Hadith 17

Ibn Abi Al Hadeed said, ‘Abu Al Hassan Ali Bin Muhammad Al Madainy said, ‘Muawiya wrote to him-asws, ‘From Muawiya Bin Abu Sufyan to Ali-asws Bin Abu Talib-asws. As for after, I paused at your-asws letter and you-asws have refused to be upon the error except deliberately, and I know that, that which calls you-asws to that is your-asws demise which there is no escape for you-asws from it, and if you-asws become habitual, it would increase error upon your-asws error. For long you-asws have lightened your mind and prepared yourself for what isn’t for you-asws, and the folding to the one who is better than you-asws. Then the well-being would be for others, and you-asws will bear the burden due to what you-asws had surrounded yourself-asws with your-asws mistakes. And the greetings’. Ali-asws wrote to him: ‘As for after, surely what you have come with from your straying, isn’t far from doubts, from what your family and your people had come with (before), the ones who were carried by the Kufr, and wished for the falsities upon envy of Muhammad-saww until they were cut down in their lying places where you know they did not prevent any prohibition and did not push away any major (sin). And I-asws was their companion in those places, the one arriving with their war, and the worker to limit them, and the killer of their chiefs and chiefs of the straying, and if Allah-azwj so Desires, the follower replacing them with their ancestors. Evil is the replacement of a replacement, following an ancestor, and his place is surrounded by the Fire. And the greetings’. Muawiya wrote to him-asws, ‘As for after, for long you-asws have been in the error for as long as you-asws persist in your encroachment, just as for long as your-asws setbacks have not departed from the war and your-asws delays. You-asws have vowed a promise of the lion and growled the growling of the fox. For how long will you find about the meeting (in battle), and facing the striking lions, and the killer snakes? So, do not exclude them, for all what comes, is nearby, if Allah-azwj so Desires. And the greetings’. He (the narrator) said, ‘Ali-asws wrote to him: ‘As for after, how strange of what is coming to me-asws from you! And what would let me-asws know of what you are coming to? And my-asws delaying from you isn’t except in expectation of what you are belying to, and I am a ratifying to it, and it is as if I-asws am with you tomorrow, in the noise of war, noise of the cameleer from the loads, and you and your companions would be calling be to a Book (Quran) you are revering with your tongues and are rejecting with your hearts. And the greetings’. He (the narrator) said, ‘Muawiya wrote to him-asws, ‘As for after, leave me from your-asws stories and refrain from me from your-asws narrations, and be short from your-asws words upon Rasool-Allah-saww, and your-asws fabrications of the likes of what he-saww did not say, and arrogance of the ones with you-asws, and the deceiving to them, for you-asws have deviated them, and there i