Al-Husain: Lessons of a Lifetime

Writer's Views

Written by: Nazar Haidar

Translated by Yasin T. al-Jibouri

May Allah magnify our rewards and yours on the occasion of the somber anniversary of the tragedy of the Master of the Youths of Paradise, the Prophet's grandson, al-Husain son of Ali, son of Fatima al-Zahra, daughter of the Messenger of Allah, (peace and blessings of Allah be with him and his family).

For the first instant, one thinks that the sacrifice of the martyred grandson of the Prophet (ص) on the 10^th of Muharram of the Hijri year 61 in Karbala is for the sake of death, because it was painted with the red color which usually expresses killing; killing is death and death is the end of one's life. But…

With a little measure of careful contemplation, meditation and analysis, we will discover that al-Husain ((peace be with him)), is for life, not for death: He is lessons for life and not an experiment for death; has the most Exalted One said the following in His Holy Book, (Quran, 8:24):

يا ايها الذين آمنوا استجيبوا لله وللرسول اذا دعاكم لما يحييكم

واعلموا ان الله يحول بين المرء وقلبه وانه اليه تحشرون

O you who believe! Respond affirmatively to Allah and to His Messenger when He calls upon you to what gives you life, and be informed that Allah places a barrier between a man and his heart, and that it is He to Whom you shall (all) be gathered.

Al-Husain, the Prophet's grandson, and the Messenger of Allah (ص) are one and the same as he had stated:

"Husain is of me, and I am of Husain," that is, al-Husain's call, revolution, rising, movement and sacrifice were all for life and not for death. How so?

Prophet's Grandson: Nation's Dignity

A man without dignity is dead among the living, and a nation without dignity is one without life. The question is: What testimonials are there for honor?

In my viewpoint, honor manifests itself through three values:

The first value is freedom.
The second value is equality.
The third value is freedom of choice.

One who has no freedom, who lives in the shade of discrimination or in any of its forms, is one without honor or its dignity, and one who has no freedom of choice is without honor.

The Islamic nation has passed at the moment when tyrant Yazid son of Mu'awiyah ascended to power through a historic phase that robbed it of its honor and dignity because it lost its freedom and kept suffering from discrimination of various forms. Moreover, it lost its ability to choose, which is the value which distinguishes man from other animals.

The nation which is ruled by a despotic oppressor is a nation without honor or dignity:

The nation which is ruled by thieves (leaders of military coups) is a nation without honor or dignity,
And the nation which is ruled by a leader who did not achieve power with its consent or commissioning (through general oath of allegiance, for example, or through the polling box) is a nation without honor or dignity,
And if the nation is ruled by a hereditary system, it is a nation without honor or dignity,
And if the nation is ruled by a handful of thieves who took control through a military coup in the depth of the night, it is a nation without honor or dignity.

This is so because the nation is manifested first and foremost through choosing its political system; therefore, the nation lost its dignity when the Umayyads turned government into a biting monarchy that carried to the throne a debauchee like Yazid, bestowing on him the title of "commander of the faithful". Truly al-Husain, the Prophet's grandson, uttered the truth when he said:

وعلى الاسلام السلام اذا ولي امر الامة حاكم مثل يزيد

"Bid Islam farewell if authority over the nation is vested on a ruler such as Yazid."

Before him, his father, the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abi Talib, ((peace be with him)), uttered the truth when he described the condition of the nation when ruled by a debauchee thus:

ولكني آسى ان يلي امر هذه الامة سفهائها وفجارها، فيتخذوا مال الله دولا، وعباده خولا، والصالحين حربا، والفاسقين حزبا

"But I feel sorry if this nation is dealt with

by its weak-minded and corrupt ones, those who build their power through money that belongs to Allah,

who subjugate His servants to them and use them like slaves,

who fight the righteous and be the allies of the openly corrupt ones."

As for al-Husain, the grandson of the Prophet (ص), (peace be with him), he spent all he could in order to warn the nation about the great danger through which it lived in the shade of the authority of a deviated and oppressive policy. He tried to warn the nation about its honor and dignity through reminding it of the three values mentioned above.

