Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and fight alongside her and her husband, the designated successor, against Abū Bakr and Umar? If [those people] (1) who did this desired power and resented Alī’s authority over them, their desire for power would (2) have given them even greater reason to fight Abū Bakr, for (3) rule by the house (4) of Alī was more appealing to them than rule by the house (5) of Abū Bakr.
This is why, on the day of Hunayn, when they turned and fled, some of those granted amnesty said, “Their routed forces will not stop short of the sea,” while another said, “The spell has been broken.” Safwān ibn Umayyah then said, “By Allah, I would rather be ruled by a man from Quraysh than by a man from Thaqīf.” (6)
Safwān (7) was the foremost of those granted amnesty. He would have preferred to be ruled (8) by a man from Banū Abd Manāf rather than by a man from Banū Taym. Thus, if the desire for power had been their motive, it would have led them to give precedence to Banū Hāshim over Banū Taym, as all rational people agree. Even if they had not put Alī forward, they would have put al-Abbās forward, for al-Abbās was more inclined than Abū Bakr to agree with them (9) concerning their worldly demands. Thus, if they had ventured (10) to wrong