Condemning the people of Basrah [after the battle of Jamal]1
ومن كلام له (عليه السلام)
في ذم البصرة وأهلها [بعد وقعة الجمل]
You were the army of a woman and in the command of a quadruped. When it grumbled you responded, and when it was wounded (hamstrung) you fled away. Your character is low and your pledge is broken. Your faith is hypocrisy. Your water is brackish. He who stays with you is laden with sins and he who forsakes you secures Allah’s mercy. It is as though I see your mosque prominent, resembling the surface of a boat, while Allah has sent chastisement from above and from below it and everyone who is on it is drowned.2

كُنْتُمْ جُنْدَ الْمَرْأَةِ، وَأَتْبَاعَ البَهِيمَةِ رَغَافَأَجَبْتُم، وَعُقِرَفَهَرَبْتُمْ. أَخْلاَقُكُمْ دِقَاقٌ وَعَهْدُكُمْ شِقَاقٌ، وَدِيْنُكُمْ نِفَاقٌ، وَمَاؤُكُمْ زُعَاقٌ المُقِيمُ بَيْنَ أَظْهُرِكُمْ مُرْتَهَنٌ بِذَنْبِهِ، وَالشَّاخِصُ عَنْكُمْ مُتَدَارَكٌ بِرَحْمةٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِ. كَأَنِّي بِمَسْجِدكُمْ كَجُؤْجُؤِ سَفِينَةٍ قَدْ بَعَثَ اللهُ عَلَيْها العَذَابَ مِنْ فَوْقِها وَمِنْ تَحتِها، وَغَرِقَ مَنْ في ضِمْنِها
Another version
By Allah, your city would certainly be drowned so much so that as though I see its mosque like the upper part of a boat or a sitting ostrich.

وفي رواية:
وَأيْمُ اللهِ لَتَغْرَقَنَّ بَلْدَتُكُمْ حَتَّى كَأَنِّي أَنْظُرُ إِلى مَسْجِدِهَا كَجُؤْجُؤِ سَفِينَةٍ، أَوْ نَعَامَةٍ جَاثِمَةٍ
Another version
Like the bosom of a bird in deep sea.

وفي رواية أخرى:
كَجُؤْجُؤِ طَيْرٍ في لُجَّةِ بَحْرٍ
Another version
Your city is the most stinking of all the cities as regards its clay, the nearest to water and remotest from the sky. It contains nine tenths of evil. He who enters it is surrounded with his sins and he who is out of it enjoys Allah’s forgiveness. It seems as though I look at this habitation of yours that water has so engulfed it that nothing can be seen of it except the highest part of mosque appearing like the bosom of a bird in deep sea.

و في رواية:
بلادكم أنتن بلاد الله تربةً: أقربها من الماء و أبعدها من السماء . و بها تسعة اعشار الشر، المحتَبَس فيها بِذنبِهِ ، و الخارج بِعفوِ اللهِ . كأنّي أنظر الى قريتكم هذه قد طبَّقَها الماء ، حتّى ما يرى منها الّا شُرُف المسجد ، كأنه جؤجؤ طير في لجة بحر.