In order to coin a model for it, the image of the unjust ruler and the deviated power are not to be repeated; therefore:

FIRST: Al-Husain, (peace be with him), did not force anyone to reject loyalty to the new authority, nor did he ever force anyone to swear allegiance to himself. He, (peace be with him), tried to only explain the picture and explain the facts without intimidating anyone or forcing him to adopt a particular stand; he, (peace be with him), said the following:

الا ترون الى الحق لا يعمل به والى الباطل لا يتناهى عنه، ليرغب المؤمن في لقاء الله، فاني لا ارى الموت الا سعادة، والحياة مع الظالمين الا برما

Do you not see how right is not acted upon and falsehood is not prevented? Then let the believer desire the meeting with Allah, for I see death as being nothing other than happiness while life with the oppressors as the most undesirable.

SECOND: He granted the nearest people to him, members of his household (who accompanied him from Medina to Sacred Mecca to Karbala), the right to choose, with their full freewill, without forcing them, for example, to remain with him, and he did not coerce them into adopting a stance about which they were not convinced, let alone the rest of the "Muslims" who joined him upon his departure from Mecca and on his way to Kufa. Al-Husain used to provide them with the most precise details of the military and security situation whenever he received a report about his march. All of this he did in order to grant them an opportunity to fully freely think before undertaking a stand and before making a choice ─because did not want to be in the company of anyone who hesitated or was scared, or coveting material things, or being ignorant about his issue, not knowing where he was or where he was going or why─.

When Al-Husain received the report about the martyrdom of his envoy to Kufa (Muslim ibn Aqeel), as he was on his way to Iraq in an area called Zubala, al-Husain, (peace be with him), gathered all those in his company and immediately notified them of the matter without fearing, lest this report would prompt them to leave him alone. He did so because he wanted those who would stay with him to be fully aware of what they were against; he did not need those who coveted this life rather than the Hereafter, or those who were afraid, or those whose faith was shaky. He gathered them and said the following to them:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم،

اما بعد، فانه قد اتانا خبر فضيع، قتل مسلم بن عقيل وهانئ بن عروة وعبد الله بن يقطر، وقد خذلتنا شيعتنا، فمن احب منكم الانصراف فلينصرف ليس عليه منا ذمام

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

An awful report has reached us:

Muslim ibn Aqeel, Hani' ibn Urwah and Abdullah ibn Yaqtur have been killed, and our Shiites have betrayed us;

so, if any of you wishes to leave, he may leave; there is no covenant between us.

On the eve of the 10^th of Muharram, al-Husain, (peace be with him), gathered his companions once more to give them the option to either stay with him and get ready to die or leave him and go wherever they wanted, thus saving their lives from the danger of killing and death. al-Husain, (peace be with him), said to them:

اثني على الله تبارك وتعالى احسن الثناء واحمده على السراء والضراء، اللهم اني احمدك على ان اكرمتنا بالنبوة وعلمتنا القران، وفقهتنا في الدين، وجعلت لنا اسماعا وابصارا وافئدة، ولم تجعلنا من المشركين،
اما بعد فاني لا اعلم اصحابا اولى ولا خيرا من اصحابي، ولا اهل بيت ابر ولا اوصل من اهل بيتي، فجزاكم الله عني جميعا خيرا،
الا واني اظن يومنا من هؤلاء الاعداء غدا، الا واني قد رايت لكم، فانطلقوا جميعا في حل، ليس عليكم مني ذمام، هذا الليل قد غشيكم فاتخذوه جملا، ثم لياخذ كل رجل منكم بيد رجل من اهل بيتي، ثم تفرقوا في سوادكم ومدائنكم حتى يفرج الله، فان القوم انما يطلبونني، ولو قد اصابوني، لهوا عن طلب غيري

I laud Allah, the most Blessed, the most Exalted, with the best of lauding and praise him for the time of ease and for the time of suffering.

Lord! I praise Thee for having dignified us with Prophethood, taught us the Qur'an, explained the creed for us and created for us the faculty of hearing, of seeing and of understanding, and You have not made us polytheist.

I know no companions more worthy or better than mine nor members of a family more kind and more closely knit than my own; so, may Allah reward you on my behalf very well.

I think that our day of confrontation with these enemies will be tomorrow, and I have thought about you; so, get, all of you, out of here without feeling that you have violated a covenant. There is no obligation on you towards myself.

