Documents of the Right Word

(speech called) khutba in the sixtieth year of the Hegira, hadrat
Mu’âwiya terminated his speech as follows: “O men! I have
governed you long enough. I have made you tired of me. And I am
tired of you, too. I want to leave. And you want me to leave, too.
Yet no one better than me will come after me. As a matter of fact,
those people who were prior to me were better than me. If any
person wishes to be with Allâhu ta’âlâ, Allâhu ta’âlâ, too, will wish
to be with him! Yâ Rabbî! I wish to be with Thee. Bless me with
the fortune of being with Thee! Make me blessed and happy!” A
few days later he became ill. He sent for his son Yezîd and said to
him, “My son! I did not tire you in wars or on roads. I softened the
enemies. I subdued the Arabs to obey you. I collected the amount
of property which very few people have managed to collect.
Protect the people of Hidjâz well! They are your origin. They are
the most valuable of those who will come to you. Take care of the
people of Iraq, too! If they ask you to dismiss your officials, do as
they wish! Take care of the people of Damascus, too, for they are
your helpers. I do not fear anyone for you. Yet Huseyn bin Alî
‘radiy-Allâhu anhumâ’ is an airy person. The people of Kûfa may
provoke him against you. When you beat him, forgive him. Treat
him well! For he is close to us, he has rights over us, and he is
Rasûlullah’s grandson.” As his illness became worse, he said,
“Hadrat Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ made me wear a
shirt. I have preserved this shirt till today. One day I put the pieces
of finger nails he had cut into a bottle. I have kept the bottle ever
since. When I die, put the shirt on me. And put the nails on my eyes
and in my mouth. Perhaps Allâhu ta’âlâ will forgive me for the
sake of these valuable articles.” Then he added, “After my death
there will not be any generosity or kindness left. Incomes of many
people will be cut off. People in need will go back empty-handed.”
His final statement was the following, which expresses his regrets:
“I wish I had been a Qoureishi living in the village named Zî-tuwâ,
rather than having busied myself with such things as
commandership or governorship.” He passed away in the month of
Rajab. His blessed grave is in Damascus ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’.
As is seen, hadrat Mu’âwiya ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ anh’ was a
blessed Sahâbî.
41- “It is the safest and the firmest way for every Muslim to
know these facts exactly as they are, to take lessons, and to act
upon the hadîth-i-sherîf, ‘Do not criticise my As-hâb’. It is obvious
that the treacherous and murderous events, the sources of which
have been shown above, could not be interpreted in terms of
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