Hadith 30

fazzal Al Shaybani, from Mansour Bin Al Hassan, from Muhammad Bin Zakariya Bin Dinar, from Al Abbas Bin Bakkar, from Abdul Wahid Bin Abu Amro Al Asady, from Muhammad Bin Al Saib, from Abu Salih a slave of Umm Hany who said, ‘Zirar Bin Zamrah Al-Kinany entered to see Muawiya Bin Abu Sufyan one day. He said to him, ‘O Zirar! Describe Ali-asws to me’. He said, ‘Or can you excuse me from that? ’ He said, ‘I will not excuse you’. He said, ‘But, when there is no escape, he-asws was a long-term thinker, intense of strength, speaking decisively, and judging justly. The knowledge burst out from his-asws sides, and the wisdom was spoken upon his tongue. He-asws was averse from the world and its blossoms, and was comforted with the night and its darkness. By Allah-azwj! He-asws was abundant of tears, long of thinking, overturning his-asws palms, and addressing himself-asws. It fascinated him-asws from the clothing which was short, and from the food which was coarse. By Allah-azwj! He-asws was with us like one of us, drawing us closer whenever we came to him-asws, and answering us whenever we asked him-asws. And he-asws was with proximity for us and his-asws closeness from us. We did not (tend to) speak to him-asws out of awe for him-asws. If he-asws smiled, it was from the like of systematic pearls (teeth). He-asws revered the people of religion and loved the poor, not covering the strong in his falsehood nor despairing the weak from his-asws justice. I testify with Allah-azwj, I had seen him in one of his-asws stoppings, and the night had let down its flaps, and the stars had invaded shining in his-asws prayer niche, holding upon his-asws beard, being restless with the full restlessness, and crying the cry of the grief-stricken, and it is as if I am hearing him-asws and he-asws is saying: ‘O world! O world! Is it to me-asws you are displaying yourself, or are making yourself desirable to me-asws? Far be it! Far be it! Deceive others. Your term is not a term. I-asws have divorced you irrevocable thrice. Your life-span is short, and your good is despicable, and your danger is not great. Aah! Aah, from the scarcity of the provision and the longevity of the journey, and loneliness of the darkness! ’
The tears of Muawiya paused at his beard and he went on to wipe it with his sleeve, and the people in their entirety were choking with the weeping, and he (Muawiya) said, ‘That is how Abu Al-Hassan-asws is, may Allah-azwj have Mercy on him-asws. How would be your feeling upon him-asws (when he-asws passes away), O Zirar? ’
He said, ‘I would feel like a lonely mother whose lone (child) has been slaughtered in her lap, so she is neither flowing tears nor can her grief be calmed’. Muawiya said, ‘But they, if they were to lose me, they would neither say nor feel anything with me from this’. Then he turned towards his companions and said, ‘By Allah-azwj! If you were to gather with your families, would you be delivering from me what this boy has delivered about his master-asws? ’ It is said Amro Bin Al-Aas said to him, ‘The companions are upon a worth of the master’’. [129]