Documents of the Right Word

in Ajra, and others. They expressed their sorrow by saying, “If
we had known that the results would be so bad, we would have
protected hadrat ’Uthmân against these bandits.” Upon hearing
about this, the murderers decided to martyr these Sahâbîs, too. So
the Sahâbîs went to the blessed city of Mekka, where hadrat
Âisha, who had come to Mekka earlier for the purpose of making
hajj, gave them asylum. They told her what was going on in
Medîna and said, “The Khalîfa has to tolerate the bandits till he
has suppressed the mutiny completely. This spoils them and
causes them to aggravate their inimical and oppressive conduct.
Bloodshed will not be prevented unless a retaliation is realized
and the oppressors are punished.” Hadrat Âisha advised them, “It
will not be wise for you to go back to Medîna as long as these
bandits remain in Medîna and around the Emîr-ul-mu’minîn. Go
to a safer place for the time being. Wait for a favourable
opportunity and in the meantime search ways of rescuing Alî from
the hands of these bandits. Exploit the first situation offering you
the opportunity to cooperate with the Khalîfa and march against
the bandits. Then it will be easy for you to arrest the murderers
for retaliation. Thus you will teach the cruel a lesson whose effects
will remain till the end of the world! It will not be easy now. Do
not hurry.” The Sahâbîs approved these words of hadrat Âisha’s.
They decided to go to places such as Iraq and Basra, where were
the assembly areas for Muslim troops. They begged hadrat Âisha,
“Please protect us until this fitna has been eliminated, the tumults
have been suppressed and we have joined the Khalîfa. You are
the mother of Muslims and the venerable wife of the Messenger
of Allah. You are closer and more beloved to him than anyone
else is. Since everybody respects you, the bandits cannot march
against you. Stay with us and support us!” For the sake of
convenience for Muslims and to protect Rasûlullah’s Sahâba,
hadrat Âisha joined them and together they left for Basra. On the
other hand, the murderers, who had been surrounding the Khalîfa
and meddling with many administrative matters, gave hadrat Alî
quite a different and false report of this movement. They
persuaded the Khalîfa to go to Basra. Some Sahâbîs such as
Imâm-i-Hasan, Imâm-i-Huseyn, Abdullah bin Ja’fer Tayyâr and
Abdullah bin Abbâs advised the Khalîfa not to hurry and not to
believe the munâfiqs’ reports. Yet the munâfiqs overpowered and
managed to take hadrat Emîr to Basra. First he sent someone
named Qa’qa’ to ask the people with hadrat Âisha what they
thought. They answered that their purpose was peace and to
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