Lessons Learned from the Companions – Ali’s Quest for Peace with Muawiya!

All the people assembled in the mosque cried with one voice “We all are the murderers of Othman.” Turning to the envoy Ali said “You may tell Muawiyah what you have seen and heard”. Abu Muslim returned disappointed to Syria. Things had come to be tied in such knots that there appeared to be no possibility of resolving that dispute through peaceful means. On one side, the people of Syria clamored for war to avenge the murder of Othman, and on the other side, the people of Iraq held that they all were the murderers of Othman. In the circumstances, war appeared to be inevitable. Muawiyah maintained that just as the confederates under Ayesha invaded Basra to take action against such Basrites who were involved in the murder of Othman, thus he would have to invade Iraq to punish those who were guilty of the murder of Othman.