Documents of the Right Word

Basra and Wâsit, in 512, and passed away there in 578 [1183]. As
is seen, arrogance, conceitedness is a wicked quality. Modesty, on
the other hand, is good and beautiful. All Prophets were modest
in eveything they did. And certainly so were all the As-hâb-ikirâm.
Their commending one another in the caliphate election
and offering the office to one another shows that they were
extremely modest. This being the case, it would have been vanity
and arrogance for hadrat Alî to have challenged the Muslims by
saying, “Is there anyone better learned, nobler and braver than I
am?” to the As-hâb-i-kirâm. It would have been a behaviour
reminiscent of the Iblîs (Devil), who boasted and claimed to be
better than He. As such statements would not have been
compatible with that great and noble person, hadrat Alî, it is
quite obvious that they are lies, aspersions fabricated and cast
aganist Allah’s Lion. Another absurdity is the statement alleging
that hadrat ’Umar, in order to make sure that Abû Bekr become
Khalîfa, drew his sword and intimidated, forced the As-hâb-ikirâm.
For the tribes called Benî Hâshim and Benî Umayya, to
which hadrat Alî was related, were the most powerful tribes
among the As-hâb-i-kirâm. Abû Bekr as-Siddîq and ’Umar ul-
Fârûq had few relations. It would have been impossible for
hadrat ’Umar to draw his sword and compel these two tribes to
make a choice agreeable to him. Furthermore, hadrat Alî was the
Lion of Allah. It runs counter to logic to suppose that the Ashâb-i-kirâm
chose Abû Bekr instead of him merely because a
single person, i.e. ’Umar, forced them to do so.
I heard the following story from one of the scholars of Kirkuk:
I somehow went to the Iranian territory. I entered one of their
mosques. A scholar was preaching there. During the preach he
said, “ One day hadrat Alî visited hadrat Abbâs in his home. He
saw him weeping and asked him why. He said, ‘I nailed a few
pieces of board above my front door for protection against the sun.
’Umar the Khalîfa had them pulled down on the pretext that they
might harm passers by. I cannot stand this insult.’ Exasperated,
hadrat Alî unsheathed his sword called Zulfikâr and ran out,
looking for ’Umar the Khalîfa for revenge. However ’Umar was
informed with the danger just in time to save his life.” At this point
one of his disciples asked for permission and said, “If hadrat Alî
was the person to draw his sword against the Khalîfa for a wooden
curtain and frighten him into running away, why didn’t he draw his
sword as Abû Bekr was elected Khalîfa and frighten away those
who voted for him? If he had drawn his sword and walked over
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