Re: Soldiers of Allah - the Companions of Muhammad sallAllahu 'alayhe wasallam
How can you call Hz. Muawiyah (ra) a munafiq when Hz. Ali in Abi Talib (ra) has claimed that there was not an iota of difference of faith between his followers and that of Hz. Muawiyah (ra)?
Following is what Hz. Ali (ra) has stated:
"The thing began in this way: We and the Syrians were facing each other while we had common faith in one Allah, in the same Prophet (s) and on the same principles and canons of religion. So far as faith in Allah and the Holy Prophet (s) was concerned we never wanted them (the Syrians) to believe in anything over and above or other than what they were believing in and they did not want us to change our faith. Both of us were united on these principles. The point of contention between us was the question of the murder of Uthman. It had created the split. They wanted to lay the murder at my door while I am actually innocent of it ........................." Nahjul Balagha - Letter 58
Leave the history books alone and pay heed what Hz. Ali (ra) has stated.
you have picked up just one sermon and that too with your own interpretation and did not talk about other text which contain open condemnation of Muawiyah by Ahlulbayt [as]. Let me cite a very small and precise reference.
Allamah Jalaludin Suyuti in his famed work "Tareekh ul Khulafa" rendered into English by Abdassamad Clarke as "The khalifas who took the right way" records this sermon of 'Ali (as) on page 184:
"Praise belongs to Allah Who made our enemy ask about something that had occurred to him in the matter of his deen. Mu'awiya wrote to me asking about the ambiguous hermaphrodite?"
Now i dont think there is any need to tell the status of Ali's [as] enemy in islam?
BTW here is interesting hadith Al-Baladhuri narrates in Ansáb al-Ashráf p.126, with a sahih chain:
*His sheikh Bakr bin Haytham and Isháq bin Abí Isra'íl --> Abdur-Razzáq As-San'áni --> Mu'amar bin Ráshid --> Abdullah bin Taoos --> Taoos bin Kaisan-->*Abdullah Ibn 'Amr ibn Al-'Áas states: I was sitting with the Prophet of Allah (s) when he said: A man will come out of this mountain pass, who will die and he will be outside my nation (Islam). I had left behind my father there for wudhu, and I feared, as if holding back my urine, that he would be the one to come, but Mu'awiyah came out. The Prophet (s) said: He is the one.