This evening has overshadowed you, so use it as you would a camel, and let each man of you take the hand of one of my family members, then you should disperse in your villages and towns till Allah finds an ease, for the folks are after me, and if they get me, they will pay no attention to others.

THIRD: Al-Husain, did not initiate correspondence with any Muslims in any country to gain their allegiance. Rather, he was initially satisfied with anyone who would grant him his oath of allegiance without instigating the street against the new deviated authority till the initiative came from the Muslims in Kufa (who started writing him, inviting him to be their Imam along the path of right and wrong).

Al-Husain did not want to coerce anyone into adopting a stand with or against the authority or be in the opposition before granting him the full evidence. Therefore, he, (peace be with him), was satisfied with clarifying the facts and explaining the proofs because of which he refused to swear allegiance to a deviated tyrant like Yazid. In Medina, al-Husain, (peace be with him), said the following:

انا اهل بيت النبوة، ومعدن الرسالة، ومختلف الملائكة، بنا فتح الله وبنا ختم،

ويزيد فاسق، فاجر شارب الخمر، قاتل النفس المحترمة، معلن بالفسق والفجور،

ومثلي لا يبايع مثله

We are family of the Prophet, the substance of the Message, and ones whom the angels visit. Through us did Allah begin, and through us did He seal.

Yazid is a debauchee, a drunkard sinner, killer of the respectful soul, openly declaring his sinning and debauchery;

a man like me does not swear the oath of allegiance to one like him.

He, (peace be with him), had defined the features of his renaissance so his goals would be clear and not hidden from anyone. In his will to his brother, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, he said,

اني لم اخرج اشرا ولا بطرا ولا مفسدا ولا ظالما،

وانما خرجت لطلب الاصلاح في امة جدي، اريد ان آمر بالمعروف وانهى عن المنكر،

فمن قبلني بقبول الحق فالله اولى بالحق، ومن رد علي هذا اصبر حتى يقضي الله بيني وبين القوم بالحق، وهو خير الحاكمين

I did not come out seeking to do evil, nor seeking to have fun, nor seeking corruption nor oppression.

Rather, I came out seeking reform in the nation of my Grandfather. I want to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.

So, anyone who accepts me through accepting what is right, Allah is more worthy of righteous deeds. And anyone who rejects me, I shall remain patient till Allah issues His judgment between me and the people in justice, and He is the best of all judges.

Shortly before reaching Karbala, he addressed the army which was in the company of al-Hurr ibn Yazid al-Riyahi, explaining the reson behind his movement and his rejection of granting the oath of allegiance to the tyrant Yazid. He said,

ايها الناس، ان رسول الله (ص) قال: من راى سلطانا جائرا مستحلا لحرام الله ناكثا لعهد الله مخالفا لسنة رسول الله يعمل في عباد الله بالاثم والعدوان فلم يغير ما عليه بفعل ولا قول كان حقا على الله ان يدخله مدخله،

الا وان هؤلاء، (ويقصد السلطة الظالمة الجديدة) قد لزموا طاعة الشيطان وتركوا طاعة الرحمن واظهروا الفساد وعطلوا الحدود واستاثروا بالفئ واحلوا حرام الله وحرموا حلاله،

وانا احق من غير

O people! The Messenger of Allah (ص) had said, "If one sees an unfair ruler who permits what Allah forbids, who reneges on the pledge to Allah, who violates the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah acting among the servants of Allah on sins and aggression without changing his deeds with an action or a statement, it will be incumbent upon Allah to lodge him where He lodges such a ruler.

The folks (referring to the new oppressive authority) have committed themselves to obeying Satan, abandoning obedience to the most Merciful One, openly demonstrated corruption, rendered the limits of Allah idle, monopolized the riches to themselves, permitting what Allah prohibits and prohibiting what Allah permits;

and I have more right (to fare with the Muslims) than them.

In order to calm people and avoid any doubt in the truth of what he said, (such as their fear lest they would turn into a fuel of a war from which the Imam benefits after he lodges them in it then he goes to the authority to negotiate, as many chiefs and leaders who have no creed or conscience do), Al-Husain said to them,

نفسي مع انفسكم، واهلي مع اهليكم، فلكم في اسوة

"I am personally with you, and my family is with your families; so, let me set an example for you."

