from anything that remains unclear to you until you refer it to the Book. Whatever the Quran confirms, hold fast to it (1); whatever it rejects, cast it aside. Be satisfied with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, with Muhammad ﷺ as Prophet, and with the Quran as arbiter and leader.
He said: When (2) he resolved to set out from al-Rabadhah, Ibn Abī Rifāʿah ibn Rāfiʿ approached him and said, “Commander of the Believers, what is it that you want, and where are you taking us?”
He replied, “What we want and intend is reconciliation, provided they will accept it from us and respond to it.”
He asked, “And if they will not respond?”
He said, “We shall leave them with their treachery, give them their due, and bear it patiently.”
He said, “And if they are still not content?”
He said, “We shall leave them so long as they leave us.”
He said, “And if they do not leave us be?”
He said, “We shall defend ourselves against them.”
He said, “Very well, then.”
Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Ghuzayyah al-Anṣārī then rose and said, “I shall please you with deeds just as you have pleased me with words. By Allah, He will help me as surely as He has named us the Helpers.”
A group from Ṭayy came while ʿAlī was at al-Rabadhah. Someone said to him, “A delegation from Ṭayy has arrived; some wish to march with you and others only wish to greet you.” He replied, “May Allah reward each of them with good. ‘And Allah has preferred those who strive over those who sit back with a tremendous reward’ (Q 4:95).”
They relate that ʿAlī (3) left al-Rabadhah in battle array, riding a red she-camel and leading a chestnut horse. When he reached Fayḍ (4) a contingent from Asad and Ṭayy came forward and offered themselves for service, but he said, “Those who are with me are sufficient.”
A man from Kūfah named ʿĀmir ibn Maṭar al-Shaybānī arrived. ʿAlī asked him, “What news do you bring?” He informed him of the situation. ʿAlī then asked about Abū Mūsā. He answered, “If you are seeking reconciliation, Abū Mūsā is the man; but if you are seeking to fight, he is not the man.”
ʿAlī said, “By Allah, I want nothing but reconciliation with those who have rebelled against us.” He continued on, and when he neared Kūfah the full report reached him—of the killings, of ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf’s expulsion from Baṣrah, and of their seizure of the treasury. He kept saying, “O Allah, spare me the trial with which You have afflicted Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr.”
When he reached Dhī Qār, ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf came to him battered, the vitality gone from his face, and said, “Commander of the Believers, you sent me to Baṣrah with a beard, and I have returned to you beardless (5).” ʿAlī replied, “You have attained good and reward.”
Concerning Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr he said, “O Allah, undo what they have bound (6); let not what they have tightened be made firm within themselves; and show them the evil consequence of what they have done”—meaning in this affair.
ʿAlī remained at Dhī Qār awaiting the reply to the letter he had dispatched with Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr and Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar. They had delivered his letter to Abū Mūsā and addressed the people on his behalf but were given no answer. When evening came, some men of sound judgment entered upon Abū Mūsā urging him to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī. He said, “That was yesterday.” Muḥammad and Muḥammad became angry and spoke to him harshly, whereupon he said to them, “By Allah, the pledge of allegiance to ʿUthmān is still…"