Another Prophecy of Imam Ali (a.s.) regarding the same

In the sermon that begins from the text: ‘If He gives respite to the oppressor, His catch would not spare him’, Ibn e Abil Hadeed, after explaining the vocabularies, begins the following discussion:

          Amir al-momineen, Imam Ali (a.s.) vows that the Syrians will attain victory over the people of Iraq, and this wasn’t because they were right and the Iraqis were wrong, but it was because they were more obedient with regard to their Amir.

          Victory in a battle is based on the obedience of the army and that its actions are well managed and firm, and not based on their righteous beliefs. If an army is righteous as per their belief, but has different opinions and does not follow the commands of its commander, they will not be able to act upon anything in the battle. This is the reason why we find the idolaters dominating the believers on several occasions.

          Wherein, Imam Ali (a.s.) quotes a delicate point in this context and says:

          ‘People are afraid of the oppression of their rulers while I fear the oppression of my subjects’.

          Whoever studies the life of Imam Ali (a.s.) during his caliphate, will understand that his hands were folded and he could not attain what his heart wished.

          This is because those who were rightly aware of his holiness, were very few in number, and most of the people did not possess the belief regarding him that should have been possessed, and regarded the prior caliphs to be greater than him, and considered that greatness lies in the sequence of Caliphate. Their successors also followed the predecessors and said: If our predecessors were not aware of their greatness, they wouldn’t have shown preference for them, and considered Imam Ali (a.s.) to be the follower and subject of the prior caliphs. Most of the people who fought along with his holiness, fought for their pride, arrogance, dignity and Arabic race, but not for their beliefs and religion; and Imam Ali (a.s.) was forced to tolerate them because he could not expose their true beliefs.[1]