The enmity of Mu’awiyyah with the family of the Prophet and especially with the Commander of the Faithful needs no mention. He planned to bribe some of the companions of the Prophet so as to get falsehoods forged with a view to stain the luminous pages of history, but he could not succeed.
Samrah bin Jundab who lived during the time of the Prophet and later attached himself to the court of Mu’awiyah used to tamper with facts and was paid for doing so. One day, while he was present before Mu’awiyah, the latter asked him earnestly to mount the pulpit and refute that the said verse was revealed about Ali. He also asked him to tell the people that this verse was in fact revealed for the assassin of Ali (i.e. Abdur Rahman, bin Muljam).
As a reward for this act, which would have ruined Samrah’s faith, Mu’awiyah offered him one hundred thousand dirhams. Samrah did not agree. Thereupon Mu’awiyah raised the amount and the deal was finally settled for four hundred thousand dirhams. The greedy old man began falsifying the facts of history and worsened his guilt-stained reputation. He said before a gathering that the said verse had been revealed about Abdur Rahman bin Muljam and not about Ali.
The stupid and simple-minded people believed in what he said and it did not occur to them that at the time of the revelation of the said verse Abdur Rahman was not in Hijaz and was not perhaps born.
The face of reality did not, however, remain concealed with these fabrications. Mu’awiyah and his family fell victims to vicissitudes of time. The signs of those who fabricated lies during his time were obliterated. Once again truth prevailed. Great and renowned exegetes7 and traditionalists of all times have admitted that the verse:
Among men, there are those who sacrifice their lives to seek Allah’s pleasure (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:207)
was revealed during the ‘night’s stay’ about the self-sacrifice of Ali