Peak of Eloquence Nahjul Balagha By Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib - English Translation - Sermon 216

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Excesses of the Quraishi Tribesmen

O Lord! I beseech You to take revenge on the tribesmen of Quraish and on those who are assisting them, for they have cut asunder my kinship and over-turned my cup. They have joined together to contest a right to which I was entitled more than anyone else. They said to me: “If you get your right, that would be just, but if you are denied the right, that, too, would be just. Endure it with sadness or kill yourself in grief.” I looked around but found no one to shield me, protect me or help me except the members of my family. I refrained from flinging them into death and, therefore, closed my eyes despite the dust, kept swallowing saliva despite (the suffocation of) grief and endured the pangs of anger although they were more bitter than colocynth and more grievous than the stabs of knives.

Sayyid ar-Radi says the following: “This utterance of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (x) has already appeared in an earlier Sermon (No. 171), but I have repeated it here because of the difference of versions.”

Part of the Same Sermon about Those Who Went to Basra to Fight Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib (x)

They marched on my officers and the custodians of the public treasury, which is still under my control, and on the people of a metropolis all of whom were obedient to me and were allied to me. They created division among them, instigated their party against me and attacked my followers. They killed a group of them by treachery, while another group took up swords against them and fought with the swords till they met Allah as adherents to the truth.