FOURTH: Also, al-Husain did not apply intimidation or enticement when he displayed his merchandise to the people. He did not use religious terrorism to scare the "Muslims" from the consequences of not swearing the oath of allegiance to him, nor did he kill or assassinate anyone for having sworn the oath of allegiance to Yazid the new authority. He once delivered a speech to the people saying,

الا وان الدعي بن الدعي قد ركز بين اثنتين، بين السلة والذلة، وهيهات منا الذلة،

يابى الله لنا ذلك ورسوله والمؤمنون، وجدود طابت، وحجور طهرت، وانوف حمية، ونفوس ابية، لا تؤثر طاعة اللئام على مصارع الكرام،

الا واني قد اعذرت وانذرت

The da`i and the son of the da`i (one whose parents are unknown but someone claims him as his son) has required us to choose one of two: a basket of gains or humiliation. Far away we are from accepting humiliation.

Allah, His Messenger and the believers refuse that we should be humiliated; good ancestry born out of pure wombs, people of dignity, men of honor; no obedience to the mean ones can affect the fate of the honorable ones.

Lo! Now I have provided an argument and have warned.

According to the Imam's awareness, giving allegiance under duress, under the edge of the sword, to an unfair and oppressive authority contradicts the principle of dignity. Rather, it is humiliation; therefore, he preferred to die in dignity than to live in humiliation.

FIFTH: When Al-Husain turned to one of the gates of Paradise on Ashura of 61 A.H. in the Karbala desert, he did not make a distinction between his family and those of his companions: All were equal to him; he deals with them in equality seldom matched. He did not reject the most hostile of his "enemies" joining the vanguard of martyrdom, I mean al-Hurr ibn Yazid al-Riyahi who decided to choose to be killed exalted, honored and dignified rather than live in humiliation and abjectness. The Imam did not prevent him from joining him; rather, he respected his new decision, granting him the opportunity of eternity in this life and in life hereafter without thinking of seeking revenge against him, since he was one of the pillars of the unjust ruler, those who harmed Al-Husain a great deal, for the moral is in the outcome, as wisdom dictates, and the actions are judged by their conclusions.

Al-Husain, peace be with him wanted from all of this and others to teach the nation the meaning of honor and stand of dignity and how it can be achieved in this short life. He wanted to teach that a nation without dignity is a dead nation, and that an allegiance won through intimidation for an oppressive ruler is a blatant proof that the nation is without honor nor dignity, that a nation which does not have the right to choose is a dead nation.

For all of this, Al-Husain, peace be with him, is the label of the nation's dignity. We have to learn from Al-Husain how to safeguard our freedom and how to protect our options and not grant our allegiance to just anyone.

SIXTH: Al-Husain obligates everyone to uphold his commitment without over-burdening him, based on the principle of "Obligate them to fulfill that which they themselves pledged" so that nobody would be unfair to anyone by over-burdening him, and so that his argument would be strong against them. He (peace be with him), did not wish to obligate one except to what that person willingly had chosen. When the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (peace be with him), appointed Malik al-Ashtar as ruler of Egypt, he admonished him to follow this principle by saying, "And hold each of them responsible for upholding his commitment." It is the golden principle in the science of sociology if the political system is democratic, respecting man, safeguarding his rights, protecting his dignity, and when the law is above all.

Al-Husain made them hear and remember their pledges more than once, the latest of which was in the morning of the 10^th of Muharram when he stood to address them saying,

ايها الناس، اسمعوا قولي ولا تعجلوني حتى اعظكم بما الحق لكم علي، وحتى اعتذر اليكم من مقدمي عليكم، فان قبلتم عذري وصدقتم قولي واعطيتموني النصف كنتم بذلك اسعد، ولم يكن لكم علي سبيل،

وان لم تقبلوا مني العذر ولم تعطوا النصف من انفسكم، فاجمعوا امركم وشركاءكم، ثم لا يكن عليكم امركم غمة، ثم اقضوا الي ولا تنظرون،

ان وليي الله الذي نزل الكتاب، وهو يتولى الصالحين

O people! Listen to what I have to say and do not be hasty in my regard so I may admonish you about what I am obligated to you, and so that I may provide you with the reason behind my coming here towards you.

