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ABU
MUSA AL-ASHARI Radhia
Allahu Anaha
When
he went to Basrah as governor of the city, he called the
inhabitants to a meeting and addressed them: "The
Amir al-Muminin, Umar, has sent me to you to teach you the
Book of your Lord and the Sunnah of His Prophet and to
clean your streets for you."
People
were taken aback when they heard these words. They could
easily understand that one of the responsibilities of a
Muslim ruler was to instruct people in their religion.
However, that one of his duties should be to clean streets
was something new and surprising to them.
Who
was this governor of whom the Prophet's grandson,
al-Hasan, may God be pleased with him said: "There
was no rider who came to Basrah who was better for its
people than he."
His
real name was Abdullah ibn Qays but he was and continues
to be known as Abu Musa al-Ashari. He left his native
land, the Yemen, for Makkah immediately after hearing that
a Prophet had appeared there who was a man of rare
insight, who called people to the worship of One God and
who insisted on the highest standards of morality.
At
Makkah, he stayed in the company of the Prophet and gained
knowledge and guidance. He returned to his country to
propagate the word of God and spread the mission of the
noble Prophet, peace be on him. We have no further news of
him for more than a decade. Then just after the end of the
Khaybar expedition he came to the Prophet in Madinah. His
arrival there coincided with that of Jaffar ibn Abi Talib
and other Muslims from Abyssinia and the Prophet welcomed
them all with joy and happiness.
This
time Abu Musa did not come alone. He came with more than
fifty persons from the Yemen all of whom had accepted
Islam. Among them were his two brothers, Abu Ruhm and Abu
Burdah. The Prophet referred to the whole group as the
"Asharis". In fact he sometimes referred to all
Yemenis as Asharis after Abu Musa al-Ashari. He often
praised the group for their soft and tender-hearted nature
and held them up to the rest of his companions as a high
example of good behavior. He once said of them:
"If
the Asharis go on an expedition or if they only have a
little food among them, they would gather all they have on
one cloth and divide it equally among themselves. They are
thus from me and I am from them."
Abu
Musa soon became highly esteemed in the Muslim community.
He had many great qualities. He was a faqih endowed with
intelligence and sound judgement and was ranked as one of
the leading judges in the early Muslim community. People
used to say: "The judges in this ummah are four:
Umar, Ali, Abu Musa and Zayd ibn Thabit."
Abu
Musa had a natural, uncomplicated disposition. He was by
nature a trusting person and expected people to deal with
him on the basis of trust and sincerity.
In
the field of jihad, he was a warrior of great courage
and
endurance and skill. The Prophet said of him: "The
master of horsemen is Abu Musa."
"Abu
Musa's insight and the soundness of his judgment did not
allow him to be deceived by an enemy in battle. In battle
conditions he saw situations with complete clarity and
executed his actions with a firm resolve.
Abu
Musa was in command of the Muslim army traversing the
lands of the Sasanian Empire. At Isfahan, the people came
to him and offered to pay the jizyah (in return for
military protection) to make peace and avoid fighting.
However. they were not sincere in their offer and merely
wanted an opportunity to mount a treacherous attack on the
Muslims. Abu Musa however saw through their real
intentions and he remained on the alert. Thus when the
Isfahanis launched their attack, the Muslim leader was not
caught off-guard, He engaged them in battle and before
midday of the following day, he had won a decisive
victory.
In
the major campaigns against the powerful Sasanian Empire
Abu Musa's role was outstanding. In the great Battle of
Tustar itself, he distinguished himself as a military
commander.
The
Persian commander, Hormuzan, had withdrawn his numerous
forces to the strongly fortified city of Tustar. The
Caliph Umar did not underestimate the strength of the
enemy and he mobilized powerful and numerous force to
confront Hormuzan. Among the Muslim forces were dedicated
veterans like Ammar ibn Yasir, al-Baraa ibn Malik and his
brother Anas, Majra'a al-Bakri and Salamah ibn Rajaa. Umar
appointed Abu Musa as commander of the army.
