To the true bearers of the catastrophe, greetings and patience!
This scene is recounted by al-Tabari (somewhere in Iraq after the people returned from Siffin, after the Umayyads raised the Qurans on spears while on the verge of defeat. After realizing they wanted to buy time and use deception in the negotiations, and split the ranks of his army, Ali bin Abi Talib forbade his supporters from responding. However, after his supporters disobeyed him and accepted arbitration, they discovered it was a trick and blamed him. He stood and addressed them, saying, "I call upon God as my witness, do you know when they raised the Qurans, and you said we should respond to them with the Book of God? I told you I know these people better than you do, that they are neither people of religion nor of the Quran. I have known them, children and adults, and they were the worst of children and the worst of men. Proceed on your path of truth and righteousness, for these people raised these Qurans only as a deceit and a plot. You rejected my counsel, saying we accept from them. I told you to remember my words to you and your disobedience to me. When you insisted on the book, I stipulated to the arbitrators that they should revive what the Quran revives and end what it ends. If they judge by the Quran, then we have no right to oppose a judgment in the Quran, and if they refuse, then we are absolved of their judgment").
Also, consider this second scene as recounted by al-Mawardi (Walid bin Yazid bin Abdul Malik bin Marwan, who had his people raise the Qurans on spears, and they judged by it, claiming it judged in their favor, in his palace in Sham reads Surah Ibrahim, "And those who disbelieved said to their messengers, 'We will surely drive you out of our lands, or you must return to our religion.' So their Lord inspired to them, 'We will surely destroy the wrongdoers. And We will surely settle you in the land after them. That is for those who fear My position and fear My threat. And they sought victory, and every obstinate tyrant failed" [Ibrahim: 13,15], then he calls for the bow and quiver, shoots the Quran with arrows, saying, "Do you threaten every obstinate tyrant? Well, here I am, that obstinate tyrant. If I meet your Lord on the day of resurrection, say, 'O Lord, Walid has torn me apart'."
Perhaps these events did not happen exactly as al-Tabari and al-Mawardi describe, since they are Abbasids, and there is doubt in their narrations about the Umayyads. However, I do not mention these incidents as historical fact, but rather as a metaphor. According to these narratives, the Umayyads were judging Ali with the Quran, which was the basis of his cousin's revolution against Abu Sufyan, the Umayyad leader of Mecca at the time of conquest, and before that, they claimed they would overcome him with the book brought by his cousin, just as tyrants today wave at people with the crowds they gather for their support, while these crowds were the basis of the people's legitimacy to revolt against them. Here, the crowds represent the Quran, they resort to it to judge according to al-Tabari's narrative, then later shoot it with arrows according to al-Mawardi's narrative.
O true bearers of the catastrophe, today they sneak back into ruling you from the same book you spread among the people claiming your right to choose who manages your affairs and rejecting any idol to be worshipped on Earth besides God. They rejected this claim from you and fought you. When God decreed victory for you, they asked you to resort to the election box, which you had previously called for in your revolution, rejected both past, present, and future.
O true bearers of the catastrophe, the ruling authority today in Libya, after impoverishing you and amassing wealth, now demands you to resort to the election box you demanded, killing you as a result of these demands, because it knows well it can manage this box however it wishes, where money, political decision, land, sky, and rifle are theirs, and you only have your fingers, and what remains of a mind that sees and perceives.
O true bearers of the catastrophe, the ruling class that has governed this land for half a century, believing representation to be deceit, parliamentary councils to be absentee governance, and the basic popular conferences that were managed with rice and stick are the historical mechanism for humanity collectively to discuss their political matters and make their decisions, is racing you today to resort to the election box, pushing forward those who slowly killed you yesterday to lead you, offering you a choice between them and those who would kill you swiftly. Beware, for it is death either way
O sincere bearers of the catastrophe, indeed, life is cyclical, and the dream has not ended yet. By God, despite the challenges, you still possess the capability to shape the state you dreamt of. So, do not become divided over the form of your attire, the amendment of your ruler, or the analysis of your thoughts. Turn your attention to what you initially set out for—a state governed by law and constitution. Truly, by God, you are consumed silently every day, dragged under the whips of harsh living conditions to accept crumbs, even if they are tainted with mud, under the guise of being the safer choice. There is no safe place on this earth except where you stand united. Do not trust them; trust in your imagination, your ideas, and what you have done. It was not madness; it was not a catastrophe...