The Outset of Dissension in Islam — Page 100
100 H A D RAT MIRZA BASHIR-UD-DIN MAHMUD AHMAD taking the letter of Hadrat ‘ Uthm a n ra to the governor of Egypt. 84 Buwaib is situated at a distance of at least six manzils from Madinah – where the route to Egypt begins. 85 If the people of Egypt had reached this far, both the people of Kufah and Basrah must have covered about six manzils each in opposite directions as well. Therefore, news of what transpired before the rebels of Egypt could have reached the other two caravans no earlier than within twelve or thirteen days; and taking into account the time spent in leaving [Madinah] and returning, the rebels could not have returned to Madinah in less than twenty-four days, more or less. However, the rebels returned to Madinah in a much shorter time period than this. Hence, it is clearly evident that even before leaving Madinah, the rebels had planned amongst themselves that all the caravans would return on a particular date and suddenly take over Madinah. ‘ Abdull a h bin Sab a was with the Egyptian caravan and since he was very cunning, he knew that on the one hand people would question them as to why they had returned unnecessarily, and on the other hand he was concerned that the question of why the treaty had been broken after a decision had been made, would weigh heavily upon the conscience of his own men. Hence, he produced a forged letter and mislead the sensibilities of his own men, further igniting the fire of rage and fury in their hearts. After all, it is not difficult to 84. T a r i khu t-T abar i , vol. 5, p. 170, Dhikrul-Khabari ‘ An Qatlih i Wa Kaifa Qutila, Published by D a rul-Fikr, Beirut, 2002 edition [Publishers] 85. Mu‘jamul-Buld a n, vol. 1, part 2, p. 403, under the word ‘Al-Buwaib,’ Published by D a ru I h y a ’it-Tur a thil-Arabiyy, Beirut [Publishers]