O people! We have been born in such a crooked age and ungrateful world that the doer of good is considered a wrongdoer, and the oppressor increases in his rebellion. We do not benefit from what we know, and we do not inquire about what we do not know, and we do not sense danger until calamity comes. The people (of this age) are of four types. Some are prevented from causing corruption only by the worthlessness of their souls, the dullness of their edge, and the control of wealth over them. And some people are openly spreading evil while brandishing swords, and they have gathered their riders and foot-soldiers. They have devoted themselves only to amassing some wealth, leading a group, or ascending the pulpit, and they have destroyed the religion. What a bad bargain it is that you take the world as the price of your souls and the exchange for Allah's blessings. And some people seek the world through works of the hereafter, and they do not intend to build the hereafter through worldly works. They maintain great composure and dignity, take slow steps, gather their garments upward, and adorn themselves so that people consider them trustworthy. These people take advantage of Allah's covering to commit sin. And some people are those whose weakness of soul and lack of means prevent them from rising to rule. These circumstances have made them helpless and unable to achieve advancement and elevation. So they have adorned themselves with the name of contentment and decorated themselves with the garments of ascetics, although they have never had any attachment to these things. After this, there remain a few people whose eyes are lowered by the remembrance of the hereafter and the fear of the resurrection. They are isolated in seclusion from the people of the world. Some are enduring humiliations in a state of fear and terror, and some have remained silent as if their mouths have been sealed. Some are supplicating with sincerity, some are grief-stricken and afflicted. Fear has seated them in the corner of obscurity, and exhaustion and helplessness have covered them. They are in a salty sea (so that despite the abundance of water, they remain thirsty). Their mouths are closed and their hearts are wounded. They have advised and counseled people so much that they became weary, and so much oppression was inflicted upon them that they were completely crushed, and so many were killed that their numbers noticeably decreased. This world should be more lowly and base in your eyes than the bark of the acacia tree and its fragments. Take lessons from those before you, before those after you take lessons from your circumstances, and while feeling the evil of this world, cut your ties with it, for it has cut its ties with those who were more infatuated with it than you. The commentator notes that some people, out of their ignorance, have attributed this sermon to Mu'awiyah, although it is the speech of the Commander of the Faithful, in which there is no room for doubt. What relation does gold have to lead, or sweet water to salty water? The expert guide and insightful examiner in this field, 'Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz, has reported this and mentioned it in his book 'Al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin,' and also mentioned those who attributed it to Mu'awiyah, then said that this speech closely resembles the speech of 'Ali, and the division of people and their humiliation, baseness, and state of fear and terror described in it matches his approach. We have never found Mu'awiyah speaking in the style of ascetics and the manner of worshippers in any state.