تنام عينا قلب مشغول ، يا ابن عباس ملك جوارحك قلبلك ، فإذا أرهبه طار النوم عنه ، ها أنا ذاكما ترى مذ أول الليل إعتراني الفكر والسهر لما تقدم من نقض عهد أول هذه الأمة المقدر عليها نقض عهدها .

should the eyes sleep of one whose heart is occupied? O Ibn 'Abbas, your heart is the king of your limbs; and when it is made afraid, sleep flies from it. Here I am, as you see, since the beginning of the night: thought and sleeplessness have seized me, for what has gone before of the breaking of the covenant of the first of this community, for whom the breaking of her covenant was decreed.

إن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله أمر من أمر أصحابه بالسلام علي في حياته بإمرة المؤمنين فكنت أؤكد أن أكون كذلك بعد وفاته ، يا ابن عباس أنا أولى الناس بالناس بعده ، ولكن أمور اجتمعت على رغبة الناس في الدنيا وأمرها ونهيها ، وصرف قلوب أهلها عني .

The Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, commanded those whom he commanded of his companions to greet me in his lifetime as Commander of the Faithful; and I was made certain that I should be so after his death. O Ibn 'Abbas, I am the most entitled of people to the people after him; but matters combined upon the people's desire for this world, and its commanding and its forbidding, and the turning of the hearts of its people away from me.

أقول : وساق كلامه عليه السلام في الشكاية عمن تقدمه إلى أن قال عليه السلام : فالآن يا ابن عباس قرنت بابن آكلة الأكباد ، وعمرو ، وعتبة ، والوليد ، ومروان ، وأتباعهم ، فمتى اختلج في صدري ، وألقي في روعي ، أن الأمر منقاد إلى دنيا يكون هؤلاء فيها رؤساء يطاعون ، فهم في ذكر أولياء الرحمن يثلبونهم 4 ويرمونهم بعظائم الأمور من إفك مختلق وحقد قد سبق .

I say: and he carried his words on, peace be upon him, in complaint of those who went before him, until he said, peace be upon him: And now, Ibn 'Abbas, I am coupled with the son of the eater of livers, and with 'Amr and 'Utba and al-Walid and Marwan and their followers. When did it ever stir in my breast, or fall into my mind, that the affair would be led away to a world in which these should be chiefs, obeyed? And here they are, at the remembrance of the friends of the Merciful, disparaging them [4] and casting at them enormities, of forged calumny and of rancour long preceding.

وقد علم المستحفظون ممن بقي من أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله إن عامة أعدائي ممن أجاب الشيطان علي ، وزهر الناس في ، وأطاع هواه فيما يضره في آخرته وبالله عز وجل الغني وهو الموفق للرشاد والسداد ، يا بن عباس ، ويل لمن ظلمني ودفع حقي وأذهب عظيم منزلتي ، أين كانوا أولئك ؟

And those entrusted with its keeping, of those who remain of the companions of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, know well that the generality of my enemies are of those who answered Satan against me, and whom the people made to shine, and who obeyed his own desire in what harms him in his hereafter. And in God, mighty and exalted, is sufficiency; and He is the granter of right guidance and of soundness. O Ibn 'Abbas, woe to him who wronged me and pushed away my right and did away with the greatness of my station. Where were those men,

وأنا أصلي مع رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله صغيرا ، لم يكتب علي صلاة ، وهم عبدة الأوثان وعصاة الرحمن وبهم توقد النيران .

while I was praying with the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, a small boy upon whom no prayer was yet enjoined — and they were worshippers of idols and rebels against the Merciful, and by them the fires are kindled?

فلما قرب أصعار الخدود 5 وأتعاس الجدود ، أسلموا كرها وأبطنوا غير ما أظهروا طمعا في أن يطفئوا نور الله وتربصوا انقضاء أمر الرسول ، وفناء مدته ، لما

Then, when the turning aside of cheeks [5] and the wretchedness of fortunes drew near, they submitted unwillingly and concealed other than what they showed, coveting to put out the light of God; and they waited for the ending of the Messenger's affair and the passing of his term, when