in a shop, clad in thread-bare garments (1). He looked at me with the eyes of one who either pities or is astonished by what he sees, and then he said (2):
“I see every self-deluded soul, his own desires beguiling him—
Let but one safe year pass, and he expects another to follow.”

Yaḥyā ibn Aktham relates: I heard al-Maʾmūn deliver the ʿĪd sermon. He praised Allah, extolled Him, and invoked blessings upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and then said:
“Servants of Allah! The matter of the two abodes has grown momentous; the recompense of those who act has been exalted; and the term appointed for the two parties has become long. By Allah, it is earnestness, not play; it is truth, not falsehood. Ahead lies nothing but death, resurrection, reckoning, judgment, the Bridge, and then punishment or reward. Whoever is saved on that Day has triumphed, and whoever falls on that Day has failed. All good is in Paradise, and all evil is in the Fire (3).”

Ibn ʿAsākir narrates (4) through al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl, who said: I entered upon al-Maʾmūn, and he asked, “How is your morning, O Naḍr?” I replied, “In wellbeing, O Commander of the Faithful.” He then said, “What is al-irjāʾ (5)?” I answered, “A doctrine that pleases kings: through it they gain a share of worldly life while diminishing their share of religion.” He said, “You have spoken the truth.” He then added, “O Naḍr! Do you know what I composed at dawn today?” I replied, “I do not know the unseen.” He said, “I said (6):
My religion this morning—the creed I profess—
and for which today I offer no apology:
Love for ʿAlī after the Prophet—yet
I do not revile our Truthful One, nor ʿUmar;
Then Ibn ʿAffān is in the Garden with
the righteous—he, the patient martyr;
No, no, I do not curse al-Zubayr, nor
Ṭalḥah, should someone brand them traitors;
ʿĀʾishah is the Mother—I shall not abuse her;
Whoever assails her—we are free of him.”

This position represents the second degree of Shīʿism, in which (7) ʿAlī is preferred to ʿUthmān (8).

Some of the early scholars—and al-Dāraquṭnī—said: “Whoever prefers ʿAlī over ʿUthmān has disparaged the Emigrants and the Helpers,” meaning their ijtihād during those three days, after which they unanimously agreed to give precedence to ʿUthmān over ʿAlī following the assassination of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them). Beyond this, as the author of Al-Balāgh al-Akbar wa-l-Nāmūs al-Aʿẓam records, there remain sixteen further grades of Shīʿism, the last of which culminates in the most extreme form of disbelief.