Introduction:

 Bering the Quranic verses 6:65-67 in mind, we perceive now that the so-called companions suffered God's curse in the form of famine, contagious pest or epidemic, and lastly the series of civil wars ensued after the assassination of Othman. Arabs subdivided themselves into parties and cliques fighting one another for more power, looting, authority, and other worldly possessions and ambitions. This began in the Battle of the Camel in 36 A.H. followed by the Battle of Siffein in 37 A.H., violating the sacred months as typical of the Arabs of that period. These battles and wars were cursed and caused dire consequences to all those who participated in them. We will discuss one example of such civil wars, Battle of Siffein, to further elucidate our point. Arabs until this very moment suffer massacres in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world due to Shiite-Sunnite strife; until when bloodshed would go on because of falsehoods?!

Firstly: The Battle of Siffein:

1- Some historical accounts mention that after the assassination of Othman, Habiba daughter of Abou Sufyan, and widow of Prophet Muhammad, had sent his blood-stained gown and the cut-off hand of his widow, Naela, to her brother Mu'aweiya in Damascus. This shows clearly that a plot was being implemented: the aim was not trying to save Othman, but to get his blood-stained gown after his death to gain a step ahead in the ambitions of Mu'aweiya to become a caliph! Mu'aweiya raised up the blood-stained gown by his hands in the mosque, calling for revenge against those who killed Othman and those who protect the murderers, especially that most of them joined the army of Ali. Amr Ibn Al-'As joined forces of Mu'aweiya and swore fealty to him as the coming caliph, and he promised to support and aid him in return for appointing him later on as governor of Egypt once more after defeating Ali and dismissing the governor appointed by Ali if Mu'aweiya captured Egypt under his rule. Thus, Amr became the chief and closest ally and consultant to Mu'aweiya, and the latter refused to acknowledge fealty to Ali as caliph, declared rebellion, and prepared a huge army. Mu'aweiya masterminded the Battle of the Camel, but Ali defeated those foes and directed his army to fight Mu'aweiya in the area of Siffein, which was located between Iraq and the Levant. Mu'aweiya was getting ready to fight Ali by offering a truce to the Byzantines, promising never to engage into war with them by land or by the sea throughout the period of truce, and he even paid a heavy tribute to them.   

2- The Battle of Siffein continued for 110 days and included 70 rounds in the battlefield. Ali's army consisted of 90 thousand soldiers, whereas that of Mu'aweiya consisted of 85 thousand. Mu'aweiya lost 45 thousand of his men in the battlefield, whereas Ali lost 25 thousand. This war came to a halt within the suggestion of Amr who proposed arbitration. Because Mu'aweiya came first to the area of Siffein, and established his military camps within a plain near the Euphrates River, whereas Ali and his men, who came later on, could not reach the river and thirst began to tire them out. Amr advised Mu'aweiya to allow them access to the river so as not to fight because of it, as they might fear dying of thirst, but Mu'aweiya flatly refused to follow this piece of advice. Ali ordered 4000 of his men to attack the camps of Mu'aweiya, led by his leader Al-Ashtar, and then another troop led by Ali attacked the camps of Mu'aweiya from another direction. They managed to force Mu'aweiya and his men away from the river and to occupy their place instead in the plain near it. In contrast, when Mu'aweiya and his men felt that their throats and mouths parched from thirst, Ali allowed them access to the river. Two days before the beginning of the battle, within Zu Al-Hijja, the sacred month that marks the beginning of the pilgrimage four-month season, Ali sent an envoy with a letter to Mu'aweiya, advising him to submit to fealty sworn by Arabs to Ali, but of course, Mu'aweiya adamantly refused, and war broke out in consecutive rounds. Both parties agreed to a truce for a while during the sacred month of Muharram, and then fighting went on.

3- Within the last day of Muharram, Ali sent an envoy with a letter to Mu'aweiya, telling him that God never guides the traitors and the treacherous ones, and both of them must resort to God's book and be reasonable. Mu'aweiya sent him in reply that the sword would settle their dispute, and the weaker would get killed. Thus, fighting went on in the first day of the sacred month of Saffar.

