An Account of his Qualities
There is another incident in which Amir Muawiyah (ra) asked Dirar Saudai to recount the qualities of Hazrat Ali (ra) to him. He replied, “O Leader of the Faithful, excuse me from this.”
Amir Muawiyah (ra) insisted that he must inform him. Upon this, Dirar stated:
“If that is the case, then listen. By God, Hazrat Ali (ra) was a man of great courage and possessed strong faculties. He spoke decisively and issued verdicts based on justice. He was a fountain of knowledge and insight and his every word was filled with deep wisdom. He expressed aversion for worldly material and its attractions and loved the solitude of [the worship in the] night. He would weep profusely and carefully deliberate and ponder over matters. He dressed modestly and ate simple food. He lived among us just like an ordinary person. If ever we would ask him a question, he would give us the answer and if we enquired about an incident, he would inform us about it.
“By God, despite the fact that we had a bond of great mutual love and closeness, but owing to the awe of his grandeur, we would speak very little before him. He would show great respect to those who were devout and pious and held the poor close. Even the strongest of people could not influence him with their falsehood and even the weakest would never be disappointed by his high level of justice.
“By God, on certain occasions, I saw that when the night entered its latter stages and the stars began to dim, he would take hold of his beard and would tremble like one who has been bitten by a snake and would profusely weep like one who is overcome with extreme sorrow and he would say, ‘O world, leave me and go and deceive someone else. Why do you come to me with all your allure and attractions? What you desire of me shall never come to pass, shall never come to pass. I have announced my intentions to divorce you thrice, after which there is no possibility of reunion. This is because your life is short and you hold no significance.’” He was speaking symbolically to the world. “‘Your life is short and you hold no significance. There are very little provisions yet the journey is long and perilous.’”
When he mentioned all of these qualities, Amir Muawiyah (ra) began to cry upon hearing them and said, “May Allah bestow His mercy upon Abul Hasan (ra). By God, he was certainly like this. O Dirar, how sorrowful were you upon Ali’s (ra) demise?” Dirar replied, “The same level of grief that would be experienced by a mother whose child is slaughtered whilst in her lap.”
(Ibn Abd al-Barr, Al-Isti‘ab fi Ma‘rifat al-Ashab, Vol. 3, Dhikr Ali bin Abi Talib [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Jil, 1992], 1107-1108.)