The Banner Given to ʿAlī

There was a particular fortress that was giving the Muslims a hard time. One after another, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would appoint leaders to open it, and they would all fail. And then one evening the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, la-uʿṭiyanna al-rāyata ghadan rajulan yaftaḥu Allāhu ʿalā yadayh, yuḥibbu Allāha wa rasūlahu wa yuḥibbuhu Allāhu wa rasūluh: tomorrow I will give the banner to a man through whom Allah will open it; he loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him. What a wonderful, wonderful honour: Allah will open this fortress for him; he loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him. Sahl ibn Saʿd said: when morning came, the people went early to the Prophet, every one of them hoping to be given it. The next morning, all of the Companions went to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), showing themselves in front of him to turn his attention towards them, because every one of them wanted that honour for himself. And this is in al-Bukhārī.

Pay attention to this statement of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb; it is a striking statement. He said: I never loved leadership except on that day. This is in Muslim. He said: I never loved a position of authority, ever, except on that day. Loving to be an amīr, loving to be in a position of authority, is something everyone has. The love of being famous, the love of being known, the love of being an authority, the love of being in power — this is something natural to humans. However, in Islam we are not supposed to seek positions of authority, to be dominant over others, to give orders; that is something discouraged. When al-ʿAbbās came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asking him — being the uncle of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — to appoint him to a position of authority, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: we do not give this matter to anyone who asks for it, or anyone who is eager for it.^* This is the tarbiyah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); this is the tarbiyah of Islam. And it reached the level that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb did not even desire it. So it was not that he was suppressing his desire for it; he did not want it. He had reached the level where he was able to bring himself to not even wanting it: it moved on from the level of suppressing this desire to the level of genuinely not seeking it and not loving it. Except that day he wanted it. Why? Because of the honour and the promise of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): this is a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him. This is something every Companion wanted to have.

So this is an opportunity for us to remind ourselves of this danger of ḥubb al-imārah, the love of leadership. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says, in a hadith narrated by al-Tirmidhī, and it is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ: two hungry wolves sent among sheep do not do more damage to them than a man's eagerness for wealth and status does to his religion (al-Tirmidhī 2376). So the meaning of this hadith is that if a person has the love of, and the eagerness for, money and authority, these two things are as dangerous to his religion as sending two hungry wolves among sheep. Now, if you send two hungry wolves among sheep, what will they do? They will ruin them. And the same thing will happen to your religion if you allow the love of money and the love of authority to take over. So these are two things we have to make mujāhadah against; we have to struggle against them. And it is a continuous struggle; it is not something one does for a while and then leaves; it is a continuous struggle we have with our nafs. And in al-Bukhārī: you will be eager for leadership, and it will be regret on the Day of Judgement (al-Bukhārī 7148). So we need to be careful. We need to be very careful.

To whom did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) give the rāyah, the banner? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: where is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib? They told him: he is suffering from his eyes, O Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: bring him. So they brought him. His eyes were shut, so they had to lead him by the hand to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) put some of his saliva in the eyes of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and they were immediately cured. This is one of the miracles of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), one of his many miracles.

And then ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was handed the banner, and he said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), uqātiluhum yā Rasūl Allāh ḥattā yakūnū mithlanā? — shall I fight them until they become like us? And this is interesting: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib did not say, shall I fight them until they become Muslim? What did he say? He said: shall I fight them until they become like us? So they were the living example of Islam; they and Islam were synonymous. Whether he said, shall I fight them until they become Muslim, or, shall I fight them until they become like us, made no difference: they meant the same thing — something we cannot say today; something we cannot claim today.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him — in al-Bukhārī — go at your ease until you reach their open ground, bi-sāḥatihim, the area in front of them; then invite them to Islam, and inform them of the duties they owe to Allah; for, by Allah, that Allah should guide through you a single man is better for you than the finest of camels (al-Bukhārī 3009). Here is an example of ghanīmah and guidance: if Allah guides one man through you, it is better for you than ghanīmah; it is better for you than the greatest ghanīmah. And this points us to the purpose of jihād fī sabīlillāh. The paramount, the most important, goal of jihād fī sabīlillāh is to spread the truth. It is to invite others to Islam; it is to save them from the Fire; it is to benefit them with the greatest benefit; it is to provide them with the best thing, and that is Islam. And this is what makes war in Islam completely different from any other type of war, any other war that happens in the world. Other wars are fought for booty; they are fought out of hunger for power; they are fought for revenge; they are fought for different reasons. But here is the noble idea of fighting in order to save people. That is what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: I am amazed at people who are dragged into Paradise in chains — meaning that people are sometimes brought into Jannah against their will, and this is because they were fought, and then they became Muslim. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was turning the attention of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to the point that he should first give them daʿwah before fighting them, and that if one man became Muslim, that would be better for him than the best of ghanīmah.

The slogan of the Muslims in that battle — they used to have different slogans in different battles — in this particular battle was yā manṣūr, amit amit: O victor, kill, kill — or, put to death, put to death. This is something they would repeat. Ibn Isḥāq says that Salamah narrated that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib carried the banner and walked towards them with confidence, and we were following him, until he reached their fortress and planted the banner in a pile of rocks beneath the fortress. So a Jew looked down at ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib from the top of the fortress and said: who are you? He said, anā ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: I am ʿAlī, the son of Abū Ṭālib. The Jew said, ʿalawtum wa mā unzila ʿalā Mūsā: you have risen — by what was revealed to Mūsā. Because the name ʿAlī comes from ʿuluww, which is something high and exalted, when this Yahūdī heard the name of ʿAlī he said, you will rise; he took it as a bad omen. Because the name of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib means ʿuluww, and it could mean overcoming, it could mean exalted, it could mean high — all of these meanings were a bad omen to this Yahūdī. Fa-mā rajaʿa ḥattā fataḥa Allāhu ʿalā yadayh: by the time he returned, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib had opened that fortress, as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had promised.