So, if you accept my argument, if you believe my statement and are fair to me, you will thus be even happier, and you will have no reason to approach me.

And if you do not accept my reasoning and if you do not effect fairness on your own, unite your affair and partners, and do not let your matter grieve you, then you should judge my case and do not give me any respite.

My Master is Allah Who revealed the Book, and He is the Master of the righteous.

Then Al-Husain added the following to those folks:

O Shabth ibn Rab`i! O Hijar ibn Abjar! O Qais ibn al-Ash`ath! O Yazid ibn al-Harith! Did you not write me saying that the fruits have ripened, the fields are green and the skulls have been buried, that "You will be coming to armies recruited for you; so come!"?

Oath of Allegiance: Pledge and Responsibility:
Yazid ibn Mu'awiya tried since the moment he assumed power, following the death of his father, Mu'awiya ibn Abu Sufyan, to take the oath of allegiance from al-Husain ibn Ali by force, through coercion, because he knew al-Husain's weight (high status) in the Muslim society at the time, and he knew the implication of his reluctance to swear the oath of allegiance to him: The Muslim masses will then be prompted to follow in his footsteps and uphold his position and not swear the allegiance to him. This would rally people against the new authority, something which the authority did not like because it was new and could not bear a problem of this magnitiude, especially since it was the first illegitimate authority in the Islamic state, one which relied on heredity which Allah had forbidden and which the Glorious Prophet (ص) rejected while the Muslims did not find palatable. Moreover, the heir is one of the worst rulers whether on the religious or the moral or even the political level.

For these reasons, orders were issued by the new tyrant, Yazid, to his governor over Medina, al-Walid ibn `Utbah, strictly emphasizing to secure the oath of allegiance from the 57 Yr old al-Husain, grandson of the Prophet (ص), without any leniency or kindness or even permission.

Since the Imam, (peace be with him), wanted to teach us how to live, he refused to swear the allegiance because, according to the Imam's sense of awareness, it was not simply something which someone articulates, words spoken today then forgotten tomorrow. It is not so at all! Rather, the oath of allegiance is a pledge and a responsibility which one commits to the person to whom he is uttering it to oblige himself to follow his line and path, according to the guidance of his principle, under his leadership. It is a responsibility which the contracting side hangs round his neck: It must be carried out and adhered to rather than reverted from under any circumstance. There must be no betrayal of the one to whom someone else pledges to obey unless the first himself changes it. In that case, "There should be no obedience to any being so long as it causes disobedience to the Creator."

Since the oath of allegiance is as such according to the Imam's dictionary, he refused to secretly make it, a move by the Imam to get this message to the Muslims, to those who wanted to live a good life. He wanted to stand before everyone and tell them what the oath of allegiance meant, why he refused to swear it to a ruler like Yazid, so he would convey his message and produce his argument, so the Muslims would not seek an excuse from their ignorance or lack of knowledge or awareness of the truth about the allegiance when they in the future would opt to swear it to Yazid or not to do so.

Al-Husain tried to teach the people the meaning of the honorable life as being conjoined to the honorable life which cannot be achieved except through a sound pledge to a ruler who is straight, who is straightforward.

As for the dead among the living, they are those who rush to swear the oath of allegiance to any ruler and man of power. What is important for them is that they are ruled by someone, be he righteous or sinner, because they think that the allegiance would save their necks from the oppressor's gallows, or that it will drop the responsibility from them, or that the allegiance, the mere allegiance to the ruler, will secure for them the honorable life. They forget or pretend to forget that such an allegiance is the beginning of death and not of life at all. We have read and seen the fate of the people who rushed to swear the oath of allegiance to an oppressor in the pretext of running away from responsibility based on the principle of "Swear the oath of allegiance so you may spare yourself the ruler's evil". Such an allegiance turned into a nightmare chasing them; so, they did not enjoy life, and they did not keep the evil of the unjust ruler away from them; thus, their end was death by the sword of the same ruler whom they swore to obey.

Thus, al-Husain ibn Ali, responded to Yazid's governor over Medina by saying,

مثلي لا يبايع سرا، ولا يجتزئ بها مني سرا، فاذا خرجت للناس ودعوتهم للبيعة، ودعوتنا معهم كان الامر واحدا

A man such as myself does not swear the oath of allegiance secretly, nor can it be taken from me secretly.

