The strife spread, the crisis deepened, and unity of word was lost. Abū Mūsā wrote to ʿAlī reporting that the people of Kūfah were obedient and had pledged allegiance, save for a small minority.
ʿAlī sent numerous letters to Muʿāwiyah, but none of them were answered (1). This went on repeatedly until the third month after ʿUthmān’s murder, in Ṣafar. Muʿāwiyah then dispatched a long scroll (2) with a messenger who entered upon ʿAlī. “What news do you bring?” ʿAlī asked. The man replied, “I come from a people who want nothing but al-qawad—legal retaliation (3). Every one of them is mawtūr, burning for vengeance (4). I left sixty thousand (5) elders weeping beneath ʿUthmān’s shirt, which hangs from the pulpit of Damascus.”
ʿAlī said, “O Allah, I declare myself innocent before You of ʿUthmān’s blood.” When Muʿāwiyah’s envoy departed, the very Khārijites who had killed ʿUthmān tried to attack him; he escaped only with great difficulty.
ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—then resolved to fight the Syrians. He wrote to Qays ibn Saʿd in Egypt, stirring the people to rise for combat, and likewise to Abū Mūsā in Kūfah, and he conveyed the same instruction to ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf. He addressed the public, urging them to prepare, and he himself set about getting ready. Leaving Madinah, he appointed Qutham ibn al-ʿAbbās as his deputy, determined to fight those who defied him with the aid of those who obeyed him, including anyone who had broken with his command and refused the public pledge.
His son al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī came to him and said, “Father, abandon this course; it will shed Muslims’ blood and sow dissension among them.” ʿAlī did not accept the advice; rather, he was firmly resolved to fight. He marshalled the army, giving the banner to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, placing Ibn ʿAbbās over the right wing, and ʿUmar (6) ibn Abī Salamah over the left.
Some relate that he put ʿAmr ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAbd al-Asad in charge of the left wing, and that the vanguard was commanded by Abū Laylā ibn ʿUmar (7) ibn al-Jarāḥ, the nephew of Abū ʿUbaydah. He confirmed Qutham ibn al-ʿAbbās as acting governor of Madinah, and nothing remained but for him to depart toward Syria when (8) something occurred that diverted him from all of this, as we shall shortly recount.
[The Outbreak of the Battle of the Camel]
When ʿUthmān was killed after the Days of Tashrīq, the Prophet’s wives ﷺ—the Mothers of the Believers—had already set out that year for the pilgrimage, fleeing the turmoil. When news reached the pilgrims that ʿUthmān had been slain, they remained in Mecca after completing their rites.