Beware! By Allah the son of Abu Quhafah (Abu Bakr) dressed himself with it (the caliphate)
and he certainly knew that my position in relation to it was the same as the position of the
axis in relation to the hand-mill. The flood water flows down from me and the bird cannot fly upto me.
I put a curtain against the caliphate and kept myself detached from it.

Then I began to think whether I should assault or endure calmly the blinding darkness of
tribulations wherein the grown up are made feeble and the young grow old and the true believer
acts under strain till he meets Allah (on his death). I found that endurance thereon was wiser.
So I adopted patience although there was pricking in the eye and suffocation (of mortification) in the throat.
I watched the plundering of my inheritance till the first one went his way but handed over
the Caliphate to Ibn al-Khattab after himself.

(Then he quoted al-A`sha's verse).

My days are now passed on the camel's back (in difficulty) while there were days (of ease) when
I enjoyed the company of Jabir's brother Hayyan. It is strange that during his lifetime he wished to
be released from the caliphate but he confirmed it for the other one after his death.
No doubt these two shared its udders strictly among themselves. This one put the Caliphate in a tough
enclosure where the utterance was haughty and the touch was rough. Mistakes were in plenty and
so also the excuses therefore. One in contact with it was like the rider of an unruly camel.
If he pulled up its rein the very nostril would be slit, but if he let it loose he would be thrown.
Consequently, by Allah people got involved in recklessness, wickedness, unsteadiness and deviation.
Nevertheless, I remained patient despite length of period and stiffness of trial, till when he went his way
(of death) he put the matter (of Caliphate) in a group and regarded me to be one of them.
But good Heavens! what had I to do with this "consultation"? Where was any doubt about me with regard to
the first of them that I was now considered akin to these ones? But I remained low when they were low and
flew high when they flew high. One of them turned against me because of his hatred and the other got inclined
the other way due to his in-law relationship and this thing and that thing, till the third man of these people
stood up with heaving breasts between his dung and fodder. With him his children of his grand-father,
(Umayyah) also stood up swallowing up Allah's wealth(5) like a camel devouring the foliage of spring,
till his rope broke down, his actions finished him and his gluttony brought him down prostrate.
At that moment, nothing took me by surprise, but the crowd of people rushing to me. It advanced towards me from every side like the mane of the hyena so much so that Hasan and Husayn were getting crushed and both the ends of my shoulder garment were torn. They collected around me like the herd of sheep and goats.
When I took up the reins of government one party broke away and another turned disobedient while the rest
began acting wrongfully as if they had not heard the word of Allah saying:

"That abode in the hereafter, We assign it for those who intend not to exult themselves in the earth,
nor (to make) mischief (therein); and the end is (best) for the pious ones." (Qur'an, 28:83)

Yes, by Allah, they had heard it and understood it but the world appeared glittering in their eyes and
its embellishments seduced them. Behold, by Him who split the grain (to grow) and created living beings,
if people had not come to me and supporters had not exhausted the argument and if there had been no pledge of Allah with the learned to the effect that they should not acquiesce in the gluttony of the oppressor and the hunger of the oppressed I would have cast the rope of Caliphate on its own shoulders, and would have given the last one the same treatment as to the first one. Then you would have seen that in my view this world of yours is no better than the sneezing of a goat.

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Source: Nahaj ul Balagha