If you come out to the public and invite them to swear the oath of allegiance, and if you include us in your invitation, the matter will be one.

When the authority threatened to kill him if he did not swear the oath of allegiance, the Imam had to place the dots on the letters in order to fully clarify the situation; so he, peace be with him, said,

ايها الامير، انا اهل بيت النبوة، ومعدن الرسالة، ومختلف الملائكة، بنا فتح الله، وبنا ختم، ويزيد فاسق، فاجر، شارب الخمر، قاتل النفس المحترمة، معلن بالفسق والفجور، ومثلي لا يبايع مثله

Governor! We are members of the house of the Prophet (ص),

the substance of the Message,

the ones often visited by the angels;

with us did Allah initiate, and with us did He seal.

And Yazid is a debauchee, a sinner, a drinker of wine, a killer of the respectful soul, a man who publicly declares his debauchery and sinning…, a man like me does not swear the oath of allegiance to one like him.

Thus, Imam al-Husain, peace be with him, defined the features of the sound allegiance, the accurate scientific, religious and political criteri for the ruler who deserves to be granted allegiance. Of course, this applies to one who wishes to lead a good life. As for one who wishes to lead the life of the dead, one without freedom, without dignity, without rights, let him give his allegiance to whomsoever he wishes, even if he were a man such as Yazid and his likes.

Life is not running away from responsibility
When al-Husain was determined to march to Iraq, to Kufa specifically, more than one person tried to desist him from his decision. They tried to convince him to "escape" from the confrontation so he would not collide with deviation, such as he would go to Yemen, for example, or wander about in the desert, thus frustrating the schemes of the authority to arrest him.

Had al-Husain sought death, he would have found these pieces of advice to be convincing, for the earth was open before him, and the escape options were quite numerous and were anticipated by more than one country. But since he sought life for the nation, he had to choose confrontation in order to teach the nation how to live in dignity and how to opt for life when it is forced to face a confrontation.

Al-Husain taught us that facing injustice and defying deviation is the shortest path to winning the free and honorable life, and that running away from confrontation is a slow death not chosen by men of honor.

Those who advised him to flee from the confrontation argued that those who wrote him and invited him to accept their support were people who were not known to honor their promise or pledge: Their fathers and grandfathers had reneged on similar oaths made to his grandfather, the Honorable Messenger of Allah (ص), and to his father, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be with him. But al-Husain, the grandson of the Prophet (ص), did not look at matters like that. If every situation is judged according to its precedent, nobody would have borne any responsibility. And had everyone been punished for what his father or grandfather had done, nobody would have started anything. It is to this meaning that the Holy Qur'an points out when the most Exalted One says (Qur'an, 6:164):

.....وَلاَ تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى ....

" No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of any other"

According to the line of al-Husain, responsibility falls on man's shoulder when it stands before his very eyes and when all the causes are made for it. His heart will sin if he does not make the first step towards it to bear it, or if he hesitates and flees away; in that regard, the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abu Talib, peace be with him, has said,

اما والذي فلق الحبة، وبرا النسمة، لولا حضور الحاضر، وقيام الحجة بوجود الناصر، وما اخذ الله على العلماء الا يقاروا على كظة ظالم، ولا سغب مظلوم، لالقيت حبلها على غاربها، ولسقيت آخرها بكاس اولها، ولالفيتم دنياكم هذه ازهد عندي من عفطة عنز

By the One Who splits the seed and creates the breeze,

had it not been for the attendance of those who now are present, and the presence of the argument through the presence of the supporter,

and had it not been for Allah obligating the men of knowledge not to accept the wrath of an oppressor nor the hunger of an oppressed person,

I would have abandoned the entire matter, made the last drink of the cup of the first and found your life, this one,

to be less important than a goat's sneeze.

We must bid farewell to the age of imposition and coercion never to return to it again so we may hold on to our options with full freedom.

Translated by:

With best regards of Yasin T. al-Jibouri, Author, Writer, Editor, Translator and formerly Publisher. Visit my WebSite: http://www.esnips.com/web/yasinaljibourisStuff and see my extensive Profile. Have a great day.