Another prophecy of

His Holiness (p.b.u.h.) regarding Arbitration

Ibn e Abil Hadeed narrates from Nasr bin Muzahim that: When Amr e Aas and Abu Musa Ash’ari began to write the letter of peace treaty, they wrote in the following manner:

          This is a covenant approved by Amir al-Momineen (a.s.) and Mu’awiyah bin Abi Sufiyan.

          Mu’awiyah said: How disgusting a man I would be if I agree that he (Ali a.s.) is Amir al-Momineen.

          When the letter of covenant was sent to Imam Ali (a.s.), he ordered to strike off the title of ‘Amir al-Momineen’ and said: ‘The Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said to me while the peace treaty of Hudaibiyah was being written, ‘O Ali! Similar judgment will be made for you as well.[1]

                Now we will present the actual incident before you, which is the prophecy of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) regarding the Arbitration, in the following lines:

          ‘The Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) stayed for twenty days in the area of ‘Hudaibiyah’. In this duration, the messengers of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) were sent to Mecca in order to convince the idolaters for their visit with the purpose of Umrah, and their messengers used to come to ‘Hudaibiyah’ in order to restrict the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) from entering Mecca.

          At last, the idolaters reached to this conclusion that they should sign a peace treaty with the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) which will restrict him from visiting Mecca that year, and in return, he can visit Mecca in the next year for the duration of three days but only for the purpose of Umrah.

          Two men from the leaders of idolaters namely Suhail bin Umar and Hafs bin Ahnaf, left Mecca in order to sign the treaty. Mikarz, son of Hafs, moved ahead of them as their guard. When the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) saw Mikarz from far, he said to his companions:

          ‘No one should speak to him as he is an oath-breaker and immoral person’.

          Therefore, none of the companions of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) spoke to him, and when he saw Suhail bin Amr, he said:

          ‘This case became easy for us’.

After an introductory conversation, they decided to write the letter of treaty. Imam Ali (a.s.) was standing beside the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) with the writing tool in his hand; Suhail and Hafs were sitting on their knees and all the other companions of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h) were standing around the tent and witnessing the act of writing.

          Prophet (p.b.u.h.) commanded Ali (a.s.): ‘Write Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem’

          Imam Ali (a.s.) began to write while Suhail quickly moved his hand forward and stopped him from writing, and said: What is ‘Rahman’ and ‘Raheem’? I do not know of any ‘Rahman’ or ‘Raheem’. Write ‘Bismika Allahumma’.

          Imam Ali (a.s.) looked at the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), his holiness said with calmness and patience:

‘O Ali! Write ‘Bismika Allahumma’.

Then his holiness said: ‘Write; this is a peace treaty with Muhammad, the messenger of Allah.

           Again, Suhail moved his hand forward quickly and said: O Muhammad! If we accepted you as the messenger of God, there wouldn’t be any of these conflicts! Write your name along with your father’s name.

          The Muslims began to whisper things to each other, but Imam Ali (a.s.) was awaiting the command of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), who said:

          ‘O Ali! Write ‘Muhammad bin Abdullah’ instead of ‘Muhammad, the messenger of Allah’.

          Anyways, the peace treaty was written in this manner and each time Suhail came up with a new objection.

          When Imam Ali (a.s.) erased ‘Muhammadur Rasoolullah’ and wrote ‘Muhammad bin Abdillah’, the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) turned towards him and said:        ‘O Ali! One day they will do the same with you’.

          Thirty one years later, in the Battle of Siffeen, when the representative of Imam Ali (a.s.), Abu Musa Ash’ari, and the representative of Mu’awiyah, i.e. Amr e Aas, sat in Dawmatul Jundal for judgment, history repeated itself; because just as the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said, while the peace treaty was written, Amr e Aas said to Abu Musa Ash’ari: O man! If we considered Ali as Amir al-Momineen, we would not have fought against him.

          When these remarks were heard by Imam Ali (a.s.), he immediately recalled the words of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and said:

          ‘There did not exist anyone more truthful than Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.)’.[2]