The secret of the greatness of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him
To reveal the secret of this greatness, it must always be remembered that the Imam, peace be upon him, is above all a man of faith, a saint who lived all his life in obedience to Allah Almighty and in the service of His creation. He is a ruler who could carry out foreign wars and invasions to expand his kingdom, but he didnt. As well as he was able to plot his political opponents of all kinds, some of them relatives, who wanted to benefit from his position, and when he refused they fought him, and the others were corrupt and greedy feared for their interests from his holiness and integrity, and knew that they would be punished for their crimes that they had committed before reaching power, so they turned against him and fought him. Also there was a third side of the religious fanatics, who fought him firstly because he didnt want to reconcile the corrupt, then they fought him secondly when he was satisfied with what they demanded and acquiesced to the opinion of the majority and accepted negotiating solutions, they are those who penetrated through religion as an arrow passes from pitch! They did not understand the essence of the Islamic legislation nor its core, but were preoccupied with the scales and rituals, and they didnt really appreciate the Imam - their legal guardian and the guardian of every believer. So they turned against him after they tried to transcend his intellectual and leadership position, and most of them are found in our time.
On the other hand the Imam, according to the thinkers, is the opposite of what “Machiavelli” called for in his book “The Prince”, which means that the end doesn’t justify the means for the Imam, may Allah bless him. But rather he dealt with people with people by the virtues that he wanted them to follow, so the Arabic bourgeoisie continued to wage wars against him, so that the kings and emperors who ruled the empires of the Umayyads and Abbasids after him, remained for many long centuries. They used to tarnish his reputation, fight his approach, and kill everyone who didnt belong to him because they hated him, and disliked his ideas that reject racial discrimination, and reject the idea of the nobility and the ruling family.
Moreover the first war against the Imam (PBUH) was the one called the “Battle of the Camel”. One of the most important ones who instigated it, and took advantage of various reasons to carry it out, isnt anyone but a friend of age, and a relative of the Imam, his cousin al-Zubayr ibn al-Awam. The reason of this step was the refusal of the Imam, peace be upon him, to grant his cousin the position of governor of one of the states, as al-Zubayr considered that the arrival of his cousin to the position of ruler of the empire is a historical opportunity for him to appoint him ruler over one of the states. These states included Iran and Pakistan, the countries of Central Asia up to the Russian borders, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and part of Turkey And India, up to the borders with China. It is a country that ruled what was ruled by the Byzantines and Persians in the East, so how his cousin couldnt dream of being an important ruler?
But Ali ibn Abi Talib, who is the ruler of all the aforementioned countries, didnt build a house for himself, but rather lived in a modest house attached to the Kufa mosque in Iraq, and it is still standing today.
The Imam has a life story full of many aspects, from his unlimited contributions in thought, philosophy, sociology, education and ethics, and societal and institutional construction.
So was the Imam, peace be upon him, considered as a warrior, philosopher, and an invading reformer, or was considered as a man of thought and reform, who had to take up arms to defend existence?
In the biography of the Imam, peace be upon him, the answer is that he was, like the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s prayers be upon him, a man of vocation and faith, and athought and a philosophy. In addition he had a reformist message for all mankind, confronted with evil, so he was forced to suppress it only through detering the killers and those seeking to exterminate the reformer, namely by self-defense and the powerful existence.
But what type of the warriors was Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him?
Guest 1:
The Quraish - the tribe of the Prophet - fought the Messenger of Allah, besieged him and persecuted him, so he remained for thirteen years while calling the people of Makkah to Islam, where the number of his followers there was not more than a hundred, most of them were slaves, the poor and the weak people. After that he was forced to emigrate, after Quraish, the dominant tribe in Makkah, declared war against the Prophet, and decided to get rid of him and his followers through assassination. Indeed, fighters from a coalition of several tribes came to kill him, thinking that his blood would be lost among the tribes, so Banu Hashim couldn’t avenge him and accept the blood money that the Quraish would pay them with love and dignity. Thus the myth of this rebel who threatened their lives would be ended for them.
Meanwhile on the night of the departure of the Messenger of Allah, may Allahs prayers and peace be upon him and his family, to Yathrib, he knew the intent of the polytheists, and that they were waiting for him and were preparing to kill him. So he agreed with his companions to go out under the cover of darkness accompanied by one person only to Madinah which gave him and all the vulnerable with him safety. Beside that someone had to stay in the house of the Prophet, to keep the killers thinking that he is still in his house, and surely, this person who would stay to sleep in the Prophet’s bed, may Allahs prayers and peace be upon him and his family, had to be certain that the assassination was an inevitable occurrence, and that he - as a commando present himself to replace the Messenger - he exposes himself to certain killing.
The commando Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, donated his life as a sacrifice to the Messenger of Allah, may Allahs prayers and peace be upon him and family, so he slept in his bed.
So when the killers entered the Prophet’s house, removed the blanket from his bed, and deluded him to kill him. Then the face of the brave boy, the commando Ali, peace be upon him, appeared to them, so they retreated.
And that was the greatest beginning for a brave hero in thought, mind and heart, who knew the truth, and knew Allah Almighty, so his heroics in the battles were heroics of faith rather than instinctive. As he never used to start a war, and didnt enter a battle without calling his enemies for peace and reconciliation.
