Hadith 18

n, not missing its prey by its dodging. How (can you) and I-asws am for you with that, and you are a companion of the daughter of Al-Bakr, the one in seclusion. The sound of thunder alarms her. And I-asws am Ali-asws Bin Abu Talib-asws! I-asws can neither be threatened with the fighting nor be frightened by the battle. If you like, O Muawiya, then duel. And the greeting’. When this answer arrived to Muawiya Bin Abu Sufyan, he gathered a gathering of his companions, and among them was Amro Bin Al-Aas. He read it out to them. Amro said to him, ‘The man has been fair to you. How many men, good for the Sake of Allah-azwj have been killed between you two. Duel him-asws! ’
He said to him, ‘Abu Abdullah! You missed the dug hole. I should go to him-asws for duel along with my knowledge that no one has duelled to him-asws except and he-asws has killed him? No, by Allah-azwj! But I shall send you for duel to him-asws’’. [86]
A copy of another letter from Muawiya Bin Abu Sufyan to Amir Al-Momineen-asws, ‘As for after, surely if we had known that the war would reach with us and you-asws what is had reached, we would not have made it to be upon each other, and ever if our intellects have been overcome upon, so there (still) remain what we can discard what has passed, and we can reconcile in what remains. And I had asked you-asws (to let me govern) Syria upon (a condition) that you-asws will not necessitate me the obedience to you-asws, but you-asws refused that upon me, and today I am calling you-asws to what I had called you to yesterday. You-asws do not wish from the remaining (life) except what I am wishing for, nor do you-asws fear from the perishing except what I am fearing. And by Allah-azwj, the armies have thinned out (less number), and the men are gone, and we are all sons of Abd Manaf. There isn’t any merit for some of us over the others the honourable can be humiliated with nor can the free one be taken away’. Answer of Amir Al-Momineen-asws: ‘From a servant of Allah-azwj, Amir Al-Momineen Ali-asws Bin Abu Talib-asws, to Muawiya Bin Abu Sufyan. As for after, ‘There has come in your letter a mention that if you had known that the war would reach with us and you what it has reached, we would not have made it to be upon each other, and we and you and seeking an end from it (which) we have not reached yet. And as for your demand to me-asws of Syrian, I-asws am not going to give you today what I-asws had refused yesterday. And as for our sameness in the fear and the hope, I-asws will not be going upon the doubt from me-asws over the certainty, nor are the people of Syria greedier upon the world than the people of Al-Iraq are upon the hereafter. And as for your words that we are sons of Abd Manaf, we are like that, but Umayya isn’t like Hashim-asws, nor is Harb like Abdul Muttalib-asws, nor is Abu Sufyan like Abu Talib-asws, nor is the freed one (at the conquest of Makkah) like the Emigrant, nor is the false like the true, and in our hands is merit of the Prophet-hood with which we killed the mighty, and sold the free with it. And the greeting’’. [87]