She was lying down in her death bed\nand was passing her last moments of life. She was extremely sad and upset.\nPeople around her asked: “you are the daughter of the first caliph and the\nmother of all believers. Why are you so sad?” She said: “The battle\nof Jamal has stick like a bone in my throat. I wish I had died before that day\nor I had been among the forgotten people.”(1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This feeling of regret was not just\nbefore her death. One day, a group of people around Aisha started to talk about\nthe battle of Jamal. She asked them: “Do people still remember that\nbattle?” They replied back: \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aisha said: “I wish I had never\njoined that battle and I had remained in my house like the rest of prophet’s\nwives.\u201d(2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has also been narrated that\nwhenever she recited the verse: \u201cAnd [to the wives of the prophet] stay in your\nhouses\u2026 “(3), she wept so much that you could see the wetness on her head\nscarf. (4)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What battle was the battle of Jamal,\nin which Aisha, the prophet\u2019s wife got so upset about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The foundation of this battle\ninitiated shortly after people had pledged to Imam Ali (PBUH). Some people did\nnot like Amir al-Mu\u2019minin\u2019s (PBUH) justice in distributing the common wealth\nand assigning rulers to different cities. This aroused their anger. As a\nresult, hatred of Imam Ali grew amongst men like Talha and Zubair. This came\nespecially after they were denied governance to the cities of Basrah and Kufa.\nThus, they left Medina with the excuse of pilgrimage of the house of Allah and\nheaded for Mecca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, many Umayyad\nmembers who had received special positions and gotten used to bonuses during\nthe caliphate of Uthman had been cut off from these favors. Therefore, after\nusurping considerable amount from the common wealth they gathered in Mecca.\nThey grouped with Talha and Zubair and met with Aisha. They used the stolen\nmoney from the common wealth and formed an army to take revenge for Uthman’s\nblood. They then took over the city of Basra. In this battle Aisha was on a\ncamel and the army gathered around her camel as the camel presented their\nleading flag. Thus, the battle was known as the battle of Jamal (male camel).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH) went to Basra\nwith his army to finish the uprising. He talked to them and fulfilled his\nproofs upon them to prevent the war and bloodshed. They did not accept and\nconsequently there was an intense battle between the two groups and eventually\nthe army of Amir al-Mu\u2019minin (PBUH) prevailed. Nonetheless, the war had many\nhorrible consequences which started to show how devastating it had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the battle of Jamal, there were so\nmany arrows thrown between the two armies until each group ran out of arrows.\nThere were so many spears thrown and so many men killed that the cavalry had to\nrun over the bodies of killed Muslim soldiers. One of the soldiers in the\nbattle narrates: After the battle, whenever I passed the cloth washing\nneighborhood (Dar al-Waleed) of Basra, the sound of washing sticks reminded me\nthe spears and swords which penetrated the body of soldiers in the Battel of\nJamal. (5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been a number of reports on\nthe count of soldiers killed in action. However, all historians have agreed\nupon the extremely high number of casualties. For example, Ya’qubi reports the\ntotal number of killed soldiers of this battle was over thirty thousand in his\nhistory book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, the battle of Jamal caused\nimmense amount of emotional distress and economical loss to Muslims. So many\nmothers who lost their sons; so many wives who became widows; and so many\nchildren who lost their fathers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All these losses and injuries took\nplace on only one day at a limited and definite part of the Islamic community.\nNonetheless the damaging domino effects continued for years to come, and\naffected Muslims and Muslim countries later on. These effects are too much to\nbe measured or calculated. Yes, these were the cause of Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha’s\nrestlessness and anxieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(The above is a\nselection taken from \u201cThe Role of Aisha in Islam\u201d by Late Allamah Murtada\nAskari (with some changes))<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Roshd Website commemorates the\n10th of Jamadi al-Awwal, the anniversary of Battle of Jamal, the hard exam of\nMuslims and the advice-giving event at the beginning years of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Footnotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Balaaghaat\nal-Nisa\u2019, p. 8. The story is mentioned in Tazkirah al-Khawas with further\ndetails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Osd\nal-Ghaabah, vol. 3, p. 284 \u2013 Tabaqaat ibn Sa\u2019ad, vol. 5, p. 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. \u201cAnd stay in\nyour houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the\nignorance.\u201d (The Holy Quran, 33:33)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Tabaqaat ibn\nSa\u2019ad, vol. 8, p. 56 (Published in Europe) \u2013 Durr al-Manthur under the\ninterpretation of 33:33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Tarikh\nTabari, vol. 5, p. 218 \u2013 Iqd al-Farid, vol. 4, p. 32<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Tarikh\nYa\u2019qubi, the chapter of Battle of Jamal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She was lying down in her death bed and was passing her last moments of life. She was extremely sad and upset. People around her asked: “you are the daughter of the first caliph and the mother of all believers. Why are you so sad?” She said: “The battle of Jamal has stick like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28248,28441],"tags":[25801,21727,19316,18172,17890,20785,18186,18418,25767,17955,18536,20856,25800],"class_list":["post-5005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-occasional-letters","category-other-occasions","tag-2011-04-14","tag-believer","tag-daughter","tag-group","tag-life","tag-moments","tag-mother","tag-occasion-letters","tag-other-occasions","tag-people","tag-prophet","tag-sad","tag-the-battle-of-jamal-armored-camel"],"yoast_head":"\n