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In 60 AH, Yazid (L.A.), son of Muawiyah (L.A.), came to power. And the first step he took was to ask the Governor of Madinah, Walid bin Utba (L.A.), to get Imam Husain (A.S.) to pay allegiance to Yazeed (L.A.), or send his head to Damascus.
Imam Husain (A.S.) refused. He then packed up his belongings and left Madinah with his friends and family members, including his sisters, daughters and other Hashmiite women and children, to avoid bloodshed in the Prophet’s (S.A.W.W.) city. He travelled to Makkah where he stayed for four months.
At the time of Hajj, he received news that Yazeed’s men were moving around in Ahrams, pretending to be Hajis, hiding weapons and intending to kill him. So he converted his Hajj to Umrah and left Makkah to avoid the sanctity of the Haram being stained with his blood. His final destination was Karbala, Iraq. Find brief accounts here and here.
Now, Mr. Zakir Naik praised Yazeed as a Taba-e-Tabieen and appended R.A. to his name. He also called the battle of Karbala a political battle. Below are my thoughts on this.
Event of Karbala, the Political Battle
Karbala being a political battle implies that both Imam Husain (A.S.) and Yazeed (L.A.) were after the throne of the Muslim world. Yazeed (L.A.) was already the ruler, which in turn means that it was Imam Husain (A.S.) who demanded it from him. If we take a look at the deal between Imam Hasan (A.S.) and Muwaiyah (L.A.), it is an important point that the throne was to pass on to either Imam Hasan (A.S.) or Imam Husain (A.S.) after Muawiyah’s (L.A.) death. But instead of sticking to his word, Muawiyah (L.A.) passed it on to his son Yazeed (L.A.). Yet, Imam Husain (A.S.) did not ask for what was rightfully his. But Yazeed (L.A.) was not content with it and decided to go a step ahead and demand allegiance from Imam Husain (A.S.)!
Imam Husain’s (A.S.) journey from Madinah to Makkah, and then to Iraq stands testament to the fact that he did not want bloodshed. Moreover, he took women and children with him on his journey, which further strengthens the point that he did not intend to fight. Yet, Yazeed (L.A.) sent his forces after him. From this, I can only gather that it was Yazeed (L.A.) who was forcing a battle on the Husaini camp. Which in turn implies that it was Yazeed (L.A.) who had political motives, not Imam Husain (A.S.). When Imam Husain (A.S.) reached Karbala, he bought the land for sixty-thousand dirhams which made him the owner of the that land. Imam Husain (A.S.) was attacked and martyred on his own property!
The question here is then, why didn’t Imam Husain (A.S.) pay allegiance to Yazeed (L.A.)?
Translation: Verily those who plight their fealty to thee do no less than plight their fealty to Allah: the Hand of Allah is over their hands: then any one who violates his oath, does so to the harm of his own soul, and any one who fulfils what he has covenanted with Allah,- Allah will soon grant him a great Reward. (Al-Fatah: 10)
Notice the part: The hand of Allah is above all (does not pay allegiance to anyone)!
Allah has a hand? Where? Since he does not have a body and is not a physical entity, how does he have a hand then?
Since Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.) was his representative in this world and as the system of Baiyat (paying allegiance) was introduced by Islam, therefore the hand of Allah meant here is the hand of Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.) (see verse above). And according to a hadees in the previous post:
“Husain is from me and I am from Husain!”
Imam Husain (A.S.) in turn was a representative of Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.). Which means that if Imam Husain (A.S.) had pledged allegiance to a drinking, sexually indulgent “kaafir” like Yazeed (L.A.), it would have been synonymous to accepting his claims that Allah did not exist, there had been no revelation and the Bani Hashim (A.S.) had lied about Muhammad’s (S.A.W.W.) prophethood. Moreover, this hadees also implies that Yazeed (L.A.) had in fact asked for allegiance from Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.)!
Therefore, Imam Husain (A.S.) denied pledging allegiance to Yazeed (L.A.), and set on a journey to avoid bloodshed in the sacred lands and even asked Umar Ibne Saad Ibne Abi Waqas (L.A.), commander of the Yazeedi army in Karbala, to let him go to the Indian sub-continent and not smear his hands with the Prophet’s (S.A.W.W.) blood, but Ibne Saad rejected the offer.
Imam Husain (A.S.) had two choices:
- Pledge allegiance to Yazeed (L.A.). This would have led to the death of Islam, and consequently to the death of Allah.
