To Sahl bin Hunayf Ansari, his Governor of Madina about certain persons in Madina who had gone over to Muawiya.
Now, I have come to know certain persons from your side are stealthily going over to Muawiya. Do not feel sorry for their numbers so lost to you or for their help of which you are deprived. It is enough they have gone into misguidance and you have been relieved of them. They are running away from guidance and truth and advancing towards blindness and ignorance. They are seekers of this world and are proceeding to it and are leaping towards it. They have known justice, seen it, heard it and appreciated it. They have realized that here, to us, all men are equal in the matter of right. Therefore, they ran away to selfishness and partiality. let them remain remote and far away.
By Allah, surely they have not gone away from oppression and joined justice. In this matter, we only desire Allah to resolve for us its hardships and to level for us its unevenness, if Allah wills.
