Tajdeed

How did Ali b. Abi Talib react to getting threatened and insulted during his leadership?

Al-Shaybani narrated that Kuthayyir al-Hadrami heard a group of people cursing and insulting Ali b. Abi Talib. One of them said “I swear by Allah that I must kill Ali”. When Kuthayyir heard him, he caught him and then took him to the presence of Ali. In which Ali replied by saying “Woe upon you! Who are you? The man replied, “I am Sawar al-Minqari, then Ali said, “let him go”. In response to this stance of Ali b. Abi Talib, Kuthayyir asked “How can I let him go when he swore by Allah that he is going to kill you?”. In reply, Ali b. Abi Talib boldly said, “how can I kill him, when he hasn’t killed me?”. After that, Kuthayyir said “but he has also abused you?”, then Ali replied, “then you can also abuse him or even set him free”.

Reference:

‘Kitab al-Siyar al-Sagir’ – by Imam Muhammad al-Shaybani

Chapter 8: The Rebels – Section of Virtues of Ali b. Abi Talib

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Bismillah

The governance, the leadership, the confidence, and the justice of Imam Ali b. Abi Talib is exceptionally just and fair. The indication of truly just leader is that justice is applied strictly even when the leader has power and even when the verdict goes against his own advantage. The leadership of Imam Ali is definitely a model for Muslim rulers to uphold and apply in their systems.

Unfortunately, most Muslim rulers in the past and most leaders now have not only abandoned the ethics, the regulations and the justice of Islam, but they have they done the exact opposite of what the Prophets and Imams of guidance have practiced. In contrast to justice and ethics, they embraced and used the methods and system of other than them, which is the way of the kings and pharaohs. For a moment, let us ignore the ideal examples like Ali tolerating getting threatened and insulted, in current times if the people give even a valid criticism of the leadership and state of the system, they are immediately censored and declared as enemies of the state who are treacherous. Is this not the greatest injustice a leader can do? It is evident that this type of censorship is the cause of the failure of our states.

How can fallible people who even have inclination towards injustices due to being bound by human limitations, such as desires and shortcomings be held this high as if they are idols of worship? How can a limited human being have this level of power and authority? If God Almighty granted mankind the choice and free-will to accept Him or reject Him, then who are these dictators or so called elite, who censor the masses to such an extent that they cannot even voice their opinions regarding the simplest of truths and regarding matters that effect their livelihood and social conditions!?

Many people will claim to love and follow Imam Ali b. Abi Talib, but these are merely words. In reality, the actions of most people are the very opposite. As harsh as this may sound, the actions of such people have become so vile, that they would have declared enmity to Imam Ali if they were his contemporaries.

To ponder about the incident of Ali being threatened more, the Muslim Ummah had noble leaders like Imam Ali over 1300 years ago, who have successfully implemented the correct system of governance with freedom to not only criticise rulers but also to insult them, but Muslim rulers of this day and age have not granted the most basic of rights to their own people, when the Western world has given more rights to their own peoples.

Moreover, this strong stance of Imam Ali is the greatest illustration of confidence and security. This is because only the insecure, the afraid and the tyrants will be fearful of people criticising them. The man of truth and justice has his trust upon God and the people of truth. Even though Ali was the Commander of the Faithful, he implemented two universal principles. The first of them is that if you are not actually attacked then there is no need to attack and the second one is that the words of these rebels were merely words. In reality, the words of such men do not affect Ali at all. The retaliation against words of insult can only be retaliated with a similar level, nothing drastically more than that, such as killing the one who insults you. Qur’an: ‘Indeed, Allāh will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves’. (Surah 13:11)

By Abul Hasan al-Gabikani al-Shadi al-Shaddadi al-Hadhabani -al-Kurdi