|
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 as follows:
|
Print
this page
 |
Top |
|
