arbitration, but you disobeyed me. A dark-skinned youth then rose and said, “By God, you never forbade us; rather, you ordered it and ruined us. When an outcome you disapproved of appeared, you washed your hands of it and laid the blame on us.”
ʿAlī replied, “What business have you with such words—may God disgrace you! By Allah, when the community was united you were an obscure nobody, but when the turmoil broke out you shot up in it like nujūm al-māghirah (the ill-omened stars).
“By God, blessed is the stance taken by Saʿd ibn Mālik and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar. If it was a sin, it is a small one that will be forgiven; and if it was a good deed, it is a great one that will be gratefully rewarded.”
I say: How fine this report would be, were its chain of transmission not broken.
Al-Zuhrī relates—through Sālim, from his father—that he said: I entered to see Ḥafṣah and told her, “You can see what has happened among the people, and I have been given no part in the decision.” She replied, “Join them, for they are waiting for you; I fear that your staying away will cause division among them.” So he went.
When the two arbiters had separated, Muʿāwiyah addressed the people, saying, “Whoever wishes to speak about this affair, let him come forward with his match, for we are more entitled to it than he and his father”—alluding to Ibn ʿUmar. Ibn ʿUmar recounts: “I loosened my sitting-wrap and was about to say, ‘More entitled to it is the man who fought you and your father for Islam.’ But I feared that one word of mine might split the community and shed blood, so I remembered what God has prepared in Paradise.”
Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrates—from Yaʿlā, from Nāfiʿ—that Abū Mūsā said, “I see no one suited for it but Ibn ʿUmar.” ʿAmr then said to Ibn ʿUmar, “Do you not wish us to pledge allegiance to you? How would you like to receive a large sum of money if you will leave this matter to someone who desires it more than you?” Ibn ʿUmar grew angry and stood up. Maʿmar transmitted the same report from al-Zuhrī.
In that same year ʿAlī sent Sahl ibn Ḥunayf to the people of Persia. They resisted him, so ʿAlī dispatched Ziyād, who made peace with them, and they paid the land tax.