No! By God, I shall
not rest until! Bury the name of the Prophet!
Mu'awiyah suffered from irremediable
complexes which were formed within him owing both
to the lineage which had been attributed to him and
also to the defects heaped on him and his family concerning
their resistance and opposition to Islam. These complexes
became more intense when he saw that Islam had humbled
him and his house who had possessed a high rank and
material opulence in Pagan times, and the Prophet
had placed him, his father and brother in the rank
of freed captives.
Against the low name of himself and his house in Islam,
he saw the popular and immortal names of their rivals,
namely the Banu Hashim. So these inferiority complexes
were a very heavy burden on his back to bear, and
he fervently sought a way to emerge from them. As
we have already seen in past events and in his encounters
with the Prophet's companions, he was not able to
reveal these internal rancours and hostilities on
every occasion and in every place, since they were
not harmonious with the personality he had somehow
acquired and exposed his life and position to danger.
But in private sessions with al-Mughayrah, whom he
considered as one of the guardians of Paganism(381)
and as both of them had collaborated with each other
for many long years in wicked deeds, these complexes
came to the surface and revealed his real beliefs
and nature.
az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar quotes the son of al-Mughayrah
ibn Shu'bah in his book of "al-Muwaffaqiyat",
as follows:
I had accompanied my father al-Mughayrah on his travel
to ash-Sham to see Mu'awiyah. My father went to him
every day and talked with him for a long time. Whenever
he returned home he spoke of the amazing intelligence
and shrewdness of Mu'awiyah and of what he had seen.
But one night when he returned, he refused to eat
anything and he was very despondent. I waited for
some time thinking that his despondency was due either
to some actions of ours or to some hitch in our affairs.
When I asked him why he was so dejected, he said:
"My boy, I have come back from the presence of
the
