—the murderers of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with him). Jarīr (1) therefore returned to ʿAlī and told him what they had said.

Al-Ashter exclaimed, “O Commander of the Believers, did I not forbid you (2) to send Jarīr? Had you sent me, Muʿāwiyah would not have opened a single door without my closing it.”

Jarīr replied, “Had you been there, they would have killed you in revenge for ʿUthmān’s blood.”

Al-Ashter retorted, “By Allah, had he dispatched me, Muʿāwiyah’s answer would not have concerned me; I would have cut short his very deliberation. Indeed, had he heeded my advice earlier, he would have confined you and those like you until the affairs of this ummah were set straight.”

Jarīr, angered, left and stayed in Qirqīsiyā. He wrote to Muʿāwiyah informing him of what he had said and what had been said to him, and Muʿāwiyah wrote back ordering him to come.

The Commander of the Believers ʿAlī (3) ibn Abī Ṭālib set out from Kūfa, resolved to enter Syria. He encamped at al-Nukhaylah and appointed Abū Masʿūd ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmr (4) al-Badri al-Anṣārī as acting governor of Kūfa. Some advised him to remain in Kūfa and dispatch the troops, while others (5) urged him to march with them in person.

When Muʿāwiyah heard that ʿAlī was advancing against him in person, he consulted ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who said, “You too must set out in person.” ʿAmr then addressed the people: “The chiefs of Kūfa and Basra were wiped out on the Day of the Camel; only a small remnant remains with ʿAlī—and the Caliph, the Commander of the Believers, ʿUthmān (6) ibn ʿAffān, has been slain. Fear Allah, fear Allah, lest you squander your right, and do not neglect to seek the blood of ʿUthmān, the Caliph of Allah (7).”

He wrote to the Syrian armies, who assembled at once; banners and standards were assigned to their commanders. The people of Syria prepared themselves and also marched toward the Euphrates in the direction of Ṣiffīn, where ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) was expected to arrive.

ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) moved out with the forces accompanying him from al-Nukhaylah, heading toward the land of Syria.

Abū Isrāʾīl reported from al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah (8): “In his army there were eighty veterans of Badr and one hundred and fifty of those who pledged beneath the Tree.”

Ibn Dizīl narrated this. On the journey ʿAlī passed by a monk, and what transpired is recorded by [Ibrāhīm ibn] al-Ḥusayn ibn Dizīl (9) in his book, which he relates from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Karābīsī, from Naṣr ibn Muzāḥim (10), from ʿUmar ibn Saʿd, who said: “Muslim al-Aʿwar told me, on the authority of Ḥabbah al-ʿUrani, who said:”}