- Sacrifice his life and family for Islam.
The chosen path of Imam Husain (A.S.) is known to everyone.
Now, it is evident that Imam Husain (A.S.) never asked for the throne. Rather, he chose to leave everything behind and move to a different land so Yazeed (L.A.) could have no danger from him, and bloodshed could be avoided. But Yazeed (L.A.) was after something else. After the battle of Karbala, when Imam Husain’s (A.S.) sister, Lady Zainab Binte Ali (S.A.) was brought to the court of Yazeed (L.A.), he made the following statement while playing with Imam Husain’s (A.S.) head with a stick:
“Had my ancestors been alive today, they would’ve been proud to see that I have avenged our losses in the battles to Muhammad!“
But Mr. Zakir Naik, perhaps, does not know that.
Yazeed, the Taba-i-Tabieen
The land of Hijaz (Makkah and Madinah), is one of the holiest lands of Islam, having two of the most sacred sites on Earth, the Ka’abah and the shrine of the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) himself. Shedding blood is prohibited within the boundaries of the Haram and the Mosque. Why did then Yazeed, a devout Taba-e-Tabieen, send his men to shed Husain’s (A.S.) blood on the sacred land?
Let’s go to Karbala and see how this Taba-e-Tabieen’s army violated the teachings of Islam, shall we?
- On the 7th day of Muharram, water was stopped from reaching the Husaini camp by the Yazeedi forces. Where in Islam is it permissible to stop water on anyone?
- Imam Husain (A.S.) and his followers were attacked by the Yazeedi army during the Fajr prayers. Is this according to the teachings of Islam?
- If you take a look at the martyrs of Karbala, you’ll find that most of them are children of ages less than fifteen years. Is it permissible to kill children in any war?
- Imam Husain’s (A.S.) six-month old was put to sleep by a three-headed arrow in his own arms. Does Islam permit killing a newborn? Forty years before Qayamat (Day of Judgment), women will stop giving birth so there is no sinless child on the planet on that day. This is the justice of Allah, would he be happy with the death of little Ali Asghar (A.S.)?
- Imam Husain (A.S.) was beheaded at the time of Asr, in the state of prostration to Allah, as were all the other martyrs, including the six-month old, who was dug out of his small grave! All heads were mounted on spears. After that, all the bodies of the martyrs were trampled with horses and torn to pieces. Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.) commanded 87 battles in his lifetime. Can someone show me one such instance where he ordered any of the above?
- The tents of the Husaini camp were set on fire. The women were forced to come out of them, and then their veils (chadars) were snatched. Small children running out of the tents were trampled and killed by the riders of Yazeed’s army. All survivors were then tied with chains, their hands and necks bound tight. Husain’s (A.S.) sole surviving son, Ali Zain-ul-Abideen (A.S.) was forced to wear a stone neckbrace stretching from fingertip to fingertip with metal pricks in the neck-hole. His hands and legs were bound tied and he was forced to walk in this. Which one of the above attrocities does Islam preach? A piece of the stone neckbrace can be found hanging above the grave of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
- The prisoners were then marched off to Damascus, without food or water. The routes deliberately taken, went through bazaars and crowded places where people could have a good look at the prisoners. Please keep in mind that the Husaini women (read women of the Prophet’s (S.A.W.W.) household, including both of his granddaughters) were purdah-less. Does Islam teach to do this to it’s own founders family? Did Rasoolullah (S.A.W.W.) ever teach to disrespect any woman in this way? Husain’s (A.S.) son Ali Zain-ul-Abideen (A.S.) was asked, “Why do you cry so much? Shahadat (martyrdom) is your inheritance and destiny.” To which he replied, “You haven’t done justice to us. Shahadat is our inheritance but is it also our inheritance that our women and children are paraded bareheaded in the bazaars of Kufah and Damascus?”
If all the above are Islamic teachings, why do we blame the West for making fun of us then? We have disgraced our religion ourselves.
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Quoting once again from a previous post:
“Qul La As-alukum Alaihin Ajran Illal Mawaddata Fil Qurba!“
“Say: I do not ask of you (followers) any return for it (teachings) but love for my near relatives.”
(Holy Quraan, 42:23)
The verse is popularly known as the Ayah-e-Mawaddah (Verse of Mawaddat or the Verse of Devotion)
The term “Al-Qurba” in this verse, based on the traditions narrated from the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W.), embraces only “Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husain and no one else”.