So
well fortified was Tustar that it was impossible to take
it by storm. Several attempts were made to breach the
walls but these proved unsuccessful. There followed a long
and difficult siege which became even more testing and
agonizing for the Muslims when, as we saw in the story of
al-Baraa ibn Malik, the Persians began throwing down iron
chains from the walls of the fortress at the ends of which
were fastened red-hot iron hooks. Muslims were caught by
these hooks and were pulled up either dead or in the agony
of death.
Abu
Musa realized that the increasingly unbearable impasse
could only be broken by a resort to stratagem.
Fortunately, at this time a Persian defected to the Muslim
side and Abu Musa induced him to return behind the walls
of the fortified city and use whatever artful means he
could to open the city's gates from within. With the
Persian he sent a special force of hand-picked men. They
succeeded well in their task, opened the gates and made
way for Abu Musa's army. Within hours the Persians were
subdued.
In
spite of the fact that Abu Musa was a strong and powerful
warrior, he often left the battlefield transformed into a
penitent, weeping person. At such times, he would read the
Quran in a voice that profoundly stirred the souls of all
who listened to him. Concerning his moving and melodious
recitation of the Quran the Prophet, peace be on him, had
said: "Abu Musa has indeed been given one of the
flutes of the people of David."
Also,
Umar, may god be pleased with him, often summoned Abu Musa
and asked him to recite from the Book of God, saying:
"Create
in us a yearning for our Lord, O Abu Musa." As a mark
of his dedication to the Quran, Abu Musa was one of the
few companions who had prepared a mushaf a written
collection of the revelations.
Abu
Musa only participated in fighting against the armies of
Mushrikin, armies which tried to oppose the religion of
God and extinguish the light of faith. When fighting broke
out among Muslims, he fled from such conflict anti never
look any part in it. Such was his stand in the conflict
that arose between Ali and Muawiyah. It is in relation to
this conflict and in particular his role as an adjudicator
that the name of Abu Musa al-Ashari is most widely known.
Briefly,
Abu Musa's position appeared to be that of a 'neutral.' He
saw Muslims killing each other and felt that if the
situation were to continue the very future of the Muslim
ummah would be threatened. To start off with a clean
slate. the Khalifah Ali should give up the position and
Muawiyah should relinquish any claim to be Khalifah and
the Muslims should be given a free choice to elect whoever
they wanted as Khalifah.
It
was of course true that Imam Ali held the position of
Khalifah legitimately and that any unlawful revolt could
only have as its object the challenging and overturning of
the rule of law. However, developments had gone so far,
the dispute had become so bloody and there seemed to be no
end in sight except further bloodshed, that a new approach
to a solution seemed the only hope of avoiding further
bloodshed and continuous civil war.
When
Imam Ali accepted the principle of arbitration, he wanted
Abdullah ibn Abbas to represent him. But an influential
section of his followers insisted on Abu Musa. Their
reason for so doing was that Abu Musa had not taken part
in the dispute from its beginning. Instead he had kept
aloof from both parties when he despaired of bringing
about an understanding and a reconciliation and putting an
end to the fighting. Therefore, they felt, he was the most
suitable person to be the arbitrator.
Imam
Ali had no reason to doubt the devotion of Abu Musa to
Islam and his truthfulness and sincerity. But he knew the
shrewdness of the other side and their likely resort to
ruses and treachery. He also knew that Abu Musa in spite
of his understanding and his knowledge despised deceit and
conspiracies and always wanted to deal with people on the
basis of trust and honesty, not through cunning. Ali
therefore feared that Abu Musa would be deceived by others
and that arbitration would end up with the victory of
guile over honesty and that the situation would end up
being more perilous than it was.
Adjudication
nonetheless began with Abu Musa representing the side of
Ali and Amr ibn al-Aas representing the side of Muawiyah.
A possible version of their historic conversation has been
recorded in the book "Al-Akhbar at-Tiwal" by Abu
Hanifah Ad-Daynawawi
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