4- Ammar Ibn Yasser, the closest ally and supporter of Ali, got killed in the battlefield, Ali felt the urgent need to gather 10 thousand cavalier from the tribe of Rabeia, known to be fierce fighters, and from other tribes as well, and he delivered a speech to them asserting that they are his shield and weapons, and then he marched with them to attack Mu'aweiya and his men. Ali recited poetic verses in their praise and other verses mocking Mu'aweiya, calling him as a piece of firewood of Hell and made fun of his big, fat bottom. Ali sent an envoy with a letter to Mu'aweiya calling him to fight him within a man-to-man duel with the sword till one of them dies. Mu'aweiya refused of course but Amr urged him to accept readily, and Mu'aweiya shouted at Amr that he desired his death to proclaim himself a caliph, and Mu'aweiya forced Amr to duel Ali instead. Amr had nothing but to obey, and once Ali got ready to face him and brandished his sword, Amr thought quickly for a way out of his duel; he removed his clothes and revealed his genitals to Ali, telling him that he was force to face him, but he was no hero to stand before someone like him, and Ali felt repulsed by such a repugnant act, and moving his face away, he shouted at Amr that he became so grossly indecent.     

5- At some point, both parties fought fiercely by night to continue fighting that began by daylight, to the extent that when spears and swords were lost or broken, men fought and quarreled with bare hands and cut tents and banners of each other! They tend to overlook prayers times, and they tasted one another's violence, as we read in the Quranic predictions; see 6:65.

6- Al-Ashtar, the military leader of Ali's troops, was about to gain victory at one point, but elderly people of the Levant sought the aid of Mu'aweiya and his military leaders to protect them so that they would not get killed and their women would not be enslaved by Ali's men who were mainly uncouth desert-Arabs, who before murdered Othman and molested his widow. When Mu'aweiya felt he was about to lose it all, he asked the advice of Amr, and the latter advised Mu'aweiya to deceive Ali by raising copies of the Quran using spears, in an indication of asking for arbitration between Ali and Mu'aweiya using the Divine Word. Amr asked every soldier and cavalier to do this, until about 500 copies of the Quran were used in this ploy. Men of Mu'aweiya, with orders of Amr, began to shout and chant slogans like: "God's Word is judge between us!", "Who would defend border areas against the Byzantines, the Persians, and the Turks if we die?", and Ali finally but reluctantly accepted the arbitration as a way to save many people from bloodshed.

Secondly: Arbitration:

1- At first, Ali refused the idea of arbitration, and delivered a speech to his allies asserting that wars had taken their toll, but the end of them drawing near, with victory to him, but he was a ruler/emir and became suddenly a servant to changing circumstances and to commands and whims of o"> 2- Ibn Qais met with Mu'aweiya, and the latter suggested that each party would choose an arbiter who would both make an oath to adhere to God's Book, and Ali's envoy and his men readily agreed. Mu'aweiya chose Amr naturally, and Ibn Al-Qais chose Abou Moussa Al-Ashaary. Yet, Ali felt alarmed by this choice of an arbiter, and urged men to replace him with someone else. Ali enumerated situations and traits that detracted from the suitability of Abou Moussa Al-Ashaary, but Ibn Qais, out of pride or as an intrigue, adhered adamantly to his choice endorsed by Mu'aweiya. When Ali suggested Abdulla Ibn Abbas instead, Ibn Qais adamantly refused to involve a Qorayish tribesman in this affair, to prevent future troubles with the factions of Qorayish. When Ali suggested Al-Ashtar instead, Ibn Qais shouted that this man would add oil to the raging fire of fierce war and would spoil everything. Finally, Ali had no choice but to accept Abou Moussa Al-Ashaary.

3- The parchment of the treaty of arbitration was written in Saffar of 37 A.H., and a truce would be kept until the arbitration would take place in Ramadan of the same year, involving both arbiters without the presence of Mu'aweiya and Ali. Ibn Qais showed the parchment in glee to all soldiers, reading it aloud for them. Sadly, some men quarreled with Ibn Qais for accepting such a humiliating treaty of arbitration, as "judgment is for God alone, not for mortals", and this motto became for centuries the one written on the banners of Al-Khawarij and all rebels that would emerge ever since. Those who quarreled with Ibn Qais rebelled against Ali and deserted his army and company, calling themselves Al-Khawarij, and fights and quarrels with bare hands ensued, with each group blaming each other and declaring the other as infidels and enemies of God! 

4- The above-mentioned motto was immensely liked by Arabs who hated Qorayish and its hegemony and those who found themselves to be mere pawns in the power game and wars of Qorayish, as both Mu'aweiya and Ali were Qorayish tribesmen: the former from the Umayyad faction and the latter from the Hashemite one. 12 thousand men deserted Ali in Al-Kufa, declaring him and his followers as infidels who insulted God by appointing arbiters among the mortals instead of resorting to the Word of God alone. They turned against Ali for his refusal to call off the arbitration, as he hated to eat his word and disliked to renege on a promise. They declared Ali as an infidel and a disbeliever! Soon enough, Al-Khawarij spread corruption and wreaked havoc everywhere with rampant looting and raids, but Ali killed most of them when he faced them with his troops in the Battle of Nahrawan. However the notion of Al-Khawarij itself remained alive and vivid for centuries to come within all rebellious groups to emerge later on, because it meant to get rid of the Qorayish control and to be liberated from its hegemony.

