Al-Gharat, vol. 1, p. 302: Abd al-Rahman ibn Jundab relates from his father Jundab that Amr ibn al-Hamiq, Hujr ibn Adi, Habba al-Urani, and al-Harith al-A'war came in to the Commander of the Faithful (AS) after Egypt had been conquered by Amr ibn al-As. They found Ali sorrowful and grieving. They said to him: Tell us what you say concerning Abu Bakr and Umar. Ali (peace be upon him) said: Have you found leisure enough to raise such questions?! Egypt has been lost and my Shi'a there have been slaughtered. I shall write you a treatise on this matter and answer what you have asked. And I ask of you — though up to now you have squandered much of my right — that by way of amends you at least be faithful trustees of this writing and deliver it into the hands of my Shi'a. This is the text of that treatise:
From the servant of God, Ali, Commander of the Faithful, to whoever among the believers and Muslims reads my treatise. The peace of God be upon you. I praise the One God, besides whom there is no god.
Now then: God sent Muhammad (PBUH) as a prophet to warn the people of the world. He was the trustee of His revelation and a witness over this community. And you, O Arabs, in those days held the worst of religions and were scattered in the worst of lands. You shed one another's blood and killed your children, you had severed the bonds of kinship, you squandered your wealth and consumed it wrongfully, and your roads were full of terror. Your idols stood erected among you and you yourselves were drowned in sin. Then God bestowed His favor upon you through Muhammad (PBUH) and sent him to you with a mission: a messenger from among yourselves, to recite His signs to you, to purify you, and to teach you wisdom. He commanded you to maintain kinship ties and to refrain from shedding blood, and to peace and purity. He commanded you to restore trusts to their owners, to fulfill your covenants, and not to break your oaths; and he said that you should be kind to one another, do good to one another, be generous, and show mercy to one another.
When the span of his life was fulfilled, God took his soul, and he departed to the other world, blessed and praised. Alas, how great was the calamity of losing him — above all for his kin, and likewise for all the Muslims. No one has ever been struck by such a calamity, nor shall anyone ever be struck by its like.
When the Messenger of God (PBUH) departed to the everlasting world, the Muslims fell into dispute over his succession.
By God, it never entered my imagination nor crossed my mind that after Muhammad (PBUH) the Arabs would turn their faces from his command in the matter of the caliphate and would entrust the caliphate after him to anyone other than me. But the people rushed from every side toward Abu Bakr to pledge allegiance to him. For a while I held back from pledging allegiance and delayed, until I saw that some of the people were turning back from the religion and calling for the destruction of God's religion and the creed of Muhammad (PBUH). I feared that if I did not rise to aid Islam and the Muslims, a breach would open in the religion and the edifice of Islam would be ruined; and were that to happen, it would be a great calamity. At that point I went to Abu Bakr and pledged allegiance to him, and I set myself to consolidating the foundations of the religion, until the sedition of falsehood was destroyed and the word of God was placed above all words, however much its deniers disliked it. Abu Bakr took the reins of affairs and conducted matters now with gentleness and now with severity, while I was his well-wishing companion; and in every matter in which there was obedience to God, I obeyed him and strove in its path. When his death drew near he summoned Umar and entrusted the caliphate to him. Again we listened to that judgment and obeyed, and withheld neither goodwill nor guidance, and Umar took charge of the caliphate. And he was of praiseworthy conduct and blessed disposition. When death came to Umar, he made me the sixth of a council. They disliked my rule as they disliked the rule of none of their own. They feared that if I ruled over them they would have no share in it for as long as they lived. So they gave the caliphate to Uthman and drove me away from it, hoping to lay hold of it and pass it among themselves; and truly they despaired of anything reaching them from my side. Then they said: Come and pledge allegiance to Uthman, or else we shall fight you. I pledged allegiance under duress and endured patiently. One of them said: O son of Abu Talib, how eager you are for this affair! I said: You are more eager than I, though you are further from it.
