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equilibrium
'Uthman thought of a way, namely to send al-Ashtar
and his friends to a remote and insignificant
town where they could not do much harm. So he
ordered to deport them to the town of Hims, and
this order was carried out.(127)
al-Mada'ini the famous historian of the early
centuries of Islam, narrates that they had some
gatherings with Mu'awiyah in ash-Sham where they
had heated arguments with each other. For instance,
one day Mu'awiyah said to them: "All the
Qurayshis know that Abu Sufyan was the noblest
and most exalted member of them, with the exception
of the Prophet who was chosen by God and respected
by all. If Abu Sufyan had been the father of everyone,
all of them would have been great, docile and
forbearing men.
Sa'sa'ah ibn Sawhan retorted at once: "You
are lying Mu'awiyah! Human beings are produced
by someone (meaning Adam) who had definitely been
better than Abu Sufyan, by a man whom God created
with His own hand and by His own power, and into
whom He breathed His own spirit, and ordered the
angels to prostrate themselves before him. Nevertheless
among his offsprings there appeared good and wicked
ones, intelligent and stupid ones, and they were
not all the same in character."(128)
As we saw, Mu'awiyah was displeased with the stay
in ash-Sham of the Prophet's true friends and
companions and of such individuals as Abu Dharr
and 'Ubadah. Similarly he had no desire that the
interpreters and followers of the Qur'an and honest
and devout persons should reside in that city.
This matter vexed him so much that these individuals
would divulge to the people certain truths, which
had been hidden from them, and inform them of
divine injunctions, in which case Mu'awiyah could
no longer carry on his selfish life in the manner
of the tyrants of the time, like Caesars and Kasras.
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