5- Both Arbiters, Amr and Abou Moussa, met in 38 A.H in Ramadan, and both agreed to depose both Ali from caliphate and Mu'aweiya from his post as governor-ruler of the Levant, allowing the rest of Arabs to choose another caliph. In the presence of others as eye-witnesses, Abou Moussa declared in public that Ali was no longer the caliph, and he gained everybody's approval of that. However, Amr tricked and deceived him by promptly declaring Mu'aweiya as caliph, a moment later, and his approval of deposing Ali.

Thirdly: After the Battle of Siffein:

 Under the subsection titled "the divisions of Ali's men", Al-Masoody the historian writes that many soldiers of Ali deserted him and each group returned to their respective tribes, and Ali had only few men left. One of these groups included 300 men led by Al-Hareth Ibn Rashid Al-Naji who converted collectively to Christianity, and this group of 300 men was descendants of the Bani Sama tribe, and Sama Ibn Ghalib was purportedly one of the great-grandchildren of Ishmael, and they settled within the gulf coast near Bahrain. When Ali heard of such conversion, he sent troops that murdered them all and enslaved their children, but their women fled. That was why the tribe of Bani Sama hated Ali so much for decades to come. These troops of Ali tried to invade the region of Al-Ahwaz in Iraq, to follow the fleeing women and enslave them, but these women solicited the aid and protection of the governor of Al-Ahwaz who agreed, out of generosity, to buy their freedom by promising to pay 300 thousand dirhams, but he paid only 200 thousand dirhams and fled with the women to join the forces of Mu'aweiya. When Ali got news of that, he verbally abused this traitor of a governor and called him a slave.

Fourthly: The Violation of the Sacred Months by Ali and Mu'aweiya during the Battle of Siffein:

1- During the months of on-going fights of the Battle of Siffein, Ali had no qualms fighting and violating the four sacred months of pilgrimage. Fighting went on within stages of skirmishes and raids with no general confrontation so as not to eradicate each other, as Al-Tabary writes in his history, but they fought each other many times a day during the sacred months, nonetheless.

2- They were fatigued because of fierce fighting within the sacred month of Zu Al-Hijja, and both partied urged a truce during the sacred month of Muharram, and Ali sent Abdullah Ibn Abbas, instead of himself, as the head and imam of the pilgrimage season. This means that fights went on intermittently for 110 days for the rest of the sacred months, apart from the truce of Muharram, and both parties made sure they would not eradicate each other's men by a truce, NOT for the sake of honoring the sacred months, until the Battle of Siffein ended with the trick of arbitration.    

Fifthly: The Murder of Muhammad Ibn Abou Bakr in Egypt in the Sacred Month of Saffer, in 38 A.H.:

1- In 38 A.H., Mu'aweiya send troops consisted of 4000 soldiers led by Amr to recapture Egypt from the governor appointed by Ali: M. Ibn Abou Bakr. A fierce battle ensued, but when men of the governor scattered and fled and deserted him when they felt the imminent defeat, M. Ibn Abou Bakr fled as well and had to hide with a house owned by a friend of his. A friend of Amr blew the whistle to him, and Amr speedily sent men there to fight the governor until he was killed by the swords of Amr's men, who readily put the corpse inside a hide of a donkey and burned it, and it was rumored that M. Ibn Abou Bakr was dying – and not quite dead – as he screamed when he was burnt in the hide! This brutality occurred in an Egyptian village called Kom Shoureik, during the sacred month of Safffar. It was rumored that Aisha hated the smell of grilled meat since she heard the news of the brutality done to her younger brother.  

2- Amr regained his former post as the governor/ruler of Egypt, subservient to Mu'aweiya of course who controlled many conquered countries by this time. Infuriated by such effrontery, Ali sent troops trying to recapture Egypt, and these troops were led by the governor appointed by Ali; namely: Al-Ashtar, his close ally. Mu'aweiya plotted the assassination of Al-Ashtar via enlisting the help of a tavern-owner in the Sinai city of Arish, located on the route to Egypt, who readily agreed to poison the food of Al-Ashtar in return for removing taxes from his tavern for 20 years. When Al-Ashtar died of eating poisoned honey in the tavern, soldiers of Al-Ashtar killed the tavern-owner, and left Arish to return speedily to Ali. Mu'aweiya laughed when he heard the news and declared that God had servants made of honey, meaning that conditions and fate seemed to help him succeed in all his steps!