O God, I seek Your aid against the Quraysh. They severed my bonds of kinship, belittled my standing, and joined hands in agreement to wrest from me a right that was mine. And they said: This is how it is; either be content or die! I had neither helper nor defender. With a thorn piercing my eye, I closed my eyes; I drank down the bitter draught of grief little by little; I bore it patiently and swallowed my anger — and it was more bitter than colocynth. Until such time as men like you rebelled against the caliphate of Uthman, came and killed him, and turned toward me to pledge allegiance to me. I refused and drew back my hand. You wrestled with me to open my hand while I prevented it; you pulled at my hand and I would not permit it. Then you crowded around me so that I supposed you would either kill one another or kill me. You said: We pledge allegiance to you, for we find none but you and are content with no one else. And you said: When we have pledged allegiance we shall neither scatter nor let disagreement arise among us. So of necessity I pledged allegiance to you and summoned the people to my allegiance. Whoever pledged allegiance willingly, I accepted from him; whoever did not wish to, I did not compel, and I left him to himself. Among those who pledged allegiance to me were Talha and Zubayr. Had they not wished to pledge allegiance, I would not have forced them — neither them nor anyone else. It was not long before I heard that the two had gone to Mecca and were making for Basra with an army, every one of whom had pledged allegiance to me and had professed obedience. These two attacked my governor and the keepers of the treasury and assaulted the people of a city who were all under my allegiance. Discord fell among the people and their unity broke apart. Then they fell upon my Shi'a and killed some by treachery, some in prison, and some by the sword. But God did not leave power and rule in their hands. "So away with the wrongdoing folk" [Qur'an 23:41]. Then I turned my gaze to the people of Syria: bands of hungry-eyed, base, rootless Bedouin Arabs, each of whom had come from some quarter — a people who must be schooled in manners until they are seasoned, and over whom someone must hold the reins. They were neither of the Emigrants, nor of the Helpers, nor of the Followers. I led the army toward them and called them to obedience and unity, but they only increased in division and hypocrisy. They stood face to face with the Muslims, made them the target of their arrows, and drove their spears into their bodies. It was at such a moment that I, together with the Muslims, charged upon them and joined battle. When they tasted our arrows and our life-cleaving swords and felt the pain of wounds, they raised up copies of the Qur'an, meaning: we call you to what is in this Book. I told you that these men know neither religion nor Qur'an, and that they have done this out of guile and deceit and because of their weakness before you. Continue your fight, for the right is with you. But you turned away and told me to accept their proposal. I accepted your view, since you had both raised the head of disobedience and grown slack in the fight. It was settled that the reconciliation between you and them should be entrusted to two men, and that they should give life to whatever the Qur'an gives life and put to death whatever it puts to death. But the two came to a different view and did not act according to that stipulation. As a result of this sedition, a group broke our covenant, went out in revolt, and became the Khawarij. We too left them alone, until they wrought corruption in the land, killed, and spread ruin. When we entered into discussion with them, we said: First hand over to us the killers of our brothers, then let the Book of God judge between us and you. The Khawarij said: All of us are their killers, and we deem it lawful to shed their blood and yours. Then they resolved to fight us, and God overthrew them where He overthrows the wrongdoers. When their affair was settled, I told you to turn at once against your enemy. You said: Our swords are blunted, our quivers are empty of arrows, and our spears are without spearheads. Return us to our city so that we may prepare for battle. I brought you back to the city; and when we drew near Kufa I commanded that you encamp at Nukhayla, set up camp, remain in the camp, gather what you lacked, set your hearts on jihad, and lessen your visits to your wives and children. A group of you stayed with me and offered flimsy excuses, and a group disobeyed and went off to the city. There was neither steadfastness nor constancy in those who remained, nor did those who went to the city return. Until one day I looked upon my camp and the number of my soldiers did not even reach fifty men. When I saw that, I too entered Kufa; and to this day you have not been able to set foot outside the city with me.
What are you waiting for? Do you not see that on every side your lands are dwindling, that your cities are falling one after another into the enemy's hands, that my Shi'a in those cities are being killed, that your frontiers have no guardians, and that it is the enemy who marches his armies into your lands? What is the matter with you? Whence do you come? Whither do you go? Who has bewitched you? My regret and sorrow is that the foolish and the people of iniquity and depravity should come to rule over this community: that they should seize the wealth of God and pass it among themselves, make the servants of God their slaves, wage war against the righteous, and gather the corrupt around themselves. By God, were it not for this grief of mine, I would not have reproached you so much nor urged and exhorted you so much; rather, at the very moment when you turned away and grew slack I would have left you and gone out in person to face them. By God, I am upon the truth, and I am an ardent lover of martyrdom.