for the people are in front of you, while what is behind you—the Hour—drives you on; lighten your loads and you will catch up, for people only wait for the last of their number. Servants of Allah, be mindful of Allah with regard to His servants and His lands, for you will be held accountable even for the very ground and the cattle upon it. Then obey Allah and do not disobey Him. Whenever you see good, take hold of it; whenever you see evil, leave it. “And remember when you were few, oppressed in the land…” (al-Anfal 26).
When he finished his sermon, the Egyptians (1) recited:
Take it, but beware, O Abū al-Hasan—
we shall steer affairs as one guides a rein.
Our charge is the charge of lions,
fierce as the lions of the wild,
with Mashrafī blades gleaming
like pools of milk.
We shall thrust at dominion with lances
as thick as anchor-ropes,
until it is driven on without deflection.
ʿAlī replied to them (2):
I have made a lapse for which I offer no excuse;
henceforth I shall act wisely and persevere.
I will lift the hem I once let drag
and gather the scattered, far-flung affair (3),
unless the hasty, triumph-seeking one should provoke me,
and they leave me while weapons are still being seized. (4)
At that time in Kūfa, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī oversaw the congregational prayer, al-Qaʿqaʿ ibn ʿAmr commanded military affairs, and Jābir ibn so-and-so al-Muzanī held the land-tax. In Basra the governor was ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿĀmir; in Egypt it was ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, though Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfah had taken control from him. Over Syria was Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, whose deputies were: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd in Ḥimṣ; Ḥabīb ibn Maslamah in Qinnasrīn; Abū al-Aʿwar in the Jordan; Ḥakīm ibn ʿAlqamah in Palestine; al-Ashʿath ibn Qays in Adharbayjan; Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bajalī in Qarqīsiyā; ʿUtaybah (5) ibn al-Nahhās in Ḥulwān; Mālik ibn Ḥabīb (6) in Caesarea; and Ḥubaysh (7) in Hamadhān. These, says Ibn Jarīr, were the provincial governors appointed by ʿUthmān who were still in office when he was killed. ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmr was in charge of the public treasury, and Zayd ibn Thābit was the chief judge in Madinah.
When ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was slain, Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr set out carrying ʿUthmān’s shirt, soaked in his blood, together with the severed fingers of Nāʾilah