20 – With his chain of transmission he said: Ibn Ahwaz al-Tamimi came to Muʿawiyah and said, “Commander of the Believers, I have just come from the vilest of people, the stingiest of people, the least articulate of people, and the most cowardly of people.” ⦗25⦘

Muʿawiyah retorted, “Woe to you! How could baseness reach him? We used to say that if ʿAlī owned one house of gold ingots and another of straw, he would run out of the gold before he ever finished the straw. Shame on you! How could he be tongue-tied when we used to say that no razor had ever passed over the head of any man from Quraysh more eloquent than ʿAlī? Woe to you! How could cowardice touch him when no man ever faced him in single combat without being thrown to the ground? By Allah, Ibn Ahwaz, were it not that war is strategy, I would strike off your neck. Leave—do not stay in my land!”

ʿAṭāʾ commented: “Even though he was fighting him, Muʿawiyah still recognized ʿAlī’s virtue.”