Hadith 21

if you cannot do that, then do that secretly, and do not let anyone hear it from you in the open’. Then he (Muawiya) returned to his house and sent over to him fifty thousand Dirhams. And in another report, it was one hundred thousand Dirhams. Then the afflictions intensified upon the Shias of Ali-asws and the Ahl Al-Bayt-asws in every city, and the most extreme affliction was upon the inhabitants of Al-Kufa, for the most of them at it were from Shias. And he made Ziyad to be (governor) upon it along with Al-Basra, and gathered the Iraqis to him. And he used to pursue the Shias, and he was a knower of them because he used to be from them. He recognised them and heard their speeches as the first thing. He killed them under every star, and stone and pebble, and limited them, and frightened them, and cut off their hands and their feet from them, and crucified them upon the trunk of the palm trees, and poked their eyes, and expelled them and displaced them until they were all grabbed from Al-Iraq. There did not remain anyone well-known from among the Iraqis except that he was either killed or crucified, or expelled, or he fled. And Muawiya wrote to his office bearers, and his governors in all of the lands and the cities that, ‘It is not permitted for anyone from the Shias of Ali-asws, or any from his-asws family members, or of his-asws friends, the ones who are reporting his-asws merits and are narrating his-asws virtues to be accepted as a witness’. And he wrote to his office bearers, ‘Look at the ones in front of you from the Shias (adherents) of Usman and those that love him, and the people of his household, and his friends, and the one who are reporting his virtues and narrating his merits, so encourage their gatherings and bring them closer, and honour them, and consider them to be near to you and give them prestige, and write to me about every one of them, each one of them with his name and the name of his father, and from (which family) he comes’. They did that to the extent that the Hadith of Usman became numerous, and he sent to them (the narrators) gifts, and garments, and gave them plenty of land, regardless to them being Arabs or non-Arabs. Soon there were too many of them in every city, and they constructed (big) houses, and the world became luxurious for them. There was no city worker who came from the cities, or a town who reported merits regarding Usman, or mentioned preferences for him except that his name was noted, and he was considered as a near one and was recommended. It remained like that for as long as Allah-azwj Desired it to. Then, after that, he wrote to his office bearers that, ‘The narrations (Ahadeeth) regarding Usman have become plentiful, and have been spread in every town and city and from every area, so when this letter of mine gets to you, call the people to the reporting with regards to Abu Bakr and Umar, for their virtues, and their precedence is beloved to me, and refreshing to my eyes and refutes the arguments of the People-asws of the Household, and is harsher to them-asws than the merits of Usman and his virtues’. Every judge and Emir (leader) ap