (to be for it)’. Al-Ash’as said, ‘Is the earth too pricey upon us except Al-Ashtar, and are we only going to be in a decision of Al-Ashtar? ’ Ali-asws said: ‘And what is his decision? ’ He said, ‘His decision is that we should strike each other with the sword until it happens what you-asws want or what he wants’’. [61]