Sermon 228

About allegiance to Amir al-mu'minin for the Caliphate (A similar sermon in somewhat different version has already appeared earlier)

ومن كلام له (عليه السلام)

في وصف بيعته بالخلافة

(وقد تقدم مثله بألفاظ مختلفة)

You drew out my hand towards you for allegiance but I held it back and you stretched it but I contracted it. Then you crowed over me as the thirsty camels crowd on the watering cisterns on their being taken there, so much so that shoes were torn, shoulder-cloths fell away and the weak got trampled, and the happiness of people on their allegiance to me was so manifested that small children felt joyful, the old staggered (up to me) for it, the sick too reached for it helter skelter and young girls ran for it without veils.

وَبَسَطْتُمْ يَدِي فَكَفَفْتُهَا، وَمَدَدْتُمُوهَا فَقَبَضْتُهَا، ثُمَّ تَدَاكَكْتُمْ عَلَيَّ تَدَاكَّ الاْبِلِ الْهِيمِ عَلَى حِيَاضِهَا يَوْمَ وِرْدِهَا، حَتَّى انْقَطَعَتِ النَّعْلُ، وَسَقَطَ الرِّدَاءُ، وَوُطِىءَ الضَّعِيفُ، وَبَلَغَ مِنْ سُرُورِ النَّاسِ بِبَيْعَتِهِمْ إِيَّايَ أَنِ ابْتَهَجَ بِهَا الصَّغِيرُ، وَهَدَجَ إِلَيْهَا الْكَبِيرُ، وَتَحَامَلَ نَحْوَهَا الْعَلِيلُ، وَحَسَرَتْ إِلَيْهَا الْكِعَابُ.

Alternative Sources for Sermon 228

(1) Al-Mufid, al-'Irshad, 142;

(2) al-Mufid, al-Jamal, 128, from (3);

(3) al-Waqidi, al-Jamal;

(4) al-Thaqafi, al-Gharat, I, 310;

(5) Ibn Tawus, Kashf, 173;

(6) Ibn Qutaybah, al-'Imamah, I, 154;

(7) al-Tabari, Ta'rikh, V, 28;

(8) Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, al-'Iqd, II, 165;

(9) al-Kulayni, al-Rasa'il;

(10) al-Tabari, al-Mustarshid, 95.