The tradition from Ibne Abbas has it that when the “mawaddat ul-qurba” verse was revealed, the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) was asked: “O messenger, who are your near relatives who should be loved?”
He stated: “Ali, Fatimah, and their sons!”
This tradition has been narrated by Muhib Tabari in “Zakhair al-`Uqba” 25/1; Ibn Hanbal in “Manaqib” 110; Mo’min Shabilenji “Nural-Absar” 101; and Zamakhshari in “Kashshaf” as annotation to the said verse.
In the “Tafsir al-Kabir”, Fakhr Razi has related the said narration from “Kashshaf” and has said that based on this verse, Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husain should be revered and sanctified. He has also cited lines of verse from the Shafii’ Imam, Muhammad bin Idris Shafii’ in this regard. A line of it is as follows:
“If love for the members of the Household of the Holy Prophet is heresy, then the world should stand witness that I am a heretic.“
Now, in light of the above verse and traditions, would Allah be happy with Imam Husain’s (A.S.) killers? If Allah is demanding in the Quran that people love Imam Husain (A.S.), was Yazeed (L.A.), the Taba-e-Tabieen, one of them?
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In a recent program on ARY (sometime around the riots in Karachi), in the program Aghaz with Aniq Ahmed, Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman narrated a hadees, the idea of which was “If there is a murder or crime on Muslim land, the ruler is responsible.” Now I don’t know why but this hadees makes me blame Yazeed (L.A.) for Imam Husain’s (A.S.) martyrdom. Does it do the same to you?
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Are we blind enough to not see that Islam, our dear religion, whom we all aspire to follow truly and dearly (and fail miserably), would not have been here save for one man’s sacrifice, and that of his family and friends? They stood up to a tyrant, fought valiantly and gave up their lives for but one cause: save Allah’s name on this planet. They sacrificed every thing they had but did not falter in their stand. That lone man picked up seventy-two bodies from Fajr to Asr, including those of his nephews, brothers and sons, one of whom completely resembled the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) himself. This son of his was eighteen year old and breathed his last in his father’s arms. Which father has the heart to bear this? As if this was not enough, his six-month old was slaughtered in his arms too. Yet he did not give up. He had to save his grandfather’s hard work of twenty three years. He had to save all those who were to come. He had to save us!
And look how we have repayed him. We try to turn his sacrifice into a political war. We uphold his murderer as the devout follower and consider it taboo to mention his own name. Yet we aspire to follow what he saved. Talk about thanklessness. Way to go, Zakir Naik!
Sometimes, I’m just ashamed at our condition. We are a nation of idiots and bastards!
But hell, I can already foresee a few comments here. “Stop preaching Shia values!”, “Yazeed and Muawiyah were good this way and that way”, “Bani Umayyah were the best of the best” – Bullshit!
انسان کو بیدار تو ہو لینے دو
ہر قوم پکارے گی ہمارے ہین حسین
علامہ اقبال
Doesn’t look likely Iqbal, our nation has taken sleeping pills. Humanity will wake up but Muslims will keep on sleeping. You do not know of our response to the Israeli barbarism, do you? You left this world even before Israel came into existence. Lucky you, our condition today would’ve killed you multiple times.
How can we condemn the Israeli barbarism today, when we fail to condemn the barbaric acts 1369 years ago?
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“Fourteen hundred years of Muslim literature has passed a verdict that Husain was good and Yazeed was bad. Zakir Naik can not change that.”
Allama Dr. Syed Zameer Akhtar Naqvi
شاہ است حسین ، پادشاہ است حسین
دین است حسین، دیں پناہ است حسین
سر داد نہ داد دست در دستِ یزید
حقّا کہ بناءِ “لا الھ” است حسین
خواجہ معین الدّین چشتی اجمیری
Translation:
Emperor is Husain, King is Husain,
Religion is Husain, the shield of religion is Husain,
Gave his head but did not give his hand to Yazeed,
True that the basis of La Ilaha Ill Allah is Husain!
Don’t blame me for the verse, it’s the Sufi saint Moeen-ud-din Chishti Ajmeri’s. And I believe he was a better Muslim than all of us, don’t you think? Plus Emperor is not the correct translation of Shah. ‘Shah’ means one who commands land as well as the skies and even beyond that.
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P.S. Sorry for the personal rant in between. I meant to write a conclusion but emotions took control.
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